4 ms·

What's the thing that bothers you most in a terminal app like helix compared to a regular GUI?

feel-ix-343 2y ago
no shadows, no blur, no animations ...
eviks 2y ago
App detection, which breaks simple things like alt tab and more complicated things keyboard rebindings via external tools (and all the other cooperation with utilities based on app detection), then poor keybinding support of terminals with whole modifiers missing
- cbolton 2y ago
  What is app detection? Regarding poor key binding support, I think that's not really a problem in modern applications. Quoting https://gpanders.com/blog/state-of-the-terminal/ https://gpanders.com/blog/state-of-the-terminal/ : > Sending key presses as escape sequences requires that terminal applications are able to recognize and parse those sequences, so it is not something that “just works” out of the box. However, the kitty keyboard protocol has been widely adopted by both modern terminal emulators and terminal applications. Terminals which support the kitty keyboard protocol (to some degree) include Wezterm, Alacritty, kitty, foot, Ghostty, and iTerm2. Applications which support the kitty keyboard protocol (to some degree) include Vim, Neovim, Helix, kakoune, and nushell. This means that when using one of these applications in one of these terminals, all of the key encoding problems discussed above (as well as some others which were not discussed…) are solved. At least I indeed saw no such issue using helix in wezterm for example.
  - eviks 2y ago
    App detection is being able to tell which app you're using, e.g., knowing that you're using Helix and not just WezTerm Poor key binding support is still a problem despite the optimistic quote (and might last for one more generation given the snail speed of progress). For example, the kitty protocol isn't "comprehensive" despite its dev's claims: it doesn't support left vs right modifiers and also some non-standard modifiers that are used to circumvent this limitation (only hyper) > At least I indeed saw no such issue using helix in wezterm for example. I think helix still doesn't support even the full kitty protocol, e.g., the Windows key. And I do see these issues since I'm using richer keybindings to make input more ergonomic.
    - aumerle 2y ago
      The kitty protocol not supporting your stupid made up usecase does not make it non-comprehensive, despite your claims.
      - eviks 2y ago
        Instead of calling everything you don't understand stupid you could just make some effort to comprehend
        aumerle 2y ago
        I did and I comprehended that you want left and right modifiers to be different. The rest of the world disagrees with you. That does not give you the license to go around maligning other people's work.
        eviks 2y ago
        You're too limited in your perspective to speak for the rest of the world, for example, you had no clue that the bigger part of the OS world - Windows - doesn't disagree (though that failed to become a learning opportunity). So there is enough better design in the world to call out lack of comprehension in both other people's work and other people
        aumerle 2y ago
        Name one windows application used by more than 10 people that supports independent left and right modifier keys used as modifiers. One application. Just because the windows API for some inexplicable reason exposes those states. Meanwhile let me name some of the most popular applications in the world on Windows that explicitly dont support this. 1) Chrome 2) Edge 3) Microsoft Word 4) Windows Explorer 5) Windows command prompt and windows terminal 6) VLC 7) LibreOffice 8) Every terminal emulator under the sun 9) Firefox 10) Pick any windows application at random Just because you WANT left and right modifiers to be different doesnt make it a good idea. Learn that.

no shadows, no blur, no animations ...

App detection, which breaks simple things like alt tab and more complicated things keyboard rebindings via external tools (and all the other cooperation with utilities based on app detection), then poor keybinding support of terminals with whole modifiers missing

cbolton 2y ago
What is app detection? Regarding poor key binding support, I think that's not really a problem in modern applications. Quoting https://gpanders.com/blog/state-of-the-terminal/ https://gpanders.com/blog/state-of-the-terminal/ : > Sending key presses as escape sequences requires that terminal applications are able to recognize and parse those sequences, so it is not something that “just works” out of the box. However, the kitty keyboard protocol has been widely adopted by both modern terminal emulators and terminal applications. Terminals which support the kitty keyboard protocol (to some degree) include Wezterm, Alacritty, kitty, foot, Ghostty, and iTerm2. Applications which support the kitty keyboard protocol (to some degree) include Vim, Neovim, Helix, kakoune, and nushell. This means that when using one of these applications in one of these terminals, all of the key encoding problems discussed above (as well as some others which were not discussed…) are solved. At least I indeed saw no such issue using helix in wezterm for example.
- eviks 2y ago
  App detection is being able to tell which app you're using, e.g., knowing that you're using Helix and not just WezTerm Poor key binding support is still a problem despite the optimistic quote (and might last for one more generation given the snail speed of progress). For example, the kitty protocol isn't "comprehensive" despite its dev's claims: it doesn't support left vs right modifiers and also some non-standard modifiers that are used to circumvent this limitation (only hyper) > At least I indeed saw no such issue using helix in wezterm for example. I think helix still doesn't support even the full kitty protocol, e.g., the Windows key. And I do see these issues since I'm using richer keybindings to make input more ergonomic.
  - aumerle 2y ago
    The kitty protocol not supporting your stupid made up usecase does not make it non-comprehensive, despite your claims.
    - eviks 2y ago
      Instead of calling everything you don't understand stupid you could just make some effort to comprehend
      - aumerle 2y ago
        I did and I comprehended that you want left and right modifiers to be different. The rest of the world disagrees with you. That does not give you the license to go around maligning other people's work.
        eviks 2y ago
        You're too limited in your perspective to speak for the rest of the world, for example, you had no clue that the bigger part of the OS world - Windows - doesn't disagree (though that failed to become a learning opportunity). So there is enough better design in the world to call out lack of comprehension in both other people's work and other people
        aumerle 2y ago
        Name one windows application used by more than 10 people that supports independent left and right modifier keys used as modifiers. One application. Just because the windows API for some inexplicable reason exposes those states. Meanwhile let me name some of the most popular applications in the world on Windows that explicitly dont support this. 1) Chrome 2) Edge 3) Microsoft Word 4) Windows Explorer 5) Windows command prompt and windows terminal 6) VLC 7) LibreOffice 8) Every terminal emulator under the sun 9) Firefox 10) Pick any windows application at random Just because you WANT left and right modifiers to be different doesnt make it a good idea. Learn that.