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Is there somewhere we can view the feature roadmap for this? Will iTerm2 support ligatures at some point in the future? I'm also interested in future performanc

by dbz 8y ago

Is there somewhere we can view the feature roadmap for this? Will iTerm2 support ligatures at some point in the future? I'm also interested in future performance enhancements, and a comparison to terminal.

empath75 8y ago
It supports them now. I use fira code.
- mynameisvlad 8y ago
  Per the article, the Metal 2 renderer doesn't support ligatures, transparency, and a few other nice-to-haves.
  - danielvf 8y ago
    The original asker asked, "Will iTerm2 support ligatures at some point in the future?", so it was indeed a helpful answer to know that it does support ligatures.
    - mynameisvlad 8y ago
      I mean, within the context of this thread, it's pretty obvious the original question is asking whether ligatures would be supported in the Metal renderer, since it's explicitly listed as something not supported in the article, and since the asker is asking for the "feature roadmap for this".
memco 8y ago
Yeah, I’m wondering about this too. I like transparent windows and font ligatures so as much excitement as I have about this, I won’t be able to use it unless these limitations can be eliminated. I’ll keep using iTerm regardless, but it would be nice to see the benefits become available for my setup as I do notice the performance issues.
coldtea 8y ago
I'd just disable them. Speed and lighterweight (on CPU) rendering are more important that ligatures and transparency, which are both gimmicky features.
- bostonvaulter2 8y ago
  I disagree that ligatures are gimmicky in a general sense, but they definitely don't seem necessary for a terminal window. And doubly so if they impact performance.
  - inferiorhuman 8y ago
    Ligatures are great in a terminal with the right font. For example Fira Code does some nice things with ligatures for not-equal, 0x, rockets, etc.
- Klathmon 8y ago
  And it sounds like they wouldn't, and that their priorities are different than yours.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    I believe in an external world, where not everything is a matter of personal "priority", but certain things are objectively more significant than others. And I might be wrong, but in that world, ligatures and transparent terminals are not really as important as rendering speed, latency, and/or less CPU load for a terminal emulator. In fact, even where available, ligatures are a fringe option, adopted by very few people. (I'm always talking about programming editors. Though even in print, their main domain, they're hardly mainstream these days).
    - daveFNbuck 8y ago
      I'm never bothered by iTerm2 being too slow or using too much CPU. Using transparency for my tmux profile makes it easier to tell whether the tab I've switched to is a local or remote session. Seeing coding ligatures makes me happy. Why is the thing I don't notice objectively more important than my convenience and happiness?
gnachman 8y ago
There is no official feature roadmap, but here's the current plan: 3.2.x will be focused on rendering improvements. The full change log is here: https://iterm2.com/appcasts/testing_changes3.txt https://iterm2.com/appcasts/testing_changes3.txt 3.3, which is currently under development, is adding a Python scripting API (https://iterm2.com/python-api/ https://iterm2.com/python-api/) and fixing tab and window titles to make sense, plus adding a status bar. Feature requests that are candidates for 3.4 are here: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/milestones/8 https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/milestones/8 If you have something in mind file an issue. Y'all are my PMs. There is already support for ligatures (prefs>profiles>text>enable ligatures). The Metal renderer does not support them because that's an extra level of complexity I can't handle in the first release. It would require constructing CTLineRefs which is already the slowest part of drawing. Subpixel antialiasing also makes this really difficult, but since that's going away in Mojave I'll revisit it. Future performance enhancements that I have in mind are: - Faster tokenization (including revisiting SIMD) - Mojave-specific optimizations (removing subpixel AA and its knock-on consequences) - Move per-frame setup work into a compute shader. This is tricky because some people have CPUs that are relatively faster than their GPUs (thanks Intel!) - Reuse the preceding frame's rendered texture when updating less than a full frame - Move work off the main thread where possible
- cseelus 8y ago
  Thanks for the infos and of course all your hard word, iTerm2 is an awesome piece of software. Looking forward to Mojave dropping support for subpixel-antialiasing and maybe iTerm supporting Ligatures with the new drawing engine someday.

by dbz 8y ago

empath75 8y ago

It supports them now. I use fira code.

mynameisvlad 8y ago
Per the article, the Metal 2 renderer doesn't support ligatures, transparency, and a few other nice-to-haves.
- danielvf 8y ago
  The original asker asked, "Will iTerm2 support ligatures at some point in the future?", so it was indeed a helpful answer to know that it does support ligatures.
  - mynameisvlad 8y ago
    I mean, within the context of this thread, it's pretty obvious the original question is asking whether ligatures would be supported in the Metal renderer, since it's explicitly listed as something not supported in the article, and since the asker is asking for the "feature roadmap for this".

memco 8y ago

Yeah, I’m wondering about this too. I like transparent windows and font ligatures so as much excitement as I have about this, I won’t be able to use it unless these limitations can be eliminated. I’ll keep using iTerm regardless, but it would be nice to see the benefits become available for my setup as I do notice the performance issues.

coldtea 8y ago

I'd just disable them. Speed and lighterweight (on CPU) rendering are more important that ligatures and transparency, which are both gimmicky features.

bostonvaulter2 8y ago
I disagree that ligatures are gimmicky in a general sense, but they definitely don't seem necessary for a terminal window. And doubly so if they impact performance.
- inferiorhuman 8y ago
  Ligatures are great in a terminal with the right font. For example Fira Code does some nice things with ligatures for not-equal, 0x, rockets, etc.
Klathmon 8y ago
And it sounds like they wouldn't, and that their priorities are different than yours.
- coldtea 8y ago
  I believe in an external world, where not everything is a matter of personal "priority", but certain things are objectively more significant than others. And I might be wrong, but in that world, ligatures and transparent terminals are not really as important as rendering speed, latency, and/or less CPU load for a terminal emulator. In fact, even where available, ligatures are a fringe option, adopted by very few people. (I'm always talking about programming editors. Though even in print, their main domain, they're hardly mainstream these days).
  - daveFNbuck 8y ago
    I'm never bothered by iTerm2 being too slow or using too much CPU. Using transparency for my tmux profile makes it easier to tell whether the tab I've switched to is a local or remote session. Seeing coding ligatures makes me happy. Why is the thing I don't notice objectively more important than my convenience and happiness?

gnachman 8y ago

There is no official feature roadmap, but here's the current plan: 3.2.x will be focused on rendering improvements. The full change log is here: https://iterm2.com/appcasts/testing_changes3.txt https://iterm2.com/appcasts/testing_changes3.txt 3.3, which is currently under development, is adding a Python scripting API (https://iterm2.com/python-api/ https://iterm2.com/python-api/) and fixing tab and window titles to make sense, plus adding a status bar. Feature requests that are candidates for 3.4 are here: https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/milestones/8 https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/milestones/8 If you have something in mind file an issue. Y'all are my PMs. There is already support for ligatures (prefs>profiles>text>enable ligatures). The Metal renderer does not support them because that's an extra level of complexity I can't handle in the first release. It would require constructing CTLineRefs which is already the slowest part of drawing. Subpixel antialiasing also makes this really difficult, but since that's going away in Mojave I'll revisit it. Future performance enhancements that I have in mind are: - Faster tokenization (including revisiting SIMD) - Mojave-specific optimizations (removing subpixel AA and its knock-on consequences) - Move per-frame setup work into a compute shader. This is tricky because some people have CPUs that are relatively faster than their GPUs (thanks Intel!) - Reuse the preceding frame's rendered texture when updating less than a full frame - Move work off the main thread where possible

cseelus 8y ago
Thanks for the infos and of course all your hard word, iTerm2 is an awesome piece of software. Looking forward to Mojave dropping support for subpixel-antialiasing and maybe iTerm supporting Ligatures with the new drawing engine someday.