SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

pradtf · 2023-04-23 01:06:08

what does that even mean?

i've read that kitty and alacritty (which i use) utilize the gpu instead of the cpu. they are supposed to be blazing fast.

is that just for rendering?
aren't the instructions typed into the terminal executed by zsh (or whatever), so it's not that grep will run any faster - right?

what is the advantage of a blazing fast terminal then?

Last edited by pradtf (2023-04-23 02:31:34)

Trilby · 2023-04-23 01:14:10

pradtf wrote:

what is the advantage of a blazing fast terminal then?

Feeling L337 and having something to put on a second t-shirt after "I use arch BTW". Other than that, nothing really.

The only time there could be a benefit would be if you were scrolling through hundreds / thousands of lines of text in the terminal. But that at that point you should really just learn to use a pager or head or some other relevant tool.

Last edited by Trilby (2023-04-23 01:15:46)

pradtf · 2023-04-23 02:31:11

that's what i thought.

and here it says alacritty is the best terminal for archlinux:
https://www.slant.co/versus/2455/22079/ … _alacritty
it has #1 ranking.

how can there be a 'best' terminal for a specific distribution?!

i'm using alacritty with tmux.
my understanding is that something like terminator is set up to do the multiple panes already. in fact, it looks like it can do a lot more.

guess i should just try some of these out.

thx again!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2023-04-23 09:47:24

pradtf wrote:

i've read that kitty and alacritty (which i use) utilize the gpu instead of the cpu. they are supposed to be blazing fast

foot uses CPU rendering but can out-perform the GPU-based emulators in certain situations:

https://codeberg.org/dnkl/foot/wiki/Performance

It also has a fraction of the memory footprint compared to alacritty, and has better font rendering (IMO), which is why I use it :-)

pradtf wrote:

what is the advantage of a blazing fast terminal then?

Not much. EDIT: but TUIs are trendy and becoming increasingly complex.

Last edited by Head_on_a_Stick (2023-04-23 10:03:53)

Trilby · 2023-04-23 12:55:07

But benchmarking how fast a terminal can flood the screen with a series of A's makes about as much sense as benchmarking how well the rubber used in different tires can withstand a nuclear blast in ones decision on which car to buy. Who the hell cares?

But the above-mentioned virtues of foot (not related to such benchmarks) are also why I use foot.

Not to mention how silly it is to over-optimize a terminal in which most people will still run one of the slowest shells! If you want speed in your terminal, optimize your shell (first by choosing a good starting point for such optimization which is most definitely not bash).

Last edited by Trilby (2023-04-23 12:58:15)

pradtf · 2023-04-23 17:48:47

good points, both of you!
i'll look at foot, since both of you use it.

i learned from this video by alacritty author Joe Wilm:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHOdYO3WUTk
that the more work you push on to a gpu the less there is for the cpu to do.
an interesting idea admittedly - not that i do anything that intensive presently.

Trilby · 2023-04-23 18:38:27

Certainly. And the more work you keep on the cpu, the less there is for the gpu to do ... Are you having any processes fighting for cpu resources such that the ridiculously trivial fraction used by a non-gpu accelerated terminal would be relevant?

Again, a silly car analogy (but no more silly than the gpu-terminal reality) is that different paint pigments might have slightly different molecular weights such that different color paints could change the weight of the car and in turn its fuel efficiency. So you should really get a white car rather than a red car because the more weight you can remove from the paint, the less fuel you will burn.

This is one of the more extreme cases of pointless "optimization" at the wrong parts of software.

That said, Alacritty is a great terminal. I used it for a while and was happy with it. It's good software overall, but with some really silly and nonsensical "marketting" (which is also pretty much the case for rust, the language it's written in).

Last edited by Trilby (2023-04-23 18:40:57)

pradtf · 2023-04-23 18:43:58

trilby, you really come up with great analogies! they may be silly, but appropriately illustrative nevertheless!

i guess since there are so many terminals, we get some severe marketing taking place!.

ewaller · 2023-04-23 18:51:22

https://www.myscorecard.com/blog/?p=1278

espritlibre · 2023-04-24 20:00:31

Trilby wrote:

...So you should really get a white car rather than a red car because the more weight you can remove from the paint, the less fuel you will burn...

just playing a smart ass here... white pigments are actually heavier... :-)

Arch Linux

#1 2023-04-23 01:06:08

SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#2 2023-04-23 01:14:10

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#3 2023-04-23 02:31:11

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#4 2023-04-23 09:47:24

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#5 2023-04-23 12:55:07

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#6 2023-04-23 17:48:47

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#7 2023-04-23 18:38:27

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#8 2023-04-23 18:43:58

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#9 2023-04-23 18:51:22

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

#10 2023-04-24 20:00:31

Re: SOLVED blazing fast terminals!

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