6 ms·

Problems with macOS and iTerm2... that is too bad. I am going to do a 30 day challenge with a Thinkpad from Costco next month. Full linux install with Ubuntu 17

Problems with macOS and iTerm2... that is too bad. I am going to do a 30 day challenge with a Thinkpad from Costco next month. Full linux install with Ubuntu 17.10! I have wanted to try i3wm for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, it is a PITA to get working on a VM with the Mac as the key chords don't play nicely intersystem. Super excited to give it a go... what is awesome is that I can have an IDE like Pycharm right next to VIM and my shell in a tiling window manager with Linux. I hope I can ditch macOS...

soulnothing 9y ago
I've been using i3 for years now. I experienced the same pain. Mac hijacks a lot of the child vm keybindings. I didn't have this problem with windows as the host os. But that doesn't really make sense. Best of luck with the transition. Posting from a thinkpad, with i3, pycharm and vim right now :).
- asselinpaul 9y ago
  What kind of thinkpad? :)
  - tbrock 9y ago
    T or X. There is no substitute. The rest, as they say, is garbage.
    - jrs95 9y ago
      What about W or P?
      - farresito 9y ago
        I think those are good too.
  - soulnothing 9y ago
    T440s, but I was on a T430s earlier for work.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  How are you posting on HN from vim?
  - jdormit 9y ago
    https://i3wm.org/ https://i3wm.org/
    - craftyguy 9y ago
      I use i3, but i3 != vim. i3 can be configured to use vim bindings.
  - soulnothing 9y ago
    I didn't. Just saying I ran a similar setup as the parent poster.
jth0 9y ago
Hell yeah dude, i3 is incredible. Simple, stable, no distractions, efficient, easy config. It's so perfect
jingwen 9y ago
Switched to i3 a few weeks back and I absolutely love it. Switching between applications and workspaces is incredibly fast, and the _only_ time I need the mouse is for web browsing. It's amazing.
- craftyguy 9y ago
  Use qutebrowser, and you'll never need the mouse again!
  - pweissbrod 9y ago
    +1 liked from a qutebrowser instance :)
- suprfnk 9y ago
  Firefox? Check out something like VimFX. No need for the mouse on 80% of the webpages.
  - maddyboo 9y ago
    On Chrom(e|ium), SurfingKeys[1] is an excellent extension. [1]: https://github.com/brookhong/Surfingkeys https://github.com/brookhong/Surfingkeys
  - yothsoggoth 9y ago
    Unfortunately it appears all of the most popular (and feature-complete) Vim-style plugins for Firefox are dying with the upcoming Firefox update dropping support for XPCOM/XUL plugins.
  - majewsky 9y ago
    Unfortunately, it'll also be obsolete in a few weeks when Firefox 57 comes. I've switched to Saka Key, but it's not yet a viable replacement (esp. because clipboard interactions are broken in FF 56 on my Linux systems).
- spapas82 9y ago
  Also, for chrome there's the vimium plugin.
abhirag 9y ago
I also use i3 and customizing it is a lot of fun :D This(http://abhirag.in/articles/org/i3_setup.html http://abhirag.in/articles/org/i3_setup.html) is my i3 setup with literate dotfiles, hope you find it helpful in switching to i3 :)
p1xelHer0 9y ago
I recently switched from iTerm2 to Alacritty https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty. It does not have scrollback, splits, tabs and other fancy features. But for me, performance and snappiness is the most important feature (besides, I use Tmux for all those things mentioned). For getting something close to i3 (you wont...?) on macOS I am using chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm. I spent some time during the summer to get to know Linux using i3 (i3-gaps actually) with urxvt on a VirtualBox. I do recommend it!
- sooheon 9y ago
  An article linked in the OP shows that default Terminal.app is more responsive than Alacritty or iTerm. [1]: https://danluu.com/term-latency/ https://danluu.com/term-latency/
  - p1xelHer0 9y ago
    It also says that both of them are limited by tmux, which I use 100% of the time in the terminal. The real problem is when you run Vim in tmux and start to scroll in a large file that you notice that Terminal.app does not cut it. It lags badly. In Alacritty its silky smooth. And yes, scrolling with j/k for longer periods may be an anti-pattern in Vim and yada yada... I scroll in Vim, and in Alacritty its smooth, in Terminal.app its sluggish.
  - jwilm 9y ago
    Word of caution when reviewing this report: it doesn't take into account vblank period. If you hit a key just after a monitor refresh, you're not going to see it until the next refresh cycle which is typically up to 16ms later. This study is concerned with how long it takes to update the frame buffer rather than time-to-visible which is difficult to measure. That said, there are plans[1] to reduce Alacritty's input latency. Though, I personally use it as a daily driver and have never felt that there was a noticeable input lag. Once that lands, Alacritty will have similar latency to Terminal.app _and also have_ a 60 Hz refresh rate (the "smooth" feeling), low CPU usage, and much higher throughput. [1]: https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues/673 https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues/673

soulnothing 9y ago

I've been using i3 for years now. I experienced the same pain. Mac hijacks a lot of the child vm keybindings. I didn't have this problem with windows as the host os. But that doesn't really make sense. Best of luck with the transition. Posting from a thinkpad, with i3, pycharm and vim right now :).

asselinpaul 9y ago
What kind of thinkpad? :)
- tbrock 9y ago
  T or X. There is no substitute. The rest, as they say, is garbage.
  - jrs95 9y ago
    What about W or P?
    - farresito 9y ago
      I think those are good too.
- soulnothing 9y ago
  T440s, but I was on a T430s earlier for work.
craftyguy 9y ago
How are you posting on HN from vim?
- jdormit 9y ago
  https://i3wm.org/ https://i3wm.org/
  - craftyguy 9y ago
    I use i3, but i3 != vim. i3 can be configured to use vim bindings.
- soulnothing 9y ago
  I didn't. Just saying I ran a similar setup as the parent poster.

jth0 9y ago

Hell yeah dude, i3 is incredible. Simple, stable, no distractions, efficient, easy config. It's so perfect

jingwen 9y ago

Switched to i3 a few weeks back and I absolutely love it. Switching between applications and workspaces is incredibly fast, and the _only_ time I need the mouse is for web browsing. It's amazing.

craftyguy 9y ago
Use qutebrowser, and you'll never need the mouse again!
- pweissbrod 9y ago
  +1 liked from a qutebrowser instance :)
suprfnk 9y ago
Firefox? Check out something like VimFX. No need for the mouse on 80% of the webpages.
- maddyboo 9y ago
  On Chrom(e|ium), SurfingKeys[1] is an excellent extension. [1]: https://github.com/brookhong/Surfingkeys https://github.com/brookhong/Surfingkeys
- yothsoggoth 9y ago
  Unfortunately it appears all of the most popular (and feature-complete) Vim-style plugins for Firefox are dying with the upcoming Firefox update dropping support for XPCOM/XUL plugins.
- majewsky 9y ago
  Unfortunately, it'll also be obsolete in a few weeks when Firefox 57 comes. I've switched to Saka Key, but it's not yet a viable replacement (esp. because clipboard interactions are broken in FF 56 on my Linux systems).
spapas82 9y ago
Also, for chrome there's the vimium plugin.

abhirag 9y ago

I also use i3 and customizing it is a lot of fun :D This(http://abhirag.in/articles/org/i3_setup.html http://abhirag.in/articles/org/i3_setup.html) is my i3 setup with literate dotfiles, hope you find it helpful in switching to i3 :)

p1xelHer0 9y ago

I recently switched from iTerm2 to Alacritty https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty. It does not have scrollback, splits, tabs and other fancy features. But for me, performance and snappiness is the most important feature (besides, I use Tmux for all those things mentioned). For getting something close to i3 (you wont...?) on macOS I am using chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm https://github.com/koekeishiya/chunkwm. I spent some time during the summer to get to know Linux using i3 (i3-gaps actually) with urxvt on a VirtualBox. I do recommend it!

sooheon 9y ago
An article linked in the OP shows that default Terminal.app is more responsive than Alacritty or iTerm. [1]: https://danluu.com/term-latency/ https://danluu.com/term-latency/
- p1xelHer0 9y ago
  It also says that both of them are limited by tmux, which I use 100% of the time in the terminal. The real problem is when you run Vim in tmux and start to scroll in a large file that you notice that Terminal.app does not cut it. It lags badly. In Alacritty its silky smooth. And yes, scrolling with j/k for longer periods may be an anti-pattern in Vim and yada yada... I scroll in Vim, and in Alacritty its smooth, in Terminal.app its sluggish.
- jwilm 9y ago
  Word of caution when reviewing this report: it doesn't take into account vblank period. If you hit a key just after a monitor refresh, you're not going to see it until the next refresh cycle which is typically up to 16ms later. This study is concerned with how long it takes to update the frame buffer rather than time-to-visible which is difficult to measure. That said, there are plans[1] to reduce Alacritty's input latency. Though, I personally use it as a daily driver and have never felt that there was a noticeable input lag. Once that lands, Alacritty will have similar latency to Terminal.app _and also have_ a 60 Hz refresh rate (the "smooth" feeling), low CPU usage, and much higher throughput. [1]: https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues/673 https://github.com/jwilm/alacritty/issues/673