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doc/faq: expand on "which terminal should I use?"

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Henrik Lissner 2020-08-07 19:52:51 -04:00
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@ -847,21 +847,27 @@ Looking for a terminal in Emacs? Doom offers four modules:
But which do you choose? But which do you choose?
+ =eshell= is the Emacs Lisp shell. It's stable, works anywhere Emacs runs (on + =eshell= is a shell completely implemented in Emacs Lisp. It's stable, works
any OS) and has no external dependencies, /but/ lacks features you'll expect anywhere Emacs runs (on any OS) and has no external dependencies, /but/ lacks
from mature shells and tends to be slower than them. features you'll expect from mature shells, tends to be slower than them, and
does not support command line tools with TUIs (e.g. curses, ncdu, nmtui, top,
etc).
+ =shell= is a shell /for/ your shell. Think of it like a REPL for bash/zsh, + =shell= is a shell /for/ your shell. Think of it like a REPL for bash/zsh,
rather than terminal emulation. Due to its simplicity, you're less likely to rather than a terminal emulator. Due to its simplicity, you're less likely to
encounter edge cases (e.g. against your shell config), but it has the smallest encounter edge cases (e.g. against your shell config), but it has the smallest
feature set. It also won't work with TUI programs like htop or vim. feature set. It also won't work with TUI programs like htop or vim.
+ =term= is Emacs' built-in terminal emulator. It's alright when it works, awful + =term= is Emacs' built-in terminal emulator. Term runs a shell and understand
when it doesn't. =vterm= is almost always a better option. many (but not all) terminal escape codes, so many TUI programs (like top or
+ =vterm= is as good as terminal emulation gets in Emacs atm, but has a few vim) will work. However, term's performance is inferior to standalone
extra steps to get going. a) Emacs must be built with dynamic modules support terminals, especially with large bursts of output.
and b) you'll need to compile vterm-module.so, which has external dependencies + =vterm= is as good as terminal emulation gets in Emacs (at the time of
(libvterm). It is automatically built when you first open =vterm=, but this writing), and is the most performant, as it is an external library written
will fail on Windows, NixOS and Guix out of the box -- you're on your own in C. However, it requires extra steps to set up. a) Emacs must be built with
there! dynamic modules support and b) you'll need to compile vterm-module.so, which
has external dependencies (libvterm). It is automatically built when you first
open =vterm=, but this will fail on Windows, NixOS and Guix out of the box.
Except for Windows, you'll find install instructions for nix/guix in [[file:../modules/term/vterm/README.org][the :term
vterm module's documentation]].
For a terminal in Emacs, =eshell= and =vterm= are generally the best options. For a terminal in Emacs, =eshell= and =vterm= are generally the best options.