I'm ditching Alacritty. Here's why

The speaker, a long-time user of the El Laity terminal, decides to switch to the Kitty terminal emulator due to its superior features, particularly its ability to render images within the terminal. Kitty, built on Rust, offers GPU acceleration for better performance, supports emojis, font ligatures, and has an easy configuration system. The speaker highlights the ease of theme customization using Kitty's "kittens" framework and successfully replicates their El Laity setup in Kitty. The killer feature prompting the switch is Kitty's terminal graphics protocol, which allows for image previews in the terminal, enhancing usability with tools like the Yazi file manager.

• Overview of terminal emulators and their importance in computing.
• Personal experience with terminal emulators, specifically El laity.
• Introduction to Kitty as an alternative terminal emulator.

"I have something to say I've been a proud El laity user for some time now it's been easy to configure it's built on Rust by the way and it just kind of gets out of my way and it does whatever I want it to do without really too much fuss."

• El laity is user-friendly, configurable, and built on Rust.
• The speaker appreciates its simplicity and functionality.

• Despite its advantages, El laity lacks certain features.
• Comparison with another terminal file manager, Yazzi, highlighting a missing feature in El laity.

"But recently I've been using a program a terminal file manager called Yazzi and there's been one feature that's just missing in El laity like nowhere to be found and it's present in another terminal emulator."

• Yazzi offers a feature not available in El laity.
• This missing feature prompts the search for an alternative terminal emulator.

• Decision to switch from El laity to Kitty due to the missing feature.
• Initial impressions and challenges with Kitty.

"So I'm ditching El laity for something else that something else is Kitty meow but there's just one problem my Kitty configuration looks like garbage."

• Kitty is chosen as the new terminal emulator.
• Initial configuration of Kitty is unsatisfactory in appearance.

• Kitty's unique selling points and advantages over other terminal emulators.
• Utilizes GPU for rendering, enhancing performance.
• Out-of-the-box features including emojis, font ligatures, and superior font rendering.

"Well it's a terminal emulator and it claims to be a very fast terminal emulator because it bases a lot of its computation on the GPU of your machine right so it uses the GPU to render text and to do other things and it's supposed to be much more performant than any other terminal emulator that's out there or at least most of the other ones."

• Kitty uses GPU for text rendering, promising better performance.
• Claims to be faster and more efficient than most terminal emulators.

"Now Kitty comes with a lot of cool things out of the box like emojis font ligatures really great font rendering in general and it's easy to install."

• Kitty includes features like emojis, font ligatures, and excellent font rendering.
• Installation process is straightforward.

• Step-by-step installation process using Pac-Man or Yay.
• Initial setup and configuration challenges.

"So for me I can just use Pac-Man or Yay which is the A helper I'm using for Pac-Man and I can install Kitty just like that and there you go Kitty is installed it's as easy as that and so now I can open up Kitty no problem but there's just one issue it looks like crap out of the box."

• Installation via Pac-Man or Yay is simple and quick.
• Default appearance of Kitty is not appealing, necessitating further configuration.

• Goal to configure Kitty to resemble the speaker's customized El laity setup.
• Importance of aesthetic and functional consistency between terminal emulators.

"So I want to now make my configuration for Kitty look just like my configuration for El laity and then I want to go over the amazing killer feature that has me switching from my beautiful El laity terminal to Kitty."

• Desire to replicate El laity's configuration in Kitty.
• Intention to showcase the specific feature that motivated the switch.

• Kitty's scripting framework, 'kittens': Kitty offers a powerful scripting framework called kittens, which allows users to create scripts and features that leverage Kitty's underlying APIs.
• Built-in commands: Kitty comes with several built-in commands accessible via the 'kitten' command.
• Color theme configuration using 'kitten theme': Users can search and select color themes using the 'kitten theme' command, making it easy to switch themes.

"Kitty has the most amazing framework for creating scripts and creating other features that can take advantage of some of Kitty's underlying APIs, and that framework is called kittens."

• Explanation: Kitty's 'kittens' framework is highlighted as a powerful tool for creating scripts and features that utilize Kitty's APIs.

"If you just open up Kitty and type kitten you can see that there's already a lot of commands built in."

• Explanation: The 'kitten' command provides access to a variety of built-in commands within Kitty.

"One of my favorite ones and the first one we're going to be using here to change our configuration for our color theme is going to be kitten theme."

• Explanation: The 'kitten theme' command is used to change the color theme configuration in Kitty.

"You can search for the color theme that you want with Slash and I can type my favorite color scheme which is Capuchin of course."

• Explanation: Users can search for their preferred color theme by typing a keyword after initiating a search with the slash (/) command.

"I hit enter to complete my search I can go up and down using Vim motions and what do you know kuchin mocha is right here so I hit enter to select it."

• Explanation: The process of selecting a theme involves using Vim motions to navigate the list and hitting enter to select the desired theme.

"For this screen I would like to modify my kitty.conf to load Capuchin mocha cool let's do that I hit M to modify and look at that my theme is already the same as my elac theme it's already looking amazing."

• Explanation: After selecting the theme, users can modify their kitty.conf file to load the new theme, making it visually consistent with other configurations.

"Kitty has the easiest way to switch your themes out of the box for any terminal emulator that I've used personally."

• Explanation: The ease of switching themes in Kitty is praised, highlighting its user-friendly approach compared to other terminal emulators.

• Initial Setup:
  • Kitty directory contains current_theme.com and kitty.com files.
  • These files are auto-generated during setup.

"er the kitty directory we can see that there's a current theme.com and a kitty.com file this was generated for us if we check out the kitty.com file really quick we can see that it includes the current theme. comp"

• The initial setup includes essential configuration files for the Kitty terminal.

• Font Configuration:

  • Change the font in Kitty configuration to match the font in another terminal emulator (El laity).
  • Aim for parity between different terminal emulators for a consistent user experience.

"so the next thing we want to do here is actually change our font in our kitty configuration to match what we have in El laity that'll give us better parity between our two terminal emulators"

• Matching fonts across terminal emulators ensures a uniform look and feel.

• Kitty Documentation:

  • Kitty's documentation provides clear instructions on specifying font families.
  • Options include specifying bold, italic, and bold italic fonts.

"now you can see in the amazing Kitty documentation all we have to do is specify a font family and we could specify bold metallic or bold metallic fonts whatever we want to do"

• The documentation is comprehensive and user-friendly, facilitating easy customization.

• Font Family Specification:

  • Use the same font family in Kitty as in El laity: meslo LGS nerd font mono.
  • Include configurations for bold, italic, and bold italic fonts.

"for our font family we could just type font family space and we want meslo LGS nerd font mono that is what we have in our lacity configuration and that's what we're going to have in our kitty configuration"

• Ensuring the same font family across terminal emulators enhances visual consistency.

• Configuration Process:

  • Copy font settings line by line from El laity to Kitty configuration.
  • Use example configurations from Kitty documentation to simplify the process.

"we can kind of copy this line by line and just match the same format that kitty wants for its configuration"

"so we can see that we can specify a bold font an italic font and a bold italic font from Kitty in our configuration so now let's go back to our configuration and let's just paste in the example that we see here just to make it a little bit easier"

• Following a step-by-step approach ensures accuracy in configuration.

• Finalizing Configuration:

  • Save the changes and restart Kitty to apply the new font settings.
  • Verify that the font looks as expected.

"so let's quit this and then exit and then now let's reopen Kitty and yes it looks like our font is amazing we have meslo LGS nerd font that is the same font that we have in elak"

• Restarting Kitty after configuration changes is necessary to apply the new settings.
• Verifying the font ensures that the changes have been implemented correctly.

These notes cover the primary themes and steps discussed in the transcript, focusing on the configuration of the Kitty terminal emulator, particularly the font settings to ensure consistency with another terminal emulator, El laity.

• Both Kitty and Alacritty have similar configuration setups.
• The ease of configuration is a shared feature between both terminal emulators.

"Configuration looks almost the exact same same as El laity actually it looks exactly the exact same amazing so with just a few lines of configuration we can get parity between Kitty and El La."

• The configuration process in Kitty mirrors that of Alacritty, making it straightforward for users familiar with Alacritty to switch.

• Both terminal emulators are user-friendly in terms of configuration.
• The simplicity of changing settings is not the primary reason for switching to Kitty.

"Kitty's already really easy to work with that's great now of course I'm not switching to Kitty just because it's easy to change my color scheme and because the configuration is easy to work with I mean El LA's configuration is also easy to work with."

• The speaker emphasizes that while both terminals are easy to configure, this is not the main reason for choosing Kitty over Alacritty.

• Kitty supports image rendering in the terminal out of the box.
• Alacritty does not support image rendering natively, requiring additional steps or tools.

"There was one killer feature of Kitty that is the reason I'm switching to Kitty over lacity let me show it off this is actually my alacrity terminal emulator and if I open up yazzi which is a fantastic file manager for the terminal if I open it up in yazzi I want to scroll down to some of my images but I'm not getting any previews why am I not getting any previews well that's because yai doesn't support image rendering in the terminal out of the box but guess what does that's right Kitty does."

• The ability to render images directly in the terminal is highlighted as a significant advantage of Kitty, particularly for users who need to view images without leaving the terminal environment.

• Kitty provides performance improvements through GPU acceleration.
• It supports advanced graphics, font ligatures, and emojis out of the box.

"Kitty out of the box uses a terminal Graphics protocol to draw images in the terminal so if I were to exit out of my lacr and then open Kitty if I run yazzi in Kitty and then scroll down to some of my images look at this I get image rendering in Kitty by default out of the box Kitty is amazing."

• The speaker demonstrates how Kitty excels in rendering images and mentions additional graphical features that enhance the user experience.

• The combination of image rendering, GPU acceleration, and enhanced graphics makes Kitty a superior choice.
• The speaker decides to switch to Kitty for these reasons.

"So if you package together the image rendering along with all the performance improvements using the GPU acceleration the great graphics the great amazing font ligatures that are supported out of the box and emojis that makes Kitty a wonderful terminal and that's why I'm going to use it from this point forward easy to work with shows images in the terminal allows me to use Yai in the terminal without feeling like an idiot for not seeing my images it's perfect."

• The decision to switch to Kitty is based on its comprehensive features that cater to both performance and usability needs.