cuda-api-wrappers VS alacritty

1. This implements the clunky C-ish API; there's also the Modern-C++ API wrappers, with automatic error checking, RAII resource control etc.; see: https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers (due disclosure: I'm the author)

2. Implementing the _runtime_ API is not the right choice; it's important to implement the _driver_ API, otherwise you can't isolate contexts, dynamically add newly-compiled JIT kernels via modules etc.

3. This is less than 3000 lines of code. Wrapping all of the core CUDA APIs (driver, runtime, NVTX, JIT compilation of CUDA-C++ and of PTX) took me > 14,000 LoC.

> since the underlying API's are still C/C++,

If the use of GPUs is via CUDA, there are my https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers/ which are RAII/CADRe, and therefore less unsafe. And on the Rust side - don't you need a bunch of unsafe code in the library enabling GPU support?

Given your criteria, you might want to consider (modern) C++.

* Fast - in many cases faster than Rust, although the difference is inconsequential relative to Python-to-Rust improvement I guess.

* _Really_ utilize CUDA, OpenCL, Vulcan etc. Specifically, Rust GPU is limited in its supported features, see: https://github.com/Rust-GPU/Rust-CUDA/blob/master/guide/src/... ...

* Host-side use of CUDA is at least as nice, and probably nicer, than what you'll get with Rust. That is, provided you use my own Modern C++ wrappers for the CUDA APIs: https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers/ :-) ... sorry for the shameless self-plug.

* ... which brings me to another point: Richer offering of libraries for various needs than Rust, for you to possibly utilize.

* Easier to share than Rust. A target system is less likely to have an appropriate version of Rust and the surrounding ecosystem.

There are downsides, of course, but I was just applying your criteria.

https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers

I try to address these and some other issues.

We should also remember that NVIDIA artificially prevents its profiling tools from supporting OpenCL kernels - with no good reason.

On the host side however - the API you use to orchestrate execution of kernels on GPUs, data transfers etc. - the official API is very C'ish, annoying and confusing. I have written C++'ish wrappers for it which many enjoy but are of course not officially supported or endorsed: https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers

Oh, I really wish those hackers would release the sources rather than pursue their dumbass crypto-mining demands... "We decided to help mining and gaming community" - hurting the gaming community, helping the get-rich-quick "community".

My own C++ wrappers for the CUDA APIs (shameless self-plug: https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers/) would really benefit a lot from behind-the-curtains access to the driver; and even if I just know how the internal logic of the driver and the runtime works, without actually being able to hook into that logic - I would already be able to leverage this somewhat in my design considerations.

As a person making a living from being the "GPU guy" - I definitely agree.

The ecosystem around AMD GPUs is quite small - and now that they seem to have abandoned OpenCL (possibly not their own fault though) - even that is put into question.

But things are bad even on the NVIDIA side. Example of how bad: I had to write my own C++ bindings for the CUDA runtime API (https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers/). You'd think they would have that after 13 years of CUDA being available, right? Wrong. I repeatedly tried to pitch this to them, but they seem to suffer from the "Not Invented Here" syndrome (https://learnosity.com/not-invented-here-syndrome-explained/). This despite me having a lot of respect for people like Mark Harris, Bryce Lelbach, Duane Merrill et alia, and their work.

You're also rights about the "two kinds of brains" - or rather, it's not clear to me that the brains creating the silicon and the brains creating the software are in close enough cooperation.

By the way - it is possible to extract a pretty distribution of CUDA to justify run 20 lines of GPGPU code, from their installer. But they won't be bothered to package this nicely for you.

Try Vulcan, or OpenCL. There are tons of wrappers for CUDA to make coding simpler ie https://github.com/eyalroz/cuda-api-wrappers

It's opinionated, which comes with upsides and downsides. I won't blame the maintainer to keep things focused, feature creep (even for worthy features) can kill a FOSS project.

Another example is sixel support, there's a fork where it all works but is not sufficiently "proven" (code quality just as well as sixel being the best fit for the problem)

https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/pull/4763#issuecommen...

It may be annoying but I get the reasoning, and there are other terminals.

alacritty (Linux, Macos & Windows)

> Ligatures: ok, nice, possible in terms too (hopefully Alacritty one day)

I wouldn't hold my breath. Seems like its getting the iPad calculator treatment[0]. Which is to say rather than ship something working that can be improved, they're leaving a UX void.

[0] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/50

IME, this is like the golden age of terminal apps in general and macOS-compatible ones in particular. There are several really good terminals for macOS:

[iTerm2 app](https://iterm2.com/)

[Kitty terminal](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/)

[WezTerm terminal](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html)

[Alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty)

My daily driver is WezTerm…

- Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows 10 and FreeBSD

- [Multiplex terminal panes, tabs and windows on local and remote hosts, with native mouse and scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/multiplexing.html)

- [Ligatures](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode#fira-code-monospaced-font...), Color Emoji and font fallback, with true color and [dynamic color schemes](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/appearance.html#colors).

- [Hyperlinks](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/hyperlinks.html)

- [Searchable Scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/scrollback.html) (use mouse wheel and `Shift-PageUp` and `Shift PageDown` to navigate, Ctrl-Shift-F to activate search mode)

- xterm style selection of text with mouse; paste selection via `Shift-Insert` (bracketed paste is supported!)

- SGR style mouse reporting (works in vim and tmux)

- Render underline, double-underline, italic, bold, strikethrough (most other terminal emulators do not support as many render attributes)

- Configuration via a [configuration file](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/files.html) with hot reloading

- Multiple Windows (Hotkey: `Super-N`)

- Splits/Panes (Split horizontally/vertically: `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-%` and `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-"`, move between panes: `Ctrl-Shift-ArrowKey`)

- Tabs (Hotkey: `Super-T`, next/prev: `Super-Shift-[` and `Super-Shift-]`, go-to: `Super-[1-9]`)

- [SSH client with native tabs](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/ssh.html)

- [Connect to serial ports for embedded/Arduino work](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/serial.html)

- Connect to a local multiplexer server over unix domain sockets

- Connect to a remote multiplexer using SSH or TLS over TCP/IP

- iTerm2 compatible image protocol support, and built-in [imgcat command](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/imgcat.html)

- Kitty graphics support

- Sixel graphics support (experimental: starting in `20200620-160318-e00b076c`)

# We use Alacritty's default Linux config directory as our storage location here. mkdir -p ~/.config/alacritty/themes git clone https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme ~/.config/alacritty/themes

if by 'in the terminal' you mean 'in a program emulating an ascii terminal' then no, because ascii terminals don't support anything that looks better than ascii art. they don't support sixel either. there are a variety of proposals for how to add graphics to ascii terminal emulators in a backwards-compatible way, such as mgr and notty https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/51

but the 'terminal' that a terminal emulator is emulating is a device which provides a user access to a remote computer. normally nowadays this is a laptop or cellphone. in that case, yes, you can use x-windows, xpra, vnc, or a web browser

A decent terminal application (i.e: iterm2, alacritty, etc.)

I have been having random input lags with Alacritty. Initially I thought it was my custom neovim config. After some investigation, I have found an Alacritty github issue where users are reporting the same issue: https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/6844

Thank you for your suggestions. I have now narrow it down to my terminal emulator. Alacritty. More precisely this issue: https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/6844