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iTerm2 is a great terminal for macOS. I use it extensively every day. Despite that, I would gladly try out other terminals because it's fun and because I'm alwa

iTerm2 is a great terminal for macOS. I use it extensively every day. Despite that, I would gladly try out other terminals because it's fun and because I'm always open to finding something superior to even the great tools I use. That said, there is exactly 1 feature that seems to only exist in iTerm2, and until another terminal emulator appears that has it, I'm staying put: tmux control mode. https://github.com/Eugeny/tabby/issues/2715 https://github.com/Eugeny/tabby/issues/2715

joshstrange 3y ago
I don’t use that feature often but it sure is nice. It will take a lot to move me away from iTerm 2. I’m incredibly happy with it and it’s rock solid (and fast).
square_usual 3y ago
If you're not married to it being in tmux, you can use wezterm's SSH integration will open new tabs and panes in your current SSH session, which is most of what I use iTerm's tmux mode for.
- cassianoleal 3y ago
  I use it for that + session persistence. The latter is as important as the former to me. I imagine wezterm's doesn't do that, is that right? I remember trying it out a while back and not liking something. IIRC I found the configuration pretty arcane and hard to grok but I could be wrong. Also it could have improved since. It was a while ago.
michaelsbradley 3y ago
I used iTerm2 on a daily basis for many years, but started using Kitty in late 2021 and now prefer it: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/
- inferiorhuman 3y ago
  I recently tried both Alacritty and Kitty out of curiosity and went back to iTerm ASAP. For me, on OSX, iTerm is the only one that gets the font handling right.
  - michaelsbradley 3y ago
    I downloaded/installed SF Mono, Noto Sans Symbols, and Noto Sans Symbols 2, and added this to ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf: font_family SF Mono Looks great on my mac retina laptop and my iMac hooked to a 4k monitor. But, depending on what you're doing with fonts, iTerm could be better suited to your tastes, sure.
    - inferiorhuman 3y ago
      Yes, I know how to edit the config file. Jesus. The problem with Alacritty is that there is no (documented) font fallback and the author's slept on that for a few years. The (main) problem with Kitty is that font selection via font_family doesn't work. The author says it works for him, with the font I was using, so I left it at that. If by "better suited to your tastes" you mean is able to find fonts, then, yes iTerm is better suited to my tastes. I've a few ideas as to why the author wasn't able to repro the issue but no real reason to dig any deeper because iTerm works for me. I've rotated through Fira Code, Source Code Pro, and now I'm on IBM Plex Mono. iTerm just works for me without having to debug anything or wade through an issue tracker.
      - tsuujin 3y ago
        I’ve been using kitty for a few months now as my primary editor and have tried out about a dozen coding fonts because I think they’re neat, I’ve never had an issue getting kitty to find and load them.
  - alwillis 3y ago
    WezTerm [1] gets font handling correct if you want font fallback, etc. [1]: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/fonts.html https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/fonts.html
E39M5S62 3y ago
I wrote a terminal-agnostic approximation of that called tmuxc - https://github.com/zdykstra/tmuxc https://github.com/zdykstra/tmuxc . It's very much tailored my exact workflow, mainly because nobody else seems interested in it. With a bit of hacking around you could probably make it work on macOS. I use it on both Linux and HaikuOS.
- jacknews 3y ago
  I must be missing something fundamental. tmux is a terminal multiplexer, as in you get to run multiple virtual terminals over a single actual terminal (eg ssh). And then tmuxc breaks these virtual terminals out into actual terminals? Why do you need tmux at all in that case, just fire up a bunch of terminals?
  - E39M5S62 3y ago
    tmux, for me, is about session persistence. I run multiple tmux sessions on a bastion host at work. tmuxc lets me reconnect to them each morning and then move them around my monitors as I see fit. I can hit a single key combination and have a new terminal open up with a shell on my bastion host - or any other host that I have a tmux/tmuxc session on.

joshstrange 3y ago

I don’t use that feature often but it sure is nice. It will take a lot to move me away from iTerm 2. I’m incredibly happy with it and it’s rock solid (and fast).

square_usual 3y ago

If you're not married to it being in tmux, you can use wezterm's SSH integration will open new tabs and panes in your current SSH session, which is most of what I use iTerm's tmux mode for.

cassianoleal 3y ago
I use it for that + session persistence. The latter is as important as the former to me. I imagine wezterm's doesn't do that, is that right? I remember trying it out a while back and not liking something. IIRC I found the configuration pretty arcane and hard to grok but I could be wrong. Also it could have improved since. It was a while ago.

michaelsbradley 3y ago

I used iTerm2 on a daily basis for many years, but started using Kitty in late 2021 and now prefer it: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

inferiorhuman 3y ago
I recently tried both Alacritty and Kitty out of curiosity and went back to iTerm ASAP. For me, on OSX, iTerm is the only one that gets the font handling right.
- michaelsbradley 3y ago
  I downloaded/installed SF Mono, Noto Sans Symbols, and Noto Sans Symbols 2, and added this to ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf: font_family SF Mono Looks great on my mac retina laptop and my iMac hooked to a 4k monitor. But, depending on what you're doing with fonts, iTerm could be better suited to your tastes, sure.
  - inferiorhuman 3y ago
    Yes, I know how to edit the config file. Jesus. The problem with Alacritty is that there is no (documented) font fallback and the author's slept on that for a few years. The (main) problem with Kitty is that font selection via font_family doesn't work. The author says it works for him, with the font I was using, so I left it at that. If by "better suited to your tastes" you mean is able to find fonts, then, yes iTerm is better suited to my tastes. I've a few ideas as to why the author wasn't able to repro the issue but no real reason to dig any deeper because iTerm works for me. I've rotated through Fira Code, Source Code Pro, and now I'm on IBM Plex Mono. iTerm just works for me without having to debug anything or wade through an issue tracker.
    - tsuujin 3y ago
      I’ve been using kitty for a few months now as my primary editor and have tried out about a dozen coding fonts because I think they’re neat, I’ve never had an issue getting kitty to find and load them.
- alwillis 3y ago
  WezTerm [1] gets font handling correct if you want font fallback, etc. [1]: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/fonts.html https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/fonts.html

E39M5S62 3y ago

I wrote a terminal-agnostic approximation of that called tmuxc - https://github.com/zdykstra/tmuxc https://github.com/zdykstra/tmuxc . It's very much tailored my exact workflow, mainly because nobody else seems interested in it. With a bit of hacking around you could probably make it work on macOS. I use it on both Linux and HaikuOS.

jacknews 3y ago
I must be missing something fundamental. tmux is a terminal multiplexer, as in you get to run multiple virtual terminals over a single actual terminal (eg ssh). And then tmuxc breaks these virtual terminals out into actual terminals? Why do you need tmux at all in that case, just fire up a bunch of terminals?
- E39M5S62 3y ago
  tmux, for me, is about session persistence. I run multiple tmux sessions on a bastion host at work. tmuxc lets me reconnect to them each morning and then move them around my monitors as I see fit. I can hit a single key combination and have a new terminal open up with a shell on my bastion host - or any other host that I have a tmux/tmuxc session on.