Solo Screen
Dev tools
terminal rendering library
SHOW HN2025
196points
85comments
#337of 3,837 in 2025
Top 9%of 2025 by points
How HN took it
CuriousMostly questions and neutral comments
2 positive, 10 neutral or asking, 0 mixed, 8 critical, out of 20 comments about the project. Thread score -0.21.
Idea: 1 for, 3 againstDesign: 0 for, 1 against
The thread, comment by comment
Each row is a top-level comment and its replies, in HN's order. Select a cell to open that comment on HN.
positive neutral or mixed critical about another commenter or something else the maker
What HN said
What people liked
Useful for testing terminal script output visually
From 2 comments
Oh, interesting! I started a very similar project probably ten years ago and just never got it to a very usable state. My idea at the time was based in wanting to be able to…
donatj on HNCheck out the ComparesVisually trait! (It's described in the readme too) It takes some text, outputs it to iTerm and takes a screenshot. Then it takes the same output, runs it…
aarondf on HN
Objections
Name collides with GNU screen terminal multiplexer
From 3 comments
Nice, but your terminal app has a name collision with the long lived ''screen'' terminal multiplexer utility: https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html
cf100clunk on HNscript kiddies are now going to have high-fidelity shells with 256 colors for when they pwn you and get root on your godaddy drupal install sidenote: screen is a terrible name…
whalesalad on HN> Most commenters didn't understand any of that nuance and got hung up on a surface level thing that didn't really matter. It was clear to me that the suggestion didn't apply in…
jmholla on HN
Not really a terminal emulator but a renderer
From 3 comments
Commendable work but note that this is not a terminal emulator. This is a terminal renderer.
throwaway150 on HNI don't think you can call this a terminal emulator then.
jmholla on HNPerhaps something along the lines of an "ANSI terminal renderer library"? I think "render" helps suggest that it's handling the display but that the library consumer still has to…
electroly on HN
Maker's dismissive replies to critics
From 2 comments
I'm curious how you came to the conclusion that naming it 'screen' was the best thing for your project? It's unusual to see so many negative comments on a new project…
adminm on HN> Most commenters didn't understand any of that nuance and got hung up on a surface level thing that didn't really matter. It was clear to me that the suggestion didn't apply in…
jmholla on HN
Requests
Add a screenshot or video to the README
From 1 comment
Kudos to you for taking all the heat and handling it gracefully. Perhaps adding a screenshot or video to the README.md showing what it does could help people understand it better.
goshx on HN
Questions
Does it render to plain text or styled HTML?
From 1 comment
Does it render to plain text or styled HTML? Not quite clear from the readme.
MrBuddyCasino on HN
Alternatives named
GNU Screen
From 2 comments
script kiddies are now going to have high-fidelity shells with 256 colors for when they pwn you and get root on your godaddy drupal install sidenote: screen is a terrible name…
whalesalad on HNNice, but your terminal app has a name collision with the long lived ''screen'' terminal multiplexer utility: https://www.gnu.org/software/screen/manual/screen.html
cf100clunk on HN
tmux
From 1 comment
> Most commenters didn't understand any of that nuance and got hung up on a surface level thing that didn't really matter. It was clear to me that the suggestion didn't apply in…
jmholla on HN