Comment by thiht

1 year ago

My number 1 issue with iTerm is that it doesn’t have a usable, plain text configuration format. I want to be able to configure my tools in plain text AND in a UI. iTerm forces me to use the UI (or import a config file, but it’s not very practical).

Wezterm apparently uses Lua so it will likely never have a UI. I don’t understand why a config file would ever need programming constructs, give me JSON or YAML, not Lua.

It sounds like Ghostty will scratch my itch.

2 comments

thiht

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xintron  1 year ago

A good reason for Lua would be the example at the bottom of this page: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/launch.html#the-launch...

Custom settings depending on the environment you're in, here setting up PowerShell on windows only. Allowing the same flexibility through JSON/YAML would not be as easy and simple.

  • thiht  1 year ago

    I don't know, IMO it would be better solved by profiles, environment specific settings (eg. settings.json + settings.windows.json), or override keys, eg:

        {
      "font": "xxx",
      "[windows]": { // windows overrides
        "font": xxx
      }
    }

    I know using a full fledged programming language is infinitely more flexible, but I'm not sure a config needing infinite flexibility is a sign of good design.

    If they want to stick with Lua I think they should allow both: write your config in JSON for the 99% of config that is easy, and allow to modify and return an updated config in Lua. TBH I just downloaded Wezterm a few minutes ago and got bored just wanting to add a Cmd+K shortcut to clear the buffer.