The full stack of terminals explained

Ahmad Awais

Most developers use a terminal for years before realizing they don’t actually know what a terminal is. They know how to use one. They couldn’t define one. This is fine, in the same way that most people drive cars without understanding combustion. But every so often, something breaks in a way that makes the distinction matter, and then you’re stuck. The terms “terminal,” “shell,” “tty,” and “console” get used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be, but the fact that they are tells you something interesting: these concepts are so tightly coupled in practice that generations of developers have gotten by without separating

The post The Full Stack of Terminals Explained: Terminal, Shell, TTY, Console, POSIX, ANSI Escapes, PTYs, Raw/Canonical Modes appeared first on Ahmad Awais by Ahmad Awais.