The terminal is on life support. Is it worth saving?
This post introduces Warp, a new Rust-based terminal we have been working on over the past year. Warp keeps what’s best about the terminal while making it more modern, accessible, and powerful for all developers.
Why doesn’t the terminal work like the rest of your apps? Developer tools have evolved towards reusability, composability, and collaboration. Meanwhile, terminals are inherently single-user, linear, and ephemeral.
For instance:
– Developers work in teams, but terminals don’t support collaboration
– Developers rely on sharing knowledge, but all my terminal work disappears every time I close a sessin
– Developers work across machines, but my terminal environment is tethered to my computer
– Developers are becoming accustomed to nice interfaces, but the terminal inflicts pain and makes me feel like an idiot when I try to do moderately complicated things
In spite of these obvious shortcomings, terminals persist!
A lot of developers swear by them. And I understand why: if you know what you’re doing, the terminal’s text-based interface is fast, efficient, composable, and programmable. Terminals are awesome power tools.
