Mitchell Hashimoto

Like if someone's building a graphical interface today, nine out of 10 times, probably more than nine out of 10 times, they're using a web technology, whether it's actually in the browser or electron or whatever it is. And, I think there's still a good place for text-based interfaces. And the terminal has always been the place for text-based interfaces.

Like if someone's building a graphical interface today, nine out of 10 times, probably more than nine out of 10 times, they're using a web technology, whether it's actually in the browser or electron or whatever it is. And, I think there's still a good place for text-based interfaces. And the terminal has always been the place for text-based interfaces.

And sometimes the terminal lives in a browser, you know, if you're using like a web-based text editor and stuff. But I think that if you look at web browsers, they get hundreds, maybe like a couple hundred if you're being conservative, new features and innovations every year. And if you look at a terminal, they get I don't know, keep probably count on a couple of hands, how many they get per year.

And sometimes the terminal lives in a browser, you know, if you're using like a web-based text editor and stuff. But I think that if you look at web browsers, they get hundreds, maybe like a couple hundred if you're being conservative, new features and innovations every year. And if you look at a terminal, they get I don't know, keep probably count on a couple of hands, how many they get per year.

And I just don't think it's a very exciting, innovative platform for developers. And I, I just sort of wondering like what happens if you do make it exciting, like, or does it become exciting? I don't know. And, and to me, the worst case, if it doesn't become exciting is we still use terminals every day. So at the very least, I think you've built a better terminal. So.

And I just don't think it's a very exciting, innovative platform for developers. And I, I just sort of wondering like what happens if you do make it exciting, like, or does it become exciting? I don't know. And, and to me, the worst case, if it doesn't become exciting is we still use terminals every day. So at the very least, I think you've built a better terminal. So.

Yeah. So what I like to say, especially for the 1.0 release, what I'm trying to do is build a terminal that is the best, what I call existing terminal. I'm not trying to innovate too much on what a terminal can do. I'm just trying to make what terminals historically have done a very, very good experience.

Yeah. So what I like to say, especially for the 1.0 release, what I'm trying to do is build a terminal that is the best, what I call existing terminal. I'm not trying to innovate too much on what a terminal can do. I'm just trying to make what terminals historically have done a very, very good experience.

And the way I'm sort of carving out what makes Ghosty different for now and what, if any of these are important to you, I think you would find a lot of joy in using Ghosty is I'm trying to build something that's fast and cross-platform and fast.

And the way I'm sort of carving out what makes Ghosty different for now and what, if any of these are important to you, I think you would find a lot of joy in using Ghosty is I'm trying to build something that's fast and cross-platform and fast.

native and the ands in there are important because there's a lot of terminals out there that are fast or, or native or, or cross platform or, but there's, I felt that I couldn't find one that anded all three of those properties. And Ghosty does that, in my opinion. I mean, that's what I set out to do. And so it's fast. And when I say fast, I'm not trying to say it's the fastest.

native and the ands in there are important because there's a lot of terminals out there that are fast or, or native or, or cross platform or, but there's, I felt that I couldn't find one that anded all three of those properties. And Ghosty does that, in my opinion. I mean, that's what I set out to do. And so it's fast. And when I say fast, I'm not trying to say it's the fastest.

Depending on the benchmark, sometimes it's the fastest. Sometimes it's number two. But importantly, it's very, very close to the fastest. And I don't think you could ever argue it's not fast to say that. Cross-platform, it works for launch. It'll work on Mac and Linux. And native on Mac, it's a native Mac application using Swift UI. The UI is written in Swift on Linux.

Depending on the benchmark, sometimes it's the fastest. Sometimes it's number two. But importantly, it's very, very close to the fastest. And I don't think you could ever argue it's not fast to say that. Cross-platform, it works for launch. It'll work on Mac and Linux. And native on Mac, it's a native Mac application using Swift UI. The UI is written in Swift on Linux.

There's no real definition of native, but it's a GTK based application. And it'll feel, you know, the way I describe it on Linux is if you use Alacrity or Kitty or West term or something, you'll immediately notice the difference between that and ghosty in terms of how it integrates with your desktop environment.

There's no real definition of native, but it's a GTK based application. And it'll feel, you know, the way I describe it on Linux is if you use Alacrity or Kitty or West term or something, you'll immediately notice the difference between that and ghosty in terms of how it integrates with your desktop environment.

That's a great question because actually when people say this terminal or that terminal is fast or slow, it actually really frustrates me because it's so complicated how you define that because fast doesn't mean anything if you just say fast, unless you're saying in every category possible, which no terminal is. And so, yeah, there's a few ways people tend to define fast.

That's a great question because actually when people say this terminal or that terminal is fast or slow, it actually really frustrates me because it's so complicated how you define that because fast doesn't mean anything if you just say fast, unless you're saying in every category possible, which no terminal is. And so, yeah, there's a few ways people tend to define fast.

One of the ways is simply how fast it could read data. files, how fast text can go through your terminal. Some people say that's a useless metric. I think it's super important because tailing logs or accidentally catting a file is stuff we do all the time. And another one is something we call input latency.

One of the ways is simply how fast it could read data. files, how fast text can go through your terminal. Some people say that's a useless metric. I think it's super important because tailing logs or accidentally catting a file is stuff we do all the time. And another one is something we call input latency.