Forking Chrome to render in a terminal (fathy.fr)

Article summary

The article discusses the creation of a fork of the Chrome browser, called Carbonyl, which renders web pages in a terminal. The project aims to enable browsing the web from a terminal, with features like rendering HTML to SVG and handling user input. The author describes the technical challenges and solutions involved in creating this fork. The result is a functional, albeit resource-intensive, terminal-based browser.

Main themes

• terminal browsing
• browser forks
• graphics protocols
• Unicode rendering
• automation and SSO
• performance and efficiency
• security and complexity
• existing projects and alternatives

What commenters say

• Some commenters see potential uses for the terminal browser in automation and accessing web services that require a browser, like Microsoft SSO.
• Others suggest that existing solutions, such as Kerberos, could be used instead of a terminal browser.
• The use of Unicode block glyphs to improve resolution in terminal rendering is discussed, with some arguing for its potential benefits.
• Different graphics protocols, such as SIXEL and the kitty protocol, are compared, with opinions on their ease of use and implementation varying.
• Some commenters express concerns about the complexity and security of certain protocols.
• The performance and efficiency of various terminal emulators and their graphics implementations are also discussed.
• A few commenters mention existing projects, like brow.sh, that offer similar functionality to the Carbonyl browser.