iterm2 VS sixel-tmux

The correct response to false allegations followed by insults and threats is anything but to admit it. The software in question is a popular free and open source software that has more than a decade of trust. It's maintained by a single developer in his spare time. It's a feature that fundamentally requires the user to actively engage with in order to use it [1], with no nagging or coercion whatsoever. In fact, the only people reminding us of its existence are the Mastodon mobs, not iTerm.

The feature wasn't added out of pure hype either. It was likely inspired by user feedback [2], and the dev ultimately added it because it was useful for him personally [3].

Despite all of this, people are raging about unprovable nefarious motives and making claims about spyware, as if it's Windows. Some are even openly fantasizing about physical violence.

This kind of behavior should be condemned, not praised.

[1]: https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2/blob/a3122c0100d8900a15cb...

[2]: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/6955

[3]: https://techhub.social/@gnachman/109542492387391561

> iTerm 3.5.1 removes automatic OpenAI integration, requires opt-in

This is an editorialized title. It was opt-in from the very beginning. Here's all the steps that was originally required:

1. Open settings, go to the General tab, click on the AI button.

2. Enter a paid API key

3. Close the settings

4. Click "Toolbelt" on the menu bar, and click on "Codecierge"

5. Click "Toolbelt" on the menu bar again, and click "Show toolbelt"

6. In the toolbelt, there's a textbox that you can type questions into. The textbox won't be shown if you didn't enter an API key. Only after submitting the question will the OpenAI integration be activated.

https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2/blob/a3122c0100d8900a15cb...

The initial implementation already took many many clicks to run. I literally had to do nothing to not use the feature and not once was I reminded about the feature after I chose to ignore it.

Despite that, people were spreading rumors that entering an invalid API key would instantly cause iTerm to send all data to OpenAI. It's a straight up lie started by people who actually tested the feature and posted their findings the GitLab thread about this feature.

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/11475

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/11470

People in the GitLab thread were calling for dogpiles and fantasizing about inflicting violence on Mastodon. Towards the sole maintainer of a popular free and open source software developed in his spare time.

https://archive.is/https://tau-ceti.space/@ics/*

Some of the things you see online... I have no words.

I'd suggest everyone go read the issue thread (https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/11470) before commenting.

It seems abundantly clear that people are being overly negative about a feature that realistically has no security concerns (even as originally developed). Many commenters did not even know how the feature worked (assumed all keystrokes were being sent by default, etc...)

One outright said that the feature should be removed because the developer must "stand against OpenAI and the whole "AI" industry."

To me this just seems like a lot of people whining and trying to inject politics and unfounded safety concerns into a good implementation of something that many people like. This is an opt-in feature. It has a separate panel to even interact with it. And you need to provide a valid openai API key to use it.

Hello! I have not been blogging for a while, but I have been watching this issue blow up for a few days, and I wanted to put down some thoughts.

[0] https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/issues/10994 the discussion in there makes it seem like it's okay because many schemes that aren't http[s] cause the browser to open a dialog box

Features of iTerm2 I use:

  - fullscreen without using MacOS's spaces implementation of fullscreen

No, that's not how the plugin works. It sends context to ChatGPT telling it to return a single command that is copy/pasteable. The plugin does no filtering of the results. You can literally read the code for yourself:

https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/blob/master/sources/iTe...

Totally.

There are clear explanations in the release notes and the wiki entry linked from the relevant place in the preference pane [1]. The full release note is displayed before updating. There are numerous comments explaining how it's impossible to accidentally enable the feature. It's opt-in, you have to input an paid API key, you can even use a offline modal instead, and the data it sends are totally customizable and by default limited to the output of "uname" and the prompt you explicitly enter.

Yet people ignore all of that

iTerm2 is featureful yet solid, constantly improved, doesn't work against the user, and is free. I've submitted patches before and the author was nice and responsive. The AI feature is minimal, non-intrusive, and doesn't advertise its existence once you decided not to opt in. It's thankless work even without HN piling on and the author deserves much better.

[1]: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/-/wikis/AI-Prompt

What terminal emulator are you using? I have noticed that the latest release of iterm2 has problems rendering glyphs (see this discussion and links therein). I too am having problems displaying any nerd font icon due to the aforementioned.

It's not really that strange that tmux doesn't support sixels. It's quite a bit more complicated and resource-intensive than ANSI Escape Codes or ncurses.

It might be fine for local[1] multiplexing but over the network it is not as fast as even something like VNC or RDP.

[1] https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/

After having spent too much time trying to get the simple https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/ features into mainline tmux (last November https://github.com/tmux/tmux/issues/3753), maybe it'd be easier to jump ship as use zellij?

Could anyone offer recommendations on "riced" zellij configuations, or just a demo where it shows doing with (say charts of disk usage per folder), watching a movie with mpv + keeping a vim to type on?

Your approach looks very sound!

A fork of terminfo may be needed if the description of modern terminal capabilities can't be added -- or if old and deprecated attributes repurposed for that job (like in your padding example): if you're automating the correction/creation of terminfos in ~/, IMHO, it may be better to piggyback on tic as much as possible.

Anyway, to backport modern terminal descriptions to legacy programs, creating correct binary terminfos in ~/.terminfo seems the best practice. You can also invent new TERM. When I wanted to have italics etc about everywhere, personally that's just what I did for sixel-tmux: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/?tab=readme-ov-file#ste... : just declare a new $TERM you know to be right, and use that in the apps that let you use a little logic in their configuration file

I do that in my .vimrc:

   " If Vim doesn't know the escape codes to switch to italic

You can have that functionality integrated within tmux with https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/ : if you terminal doesn't support sixels, you'll at least see something close to the picture they represent.

Then of course it's not pixel-perfect unless you make your terminal very large (like 800x240 instead of 80x24) but something being better than nothing, I'd argue it's for the better if all you can do is 80x24 with no pictures otherwise.

sixel-tmux can help you have both: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/

See also rant[1] of sixel-tmux author.

> It's 2021, and we should be able to do litterate programming in the console, with full graphical support.

Yeah. We are stuck cosplaying computers from the sixties.

What's even funnier, even if you find a modern terminal emulator that supports features like ligatures, graphics, emoji etc. you still will be blocked by tmux. Sure - not everyone needs tmux. If you never work on remote machines, you can live without it.

But I work on remote machines all the time. I also use Kakoune text editor that defers window management to external tools (WM or tmux, but to be honest, tmux is much better). Zellij is more of r/unixporn bait than usable tool for now. So I'm stuck with text only interface.

[1]: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux/blob/main/RANTS.md

> Some terminal emulators have support for images, which fit most of the use cases here but not the one I described.

That what sixel-tmux is for, when you're in a hurry and needs images with your current terminal emulator: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-tmux

Maybe tmux-sixel does that tmux sixel