
A curated list of Terminal frameworks, plugins and resources - febin
https://github.com/k4m4/terminals-are-sexy
======
seanp2k2
Long-time bash guy, I used to use just git-bash-prompt + a few dozen aliases
and functions, but recently got some shell envy after seeing a coworker with
powerline on fish. I checked out ooh my fish and it was really hard to get it
to do what I wanted; things like saving a function (since aliases are defined
in one with ooh my fish) took a few hours to figure out because of how
homebrew installs fish on Mac. It was also overly difficult to get ^r rev
search working, $(foo) didn't work, the random one-liners I'd type didn't work
half the time with fish.

I switched to zsh + prezto with powerlevel9k (
[https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k](https://github.com/bhilburn/powerlevel9k)
) and within an hour, I had something awesome. Here's a guide on installing
it: [http://www.codeblocq.com/2016/09/Pimp-up-iTerm-with-Zsh-
and-...](http://www.codeblocq.com/2016/09/Pimp-up-iTerm-with-Zsh-and-prezto-
on-Mac-OS-X/) and I'd really really recommend powerlevel9k. Nothing against
fish, but after a few weeks, it was just too hard to unlearn all my
bashfulness, whereas in zsh it just works as it used to + had the extra
functionality I got with fish + now is even more awesome and useful thanks to
powerlevel9k.

~~~
hartator
What's bringing powerlevel9k that's not in oh my zsh?

By quickly glancing at it, it just seems to be a bloated theme with no extra
features.

~~~
jorvi
This. I used to have that setup (Prezto + Powerlevel9k) but in the end I
didn't want all sorts of needless config, and it still felt really heavy.
Plus, you actually rarely use anything in the framework.

Now I just use zsh + zplug (vim-plug like plugin manager) + pure zsh theme +
tiny zshrc. Fast as hell, tailor-made and no-nonsense. You can check it out
over here if you're interested:
[https://github.com/jorvi/dotfiles](https://github.com/jorvi/dotfiles)

------
gumby
I spend most of my time in Terminal (well in Emacs) and don't use much more
than I could have had on a AAA (Ann Arbor Ambassador 42x80 terminal). What am
I missing out on? This page doesn't say, just lists alternative terminals.

~~~
figgis
I spent a few minutes making as many mistakes in a terminal I could to give an
idea of what zsh can do. I'm not sure if it is what you are looking for but
hopefully it's helpful and if not oh well.

[https://asciinema.org/a/bbis1intm13ya7vw3jyk0a2rl](https://asciinema.org/a/bbis1intm13ya7vw3jyk0a2rl)

Note: anytime something odd happens and things pop up I pressed <TAB>

~~~
camel_Snake
I press tab in my zsh and it doesn't look nearly as nice. Is that specific to
the theme you have running or is it an extension?

~~~
figgis
By as nice do you mean the colors and font? If so I use oh-my-zsh as a base
config and build up from there.

[https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-
zsh/wiki/Themes](https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/wiki/Themes)

------
dedhed
I have been using MobaXterm for a while on Windows. I don't see it mentioned
very often in lists like this. It could probably fall under multiple headings
in this list.

[http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/](http://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/)

~~~
haldean
I went through so many terminal emulators on Windows, looking for one that
could handle SSHing to a Linux box and running tmux/vim/irssi inside the
session; MobaXterm was the only one I could find that could handle it. It's a
shame it isn't free software, but I can't find any free software on Windows
that does curses GUIs correctly.

------
WalterGR
I'd love to find a shell + terminal that's _aware of the semantics of shell
output_.

One nice thing about (good) GUI programs and websites is that 'results' are
quickly navigable. In a terminal, I'd love to be able to drill down into
results of ls; from grep output quickly open a file and jump to that match;
etc.

(Shell output can be in any format, but even if it could grok the output of
only specific programs/commands (and also their switches) that would be a
starting point.)

Does anything like this exist, for any platform? It seems like PowerShell
could be a good match, but I don't know anything about its ecosystem.

~~~
electricEmu
You're pretty much asking for PowerShell. I've been using it for a while,
which might jade my answer. That said, I've got it being installed on my Unix
systems as my one-true-shell.

You stream objects instead of text. The objects can be rich. It's a huge step
forward in semantics and consistency.

~~~
WalterGR
Is there terminal support though for navigating the resulting objects?

~~~
jstimpfle
Think what "navigating" should mean. If it's a vague, abstract thing which
could mean a million different things in practice, the answer is likely "no".

~~~
WalterGR
Well, I've given examples above of what I mean, so I think that one could
extrapolate that to other examples...

But to put it in more concrete terms:

Is there a shell + terminal that permits the user to interact with shell
output - in specific circumstances - whereby "interact" I mean:

* the ability to view additional properties (which are hidden by default) of objects represented in the output

* the ability to make a user-selected object the primary focus of investigation

* the ability to easily (think - right click, or keyboard commands to accomplish the same) expose verbs that can be activated on those objects, and additionally to choose one?

------
djsumdog
So many things wrong with this list. Fish stuff in the ZSH section, the
FreeBSD package manager in the Linux section, Cygwin is not a package manager
(you still need apt-cyg or sage to install things in Cygwin without rerunning
setup.exe) ...

Sometimes I see good stuff in these lists, but this author looked like they
didn't even really try.

~~~
thesmallestcat
The author clearly tried, there are something like 100 different links, and
it's BS to suggest that they didn't because there are some errors.

~~~
mixedCase
>The author clearly tried

...to cram as many links as possible for the recognition without putting the
effort into the curation that make these "Awesome" lists worth anything more
than a Google search.

------
jwilk
Does it mean that "awesome" is no longer cool and every curated list is going
to be "sexy" instead?

~~~
AceJohnny2
Because Awesome is overloaded: [https://awesomewm.org](https://awesomewm.org)

;)

------
potomak
That list is missing a section for terminal music players. I created one in
Haskell some time ago: [https://hackage.haskell.org/package/haskell-
player](https://hackage.haskell.org/package/haskell-player)

------
jevinskie
CRT (cool-retro-term) is a nice, free alternative to Cathode and runs on Linux
too.

[https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-
term](https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term)

------
therealidiot
Could do with adding Finch to the list under Communication

[https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch](https://developer.pidgin.im/wiki/Using%20Finch)

------
Anthony-G
I find it hard to take too seriously such a list if it doesn’t include GNU
Screen. A terminal multiplexer really enhances the experience of working in a
terminal. Even tmux only gets a cursory mention in the middle of other _Tools
and Plugins_.

It would make a lot more sense to give terminal multiplexers their own section
(even if there are only two entries) and explain the benefits of using a
terminal multiplexer.

------
bcg1
Tilda should not be left off the list.

[https://github.com/lanoxx/tilda](https://github.com/lanoxx/tilda)

~~~
jasonm23
Guake too [https://github.com/Guake/guake](https://github.com/Guake/guake)

------
jasonmorton
Anyone know if there is any terminal + server side piece that, like
terminology or iterm2, lets me inline plot in R, python over ssh? Linux or
mac.

~~~
daleroberts
If you are running a Mac for your desktop (with iTerm2) and ssh'ing into a
Linux machine. These work if you run them remotely as the image gets
transferred through the SSH session:

[https://github.com/daleroberts/itermplot](https://github.com/daleroberts/itermplot)

[https://github.com/daleroberts/bv](https://github.com/daleroberts/bv)

Alternatively, for any other terminal emulator with Unicode 9.0 font support
and true color support, you can use:

[https://github.com/daleroberts/tv](https://github.com/daleroberts/tv)

This even includes Windows (using patched PuTTY) and remotely running 'tv' on
a Linux machine.

~~~
jasonmorton
Thank you, I will try these. I was looking at your repo but couldn't tell if
it would work remotely.

------
navs
While technically not a terminal client, Blink is a mosh supported ssh
application for iOS.

[http://www.blink.sh/](http://www.blink.sh/)

Open source so if you've got yourself an Apple Developer account you can build
and run it yourself.

------
mastazi
For Windows, I think Git Bash/MSYS2 are worth mentioning as well.

~~~
electricEmu
Those should both be superseded by PowerShell for anything realistic on
Windows.

~~~
mastazi
I like PowerShell (lately I like it a lot), but MSYS2's use case is slightly
different. The latter, unlike the former, gives you a minimalistic POSIX layer
in Windows.

------
mikejmoffitt
Is there still no way to make iTerm2 refresh faster? When doing quick
scrolling or output, it's so noticeably choppy compared to Terminal.app, or
even Xterm.

~~~
codezero
Do you use any advanced features like triggers/alerts with captured output?

I found that a regex I was using to pop a notif was slowing iTerm2 down big
time, removed it, and it feels much better now.

~~~
mikejmoffitt
Zero. I use iTerm2 when I have to use a Mac, where I act as though it's Xterm.
This is just out of the box behavior. Older versions had an adjustable refresh
rate slider.

------
tbrake
Interesting not to see csh/tcsh there. I'm out of the loop when it comes to
these things; is it pretty much dead? Did bash 'win'?

~~~
tambourine_man
I still have a soft spot for tcsh for historical reasons, but yes, bash pretty
much won.

Specially now with Microsoft's Bash on Windows

------
Pete_D
I would add rxvt-unicode to the terminals list. Its client/server model makes
opening new terminals practically instant.

------
kitd
Good to see Cmder mentioned for Windows. Does everything I need and looks
great.

~~~
Deinumite
My only complaint is that it often explodes when using vim or pagination
certain files over SSH.

Also ctrl+w by default in cmder closes the tab instead of the bash equivalent,
I always have to unbind it.

------
TurboHaskal
FreeBSD's pkg is listed under Linux.

~~~
stuaxo
Probably worth opening an issue.

------
NeverTrump
nice list except git is not a shell and powershell is not a terminal emulator
:)

~~~
seanp2k2
And fish isn't for zsh :)

~~~
dozzie
You know, zsh without fish is like fish without a bike.

------
e5an
No mention of fizsh?

