Duktape VS kitty

Im my projects I search for single file libs.(like https://github.com/svaarala/duktape etc...)

Use lrand48(), or better, implement a high-quality RNG like PCG or splitmix64.

You can also refer to the Unicode routines of other small JS engines[1,2], those don’t use ICU either, although the implementations are mercilessly size-optimized (to put it politely) and restricted to what the target JS version requires (e.g. casemapping but no normalization).

[1] https://github.com/bellard/quickjs/blob/master/libunicode.c

[2] https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/master/src-input/du...

> memcpy from bytes to a NaN should work fine

Signaling NaNs are explicitly undefined in C11 F.2.1.: "This specification does not define the behavior of signaling NaNs." - and in practice may be "quieted" by conversion to Quiet NaNs, changing their bit patterns. Fast math optimization flags will also break the hell out of your code by assuming NaNs are impossible. I want to say there are more circumstances where optimizers and compiler generated code can butcher your NaN payloads, but I'd be working off recollected hearsay and I can't find a source, so don't quote me on that.

NaN boxing is common enough that, if you take the right precautions, a modern compiler should probably support it, maybe. NaN boxing is uncommon enough that, if your codebase needs to be sufficiently portable, you need an opt out for when it breaks. Let's review duktape's scars:

https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/123d9426d5e5b36d5da...

https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/5252b7a50611a3cb8bf...

https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/224a0b89ca08a36e37e...

Note that "the right precautions" involve unions and proper integer types to avoid optimizer-invoked rewrites of the value and debugging when things go wrong, not simply YOLOing bytes into a double via memcpy. Note that debugging when it all goes terribly wrong can be quite painful. I've personally had the misfortune of being forced to debug duktape being built with fast math optimizatoins enabled on one "rare" platform + build configuration that wasn't caught by duktape's #if defined(__FAST_MATH__) checks linked above (wasn't Clang nor GCC, so go figure it didn't make the same #define)

I was expecting this to be about Duktape <https://github.com/svaarala/duktape>, but heh, for sure no. I'd bet $1 there's no way youtube-dl would switch, but I wonder if yt-dlp would?

Fast math optimizations can break code like this by breaking isNaN.

I was porting a C++ project to a certain platform - and that platform enabled a -ffast-math equivalent by default in Release (but not Debug) builds! This broke duktape, a JS engine said project embedded, in some nasty and subtle ways. Instead of storing a number/pointer/??? (8 bytes) + type tag (4? bytes) for each dynamically typed JS value, duktape can bit-pack values into a single 8 byte "double" value by storing object/string handles as NaN values - this isn't an uncommon trick for dynamically typed scripting stuff:

https://github.com/svaarala/duktape/blob/c3722054ea4a4e50f48...

Naturally, the -ffast-math equivalent broke isNaN checks, which caused random object/string handles to be mistakenly reinterpreted as "numbers" - but only in Release builds, for this one particular platform, in one rarely taken branch, so neither QA nor CI caught it, leading to hours of manufacturing a repro case, stepping through an absurd amount of code, and then finally looking at the default build rules and facepalming.

Cursing the platform vendor under my breath, I overrode the defaults to align with the defaults of every other config x platform combination we already had: no fast math. If you want those optimizations, use SSE-friendly NaN-avoiding intrinsics - or, if you must use the compiler flags, ensure you do so consistently across build configs and platforms, perhaps limited to a few TUs or modules if possible. This allows you to have a chance at using your Debug builds to debug the resulting "optimizations".

Sure. For example, DukTape is an implementation of Javascript designed to be embedded in other projects. Google's V8 Javascript engine (used in Chrome), can also be embedded, see Node.Js for example.

- Duktape (4.8k stars)

And kitty is much faster according to this: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/2701#issuecomment...

Also typometer based measurements also on Linux. Shrug.

kitty (Linux & Macos)

A terminal with built-in telemetry and a pricing model... Just what I never wanted!

To avoid being too negative, I'll offer the option of Kitty[1]. My current favorite terminal. Supports many features.

Including my personal favorites:

* ctrl+c (as opposed to stupid things like ctrl+shift+c) to copy data only when you have content selected. Otherwise, ctrl+c sends a sigint like normal.

* font ligature support (a controversial feature)

[1] https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/

The ncurses/xterm maintainer also had quite a lot of friction with the developer of the kitty terminal emulator.

https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/879

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`)

While researching how to fix the issue I found this GitHub issue with the fun number 606 (almost 666). First, I should say, that there is no easy solution. Shortly you have to specify for each shortcut mapping alternative with your keyboard layout. That means, for example, if your keyboard has Cyrillic "м" instead of Latin "v" then for making work CMD+V you should add also into configuration an additional line with "м".

I haven’t tried this yet (so please take my commentary with a grain of salt), but my initial thoughts are: (1) it looks interesting, (2) it looks overwhelming (there’s a lot going on in those screenshots), and (3) it’s likely slow (I might be completely wrong).

To elaborate a bit…

1. I love good design work and well-designed (UI-wise) software, and it certainly looks like the creators of Wave Terminal have made that a priority.

2. UX-wise, there’s just too much going on. As someone who lives in my terminal (with the exception of browsing the web, I do virtually everything in my terminal), it’s the single most important piece of software on my computer and it can never get in my way. I used the same terminal for many years and only switched to kitty [0] a couple years ago after testing it for months. In all of those years, every single terminal I tested managed to get in my way. Somehow, kitty manages to be packed full of features without ever—not even once—getting in my way, being slow, or freezing up on me.

3. Generally speaking, I think building on open web standards is a great thing and a plus. Unfortunately though, even in 2023, my experience has been that it’s really hard to build performant software meant to be run on native platforms using web technologies; the few who get this right—e.g., Figma—are anomalies and they generally invest an enormous amount of time and engineering capital into squeezing out as much performance as possible. As I explained in #2, for something as critical as my terminal, not being performant is simply not an option, so as much as I love the idea of building on open web standards, it actually scares me for software like this.

That said, I’m obviously judging before trying here, so I’ll make some time to test Wave Terminal.

[0]: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty

to solve this I run Kitty with a tab bar on the bottom. this has tons of inspo: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/discussions/4447

Those existing tools are poorly designed, if you read the article it has a link to the discussion about its design choices, which contains in turn discussion about all the problems with sixel https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/33#issuecomment-2...