8 ms·

I just don't understand the use case here. It's an Electron-based terminal... that has a thousand pretty themes, but lacks basic functionality like being able

I just don't understand the use case here. It's an Electron-based terminal... that has a thousand pretty themes, but lacks basic functionality like being able to expand your scroll buffer. It's just not usable as a daily driver. I'm not trying to hate on Electron (VS Code is my main editor now, and I enjoy it). But I just don't see the point here other than, "Look what they wrote with Electron!". Is it the "social" aspect of posting color themes and seeing how many downloads you get, and I'm just old?

malux85 7y ago
No youre not old, just wise. Terminals are actually pretty complex beasts and performance matters above all, closely followed by compatibility. I feel the same way as you. Or maybe we're both just old. Lets chase the kids off our lawn, get some dr pepper and fire up the alphaservers?
mikl 7y ago
Ditto here. Given how performance- and security intensive a terminal emulator is (who wants to add JavaScript injection to their list of server security worries?), writing one in Electron seems a bit nuts to me.
- malux85 7y ago
  well as long as it's not EVAL'ing the .... wait they wouldn't ... OH NO
STRiDEX 7y ago
its one of the few options you can use on both windows and osx with the same themes and plugins etc. However, i agree, it wasn't able to get me to stop using item2
petetttt 7y ago
We all enjoy customising our setup? A web dev friendly developer experience and a javascript plugin ecosystem opens that up to a new audience. It's a pretty big audience. I guess the hope is that raises the bar for what users expect from a terminal and it's plugins, while providing performance that is adequate enough for it's target audience.
- StevePerkins 7y ago
  I dunno. An audience that's fine with a 1,000-line scroll buffer probably aren't heavy terminal users in the first place. Before you can "raise the bar", you need to reach feature parity with the built-in OSX terminal, or any of the hundred Windows apps like ConEmu.
  - petetttt 7y ago
    That's kind of what I mean—the audience for this isn't heavy terminal users. You can still raise the bar for them!
    - fluxsauce 7y ago
      Just because you don't consider yourself part of the audience doesn't mean this isn't intended for heavy terminal users. I'm using it right now and I'm impressed by the performance with dozens of production logs that aren't limited to a thousand lines of scrollback. Gatekeeping isn't inclusive.
  - axelf4 7y ago
    Hey! No need to play gatekeeper. FWIW, when using tmux, a scrollback of 0 is more than plenty.
    - StevePerkins 7y ago
      I'm not sure what a "gatekeeper" is, or the concern with it being "not inclusive". I suspect this is Twitter jargon, leaking out more broadly. Terminal apps are a 1970's concept. We're discussing the possible use cases for a brand new one, which has yet to implement a number of basic features common to virtually all existing ones. If anyone happens to not need those common features, and does have use cases satisfied by the new entry, then that's great! Your existence is not invalidated, there is no membership card for anyone to revoke. However, while I'm not sure if there's a contemporary jargon term for expressing this in a single word... you should perhaps avoid "raise the bar" boasts, if you're simultaneously sensitive to anyone else pointing at a bar.
jug 7y ago
Yes, it was admittedly a while ago but I looked hard for killer features or at least something that makes use of this obscene abstraction of Electron, but I could only find minor features. I mean, for Windows Conemu or Cmder looks much better. And soon Microsoft’s own upcoming Windows Terminal looks better too.
kristiandupont 7y ago
I suppose to the many JS developers out there (which is a lot), having your software built in it makes it easier and more appealing to write extensions for. I have no data, but it's my impression that the growth curve for VS Code extensions compared to VS "classic" is much steeper. This may or may not be a good thing but IMO it does tend to make some interesting and novel things surface.
carmate383 7y ago
This heap of _shit_ software serves two primary purposes 1. Making bad developers feel good about their terrible development skills by letting them jerk-off their terminal theme instead of doing any real actual work, and 2. Contributes to global warming by chewing through world-wide power in levels that are completely unnecessary and should be avoided at all costs. I would rather _gouge my eyes out with a blunt spoon_ than install, support or promote THIS BULLSHIT to any person on this earth. Even Augusto Pinochet wouldn't have his prisoners feel the pain of Hyper, and that's really saying something.
- parzivalm 7y ago
  Wow, talk about someone I wouldn't want to work with... Regardless of whether or not the app makes sense or should be used, (I am not a fan of it), the rhetoric you are using is childish and immature. You can voice dislike without being an asshole about it.
  - carmate383 7y ago
    Voicing dislike with brutal honesty is far more effective. And it's the truth. Why should the truth be watered down? Just to make a few sensitive people feel better? That's not reality. As far as I'm concerned, that is fraud.
    - parzivalm 7y ago
      You can say the truth of the matter without being brutal. You are trying to tear down someone that contributes to open source, and whether or you not like it, people out there do or they wouldn't still be developing it. And contrary to what you seem to think, if you don't like the product don't use it, and better yet don't comment on it as you aren't helping anyone.
    - scotu 7y ago
      > Voicing dislike with brutal honesty is far more effective then your way of voicing it is not brutal honesty, because you are most definitely not being effective, the only thing you are going to accomplish is putting whoever you are talking to on the defensive and now you lost your opportunity of convincing them. Or maybe brutal honesty is not that effective, you choose which one of the 2
nkkollaw 7y ago
It's just an experiment. If you try to use it and you use the terminal for work you'll see that it freezes and crashes often with more that a few hundred lines, and that it uses a lot of RAM. It looks cool, though!
moltar 7y ago
I think it’s just WIP. Just like VS Code wasn’t perfect from the start. But I can imagine it following the same path. Ecosystem becomes more mature. Plugins get more sophisticated.

malux85 7y ago

No youre not old, just wise. Terminals are actually pretty complex beasts and performance matters above all, closely followed by compatibility. I feel the same way as you. Or maybe we're both just old. Lets chase the kids off our lawn, get some dr pepper and fire up the alphaservers?

mikl 7y ago

Ditto here. Given how performance- and security intensive a terminal emulator is (who wants to add JavaScript injection to their list of server security worries?), writing one in Electron seems a bit nuts to me.

malux85 7y ago
well as long as it's not EVAL'ing the .... wait they wouldn't ... OH NO

STRiDEX 7y ago

its one of the few options you can use on both windows and osx with the same themes and plugins etc. However, i agree, it wasn't able to get me to stop using item2

petetttt 7y ago

We all enjoy customising our setup? A web dev friendly developer experience and a javascript plugin ecosystem opens that up to a new audience. It's a pretty big audience. I guess the hope is that raises the bar for what users expect from a terminal and it's plugins, while providing performance that is adequate enough for it's target audience.

StevePerkins 7y ago
I dunno. An audience that's fine with a 1,000-line scroll buffer probably aren't heavy terminal users in the first place. Before you can "raise the bar", you need to reach feature parity with the built-in OSX terminal, or any of the hundred Windows apps like ConEmu.
- petetttt 7y ago
  That's kind of what I mean—the audience for this isn't heavy terminal users. You can still raise the bar for them!
  - fluxsauce 7y ago
    Just because you don't consider yourself part of the audience doesn't mean this isn't intended for heavy terminal users. I'm using it right now and I'm impressed by the performance with dozens of production logs that aren't limited to a thousand lines of scrollback. Gatekeeping isn't inclusive.
- axelf4 7y ago
  Hey! No need to play gatekeeper. FWIW, when using tmux, a scrollback of 0 is more than plenty.
  - StevePerkins 7y ago
    I'm not sure what a "gatekeeper" is, or the concern with it being "not inclusive". I suspect this is Twitter jargon, leaking out more broadly. Terminal apps are a 1970's concept. We're discussing the possible use cases for a brand new one, which has yet to implement a number of basic features common to virtually all existing ones. If anyone happens to not need those common features, and does have use cases satisfied by the new entry, then that's great! Your existence is not invalidated, there is no membership card for anyone to revoke. However, while I'm not sure if there's a contemporary jargon term for expressing this in a single word... you should perhaps avoid "raise the bar" boasts, if you're simultaneously sensitive to anyone else pointing at a bar.

jug 7y ago

Yes, it was admittedly a while ago but I looked hard for killer features or at least something that makes use of this obscene abstraction of Electron, but I could only find minor features. I mean, for Windows Conemu or Cmder looks much better. And soon Microsoft’s own upcoming Windows Terminal looks better too.

kristiandupont 7y ago

I suppose to the many JS developers out there (which is a lot), having your software built in it makes it easier and more appealing to write extensions for. I have no data, but it's my impression that the growth curve for VS Code extensions compared to VS "classic" is much steeper. This may or may not be a good thing but IMO it does tend to make some interesting and novel things surface.

carmate383 7y ago

This heap of _shit_ software serves two primary purposes 1. Making bad developers feel good about their terrible development skills by letting them jerk-off their terminal theme instead of doing any real actual work, and 2. Contributes to global warming by chewing through world-wide power in levels that are completely unnecessary and should be avoided at all costs. I would rather _gouge my eyes out with a blunt spoon_ than install, support or promote THIS BULLSHIT to any person on this earth. Even Augusto Pinochet wouldn't have his prisoners feel the pain of Hyper, and that's really saying something.

parzivalm 7y ago
Wow, talk about someone I wouldn't want to work with... Regardless of whether or not the app makes sense or should be used, (I am not a fan of it), the rhetoric you are using is childish and immature. You can voice dislike without being an asshole about it.
- carmate383 7y ago
  Voicing dislike with brutal honesty is far more effective. And it's the truth. Why should the truth be watered down? Just to make a few sensitive people feel better? That's not reality. As far as I'm concerned, that is fraud.
  - parzivalm 7y ago
    You can say the truth of the matter without being brutal. You are trying to tear down someone that contributes to open source, and whether or you not like it, people out there do or they wouldn't still be developing it. And contrary to what you seem to think, if you don't like the product don't use it, and better yet don't comment on it as you aren't helping anyone.
  - scotu 7y ago
    > Voicing dislike with brutal honesty is far more effective then your way of voicing it is not brutal honesty, because you are most definitely not being effective, the only thing you are going to accomplish is putting whoever you are talking to on the defensive and now you lost your opportunity of convincing them. Or maybe brutal honesty is not that effective, you choose which one of the 2

nkkollaw 7y ago

It's just an experiment. If you try to use it and you use the terminal for work you'll see that it freezes and crashes often with more that a few hundred lines, and that it uses a lot of RAM. It looks cool, though!

moltar 7y ago

I think it’s just WIP. Just like VS Code wasn’t perfect from the start. But I can imagine it following the same path. Ecosystem becomes more mature. Plugins get more sophisticated.