tmux VS kitty

tmux is a powerful terminal multiplexer that enhances productivity by allowing session persistence, window and pane management, and customization through key bindings and configuration files. It supports scripting for automation, facilitates collaboration with shared sessions, and integrates well with various shells and tools.

Tmux

Configure the frontend Open up a new terminal. P.S. We can split the terminal session using tmux or run it as a system service, but to keep things fairly simple, we would leave the backend running in one terminal and open another terminal for the frontend.

I have been using tmux for a while now. It was really worth it, especially after I started using neovim. One thing was really missing though compared to my previous setup and that was opening URLs. I always used my mouse to do that, but now I couldn't even do that because I am using the good old xterm as a terminal which doesn't have a built in feature like that.

If the cursor is located on a number, the shortcuts +a and +x increments/decrements that number. Not only do I not have any use for this behaviour, +a is also used to control tmux, which I normally use together with neovim.

I said multiplexer didn't I? tmux to be exact. Another game-changer for me. The beauty of using tmux is that I can create sessions, panes, and windows that can then be moved, split, detached, and everything in between. I also have Neovim shortcuts built in so that I can easily move with hjkl which if you know Neovim, that's life.

> tmux/screen do not break copy-paste

Tmux breaks interacting with the clipboard so much that it has its own dedicated Wiki page dealing with all of the different issues and settings: https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/Clipboard

If so, tmux in control mode [1] plus iTerm2 could be what you're looking for. You would use the -CC flag when starting tmux either locally or on a remote host.

This brings all the niceties of an iTerm shell session, but still allow you to detach from tmux and reattach at a later point whilst still using the native iTerm features. Almost indefinite scrollback, as you mentioned. Also good terminal search facilities, and features to filter text in the session to display only lines that contain a keyword. Instant Replay lets you drag a slider and replay old TUI output that may have been erased from the screen [2]. And the configurable hotkeys are very convenient for pane splitting, which I find to be more convenient than the leader-plus-command of tmux. I find the toolbelt window useful, and sometimes define snippets of long cumbersome commands where it isn't possible or maybe appropriate to define aliases on a remote host. For local tmux sessions, I like some of the features of the iTerm shell extensions, like jumping back to the points of previous commands entered, which helps navigate through large amounts of console output. Or the directory name picker based on frecency, which is useful for adding directory names when composing long commands or to jump to a directory when using Zsh (which lets you omit the 'cd' command).

[1] https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/Control-Mode

[2] https://iterm2.com/features.html

You can follow this guide to install Tmux on your system: Tmux Installation Guide

"Nvim 0.10 can now use the OSC 52 escape sequence to write to (or read from) the system clipboard."

This is a big deal! (it shouldn't be, but it is)

My main complaints about vim/emacs in the past was at the sheer complexity of getting something that should not even be a concern (clipboard integration) working properly, when other text/code editors did not have this problem at all.

Searching online, it seems like tmux has some nice documentation related to OSC 52 usage:

https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/Clipboard

I will be playing around with this for a bit to understand it more. But honestly, this is the sort of thing that should "Just Work TM".

"VTE terminals (GNOME terminal, XFCE terminal, Terminator) do not support the OSC 52 escape sequence."

https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/2495

That's a shame, but I'm not against using a different terminal emulator. Up until now I did not really have a good reason to.

kitty (Linux & Macos)

The "security" practices of kitty are dubious: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/pull/3544

This one is the straw that broke the camels back for me: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/4965

"Are you sure you want to close this window",

kitty (Linux & Macos)

Oh, this might be the missing piece of the puzzle for me to get rid of tmux!

I've been using screen/tmux for a long time. Recently I switched to kitty[0] locally. I like kitty a lot! But I've been stuck with tmux on my servers for session persistence.

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

Besides the usual Firefox/Chrome, Spotify, etc I use the following:

- Karabiner-Elements for key remapping, specifically, for making caps lock into ctrl/esc. I don't know of anything else that does this job. Everyone who remaps keys seems to use this.

- Kitty as my terminal of choice. I spend most of my time logged in remotely to a server via ssh where I attach to a tmux session. Kitty was easy enough to configure/theme and seems well-documented.

- Hammerspoon[2] for a DIY automation/keybinding/window management sys scriptable via lua. I use a private fork of this config: https://github.com/jasonrudolph/keyboard/tree/main

- Vivid[3] to make my macbook's screen brighter when outdoors on sunny days. This is important for me, since I try to spend as much time outside as possible.

[0] https://karabiner-elements.pqrs.org/

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

[2] https://www.hammerspoon.org/

[3] https://www.getvivid.app/

It's not like Goyal doesn't accept any patches [1].

I don't use kitty myself, but many people who do seem to love it. I've come around to feel that this is truly a maintainer's judgment call. After all, they are almost always stuck maintaining the code no matter who wrote it initially, and they know better than anyone else what code they're personally comfortable maintaining.

More generally, if you like a piece of software enough, you're implicitly trusting the maintainers' judgment. You're certainly not reviewing every single line of code they write to see if you agree with it.

The miserable survival rate of hostile forks also demonstrates that even if people care enough to fork over one issue, they rarely care enough to maintain the overall project long-term, despite implicitly asking the original maintainers to do the exact same thing.

[1] https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/graphs/contributors

My understanding is that kitty has an automatic (opt-out) update feature [0][1]. I don't really like the idea of a terminal doing that.

However I like the fact that kitty developer(s) actively improved the state of the terminal emulation with their new keyboard and graphic protocols [2].

[0] https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/issues/2481

[1] https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/pull/3544

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40378357

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)