sixel-gnuplot VS CuteXterm

A few years ago, you had to recompile it to add sixel support on debian, so I provided https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-gnuplot

Now it's included by default IIRC

sixel-tmux works literally anywhere you can use tmux: as long you can display unicodes on your terminal, the sixels will be "captured" by sixel-tmux and converted into something you can see. Sixels are in-band, so ssh isn't a problem.

In a way, using sixel-tmux is like "giving magical goggles" to your terminal, to let it render sixels so you can see something (even if it isn't perfect), in the hope you'll be tempted to use a better terminal that will show you sixels in all their glory, with a pixel perfect quality.

Sixels enable all kind of cool things, like gnuplot right in your terminal (cf https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-gnuplot ): sometimes I even watch youtube on my terminal lol

sixel-tmux was made as a first step towards turning derasterize into a more general library: my plan was to add it to nnn but I got bored along the way and moved to other stuff. I might still do that I I love nnn as a filemanager.

BTW, even if there have been quite a few interesting work by @hpa and others in the last 2 years, I think derasterize still has textmode supremacy. derasterize is a collab with @jart after I started adding features to her previous solutions which was based on half blocks like this solution; she's also made further work based on this like https://justine.lol/printimage.html and https://justine.lol/printvideo.html

That's also my main usecase: doing plots with gnuplot

A few years ago, it wasn't compiled by default in the debian packages so I released binaries: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-gnuplot

I wish framebuffer consoles would support sixels to do without X or wayland, mostly to have inline plots line https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-gnuplot without having to use say fbi

> On the other hand, text output to the console has generally gotten slower, usually much slower than you would expect for the change in console size

I don't see why we should tolerate slow rendering of text. The techniques recently used to accelerate text rendering in Windows Terminal should be usable in the framebuffer console.

and sixel support can be made to work with this: https://github.com/csdvrx/sixel-gnuplot

> Yeah... xterm with a few tweaks (and some pruning) would still be best for me.

Check https://github.com/csdvrx/CuteXterm for my bag of tricks :)

xterm offers the best emulation, period. The developer is reactive and maintain high quality standards. The only real issues for me are the lack of configurable shortcuts, and ligatures. wezterm is a good option if you need these, and don't depend on xterm perfect emulation.

> Most emulate an xterm, which didn't have support for graphics

Start your xterm with the right flags and it will.

If you want a premade configuration, see https://github.com/csdvrx/CuteXterm

See my rant on https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm

> Surely you need AHK because Windows is less configurable

No, because it lets me do remap like having Caps be both Control and Esc - and I do the same with Enter being both Control when used with another key, and Enter alone. My Alt keys are Alt keys when used with another key, or Home/End when used alone.

> How are you using terminals in Windows? Like you want to SSH from a fresh install, what do I do?

Install openssh from the windows settings (check https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administrati...)

I'd recommend the latest Windows terminal from the Microsoft store, or mintty from msys2, but that's just for comfort :)

> I find Linux superior here, but interested to learn why you're the opposite; maybe I'm doing it wrong

I like sixels, so I prefer mintty, but even without sixels, I find the Windows experience better: I want cute fonts with ligatures in my terminal. I want proper support of bold, underline, italic. I want multiple tabs. I want to map key actions to everything - like, I want my terminal to change its color profile and font with just 1 key.

That's very hard on Linux. That's easy on Windows.

https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm#why-did-you-make-cutexte...

If I was feeling playful, I'd point you to https://github.com/csdvrx/cuteXterm and grab some popcorn while you turn red and pretend it doesn't matter and we could have a fun debate.

Apologies for misgendering you. My opinion that you come off like a windows fangirl was mostly due to the other rant you linked in the sixel-tmux rant: https://github.com/csdvrx/cutexterm#wait-i-thought-people-sa...

Here you mention some other things unrelated to terminals, and I was mostly addressing those. It seems to me you want a specific type of experience on Linux, but you can't get that, so therefore dismiss the merits of Linux. I think a lot of your impressions on Linux come from using an X11 based setup instead of Wayland. Completely different beasts, and I think a lot of your grievances would be solved by the latter.

For me, I cannot go back to Windows, ethical reasons aside: Sway on Wayland is perfect for me, and it's what I want out of my computing experience.

I actually agree with a lot that is written in those rants, particularly the VTE and gnome terminal situation. It's just your comments on windows vs linux came across as very personal imo, so I suppose I have retorted here with also a somewhat personal rant.

Also, I don't think either platform has many good terminal choices. Besides mintty, I don't think there are that many good (platform exclusive) terminal emulators on Windows. And on Linux, Foot is one of the few that meets my criteria, including top tier Sixel support (though Wezterm meets my criteria too if it wasn't so slow, hopefully it gets faster). But, for example, I could never really like mintty if I was forced to use Windows, because it lacks features I want.

What I'm trying to say: different needs, different use cases, different tastes. Sorry that my original rant came off so negatively to you and that I wasn't able to convey this point I was trying to make.