A fast shell setup
A fast programmer lives in their shell. It’s so powerful, there’s almost no reason to leave it. So, it’s important to have a fast setup. Here’s mine:
Fast Terminal: Xterm
Despite a bunch of new terminals in the past few years, ancient xterm remains the fastest.
It’s really, really fast with a mean 1.7ms of latency. 1.7ms is instant. Instant feels amazing. At first, it’s a bit jolting to have such a responsive experience. Your brain shuts off expecting to wait. But, xterm is already done. With time, your brain will adjust to the speed and the instant feedback becomes a rush. Xterm feels like a tool molded into your hand. At some point, even an extension of yourself. It works exactly the way you expect and want. Everything a tool should be.
The new terminals like Alactritty and gnome-terminal have much worse latency, 10-20ms. With this latency, your brain falls asleep. You don’t get the same dopamine rush when you have to wait. 10. ms. For. A. Character. To. Show. Up.