Re: [dev] [st] Thoughts on kitty keyboard protocol

From: Страхиња Радић <contact_AT_strahinja.org>
Date: Sat, 22 May 2021 15:10:02 +0200

On 21/05/22 06:50, Tobias Bengfort wrote:
> https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/keyboard-protocol.html
>
> Basically it provides a way to send unambigous esc and other keys as well as
> key release events to terminal programs while being mostly backwards
> compatible.
>
> It sounds like a reasonable proposal to me. What do you make of it? Should
> this be implemented in st?

Speaking as (thus far) just a user of suckless programs and someone who supports
suckless philosophy, it comes down to: why should this protocol be supported?
There isn't a significant number of existing suckless programs that need
supporting this protocol, in fact I think that there are none. It is just a
proposal used by one terminal emulator and not regulated by any of the existing
standards bodies.

As for the terminal emulator kitty which is using it, it does include a number
of unnecessary features. Why would a terminal emulator need OpenGL? Its job is
to just allow terminal I/O. It should work on older hardware, and on systems
where OpenGL isn't or cannot be installed. But it seems to have grown a
following among people who generally like to use complicated software.

As far as the attitude of the developer behind it, I have seen examples of him
locking proposals or bug reports on kitty's Github page when they don't match
his vision, disregarding arguments. It might be irrelevant, but in the
hypothetical case of presenting that protocol to a standards body, maybe not.


Received on Sat May 22 2021 - 15:10:02 CEST

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