Cathode

I absolutely used to love this app, is this a dead project? Wanted to recommend it to clients I'm designing CLIs for- so fun!

Download reads 2.1.2 when title states 2.1.3.

One aspect of Cathode that could still definitely be improved is the "Environment". For starters, there appears to be a bug so any picture you drag to the Environment window is NOT saved/remembered the next time you open Cathode. (In the previous version, no picture other than the default one would appear at all.) But the main issue is to do with not being able to control the prominence of the background image, the 'reflection'. Basically, if you want to keep the screen fairly dark (transparency very low or zero), as I imagine many would, there is no way to make the "reflection" beneath more conspicuous. Unless you spoil the setting by cranking up the brightness which doesn't look nice. There ought to be some sort of more straightforward opacity control so that the user can have the image's visibility dialled up or down in prominence to taste, independent of "lighting" control. Also, and I've said it before so why not again, support for the following in future updates would be nice too: - Special characters (or at least some as would be supported in the regular Terminal) - Tabs (impure I know) and Vertical Split Panes - Window appears in the position you last had it (and probably always have it!) and not just that default center - If there can be reflections, perhaps there could be animated backgrounds (.qtz, .saver files etc)

The issue preventing smaller scale has been properly fixed in 1.8.0, which is good of the developer. Only other suggestions for future updates that come to mind would be: - tabs and split panes (and even perhaps some sort of slide drawer feature as in TotalTerminal), even though this may be considered by some as alien to the old school aesthetic of it - a way to have a screensaver / quartz composition of choice faintly in the background - have Cathode remember the last size and position of the Terminal you were working on rather than just defaulting to centre on every reopen - also, and I just noticed this, to have option of all effects in Cathode continuing even when another App has focus (at present it freezes these, i.e. flickering, blinking etc, when not in focus)

Another version - 1.7.0. I acknowledge the addition of a scale feature. But the minimum font size is still too big. It is still bigger than the font size one would set on a regular terminal. On my favourite font Viti particularly, there is only 10. And Font size = "10" in this case is is nothing like "10" on any other well-known Mac application, like TextEdit or the Finder or anything really. "10" in Cathode is much bigger. Yes you can make the font size HUGE now, with the scale feature, but why in practice would you want that to actually work with... so the same problem remains you can only make Viti, 10 smaller by increasing the border, curvature, which means sacrificing that space and defeating the benefit of the smallness... It would be so simple just to make the minimum font or scale smaller so don't really get the development difficulty here. Maybe eventually it's going to be addressed, hope so. Minimum setting of scale still too large to be optimal. Also, at risk of sounding impure of concept, tabs would be a cool feature.

Another update but update still doesn't fix the issue of the only way to get a font smaller is to make border bigger thereby losing the space you would have otherwise gained

Its a sweet thing as everyone says, but Dev, if you're reading, can we have *smaller* font sizes in the next update (like as in as small as the regular terminal)- really would make it more handy ! (Also perhaps an easier way to impose a very subtle faux-reflection image.)

Visually stunning. Only complaint (so far): it constantly uses around 28% CPU on my 2010 Core i7 MBP. Enough of a load to have the fan audibly ramp up, and the left rear corner get uncomfortably warm for regular (all day) usage. Can we cut back on the clock somehow? -HI-

This is a really fun toy! I can't say that I'm going to take the plunge to buy it, but it is a great novelty. Not as functional as I would need it to be to replace Terminal or iTerm, but great job guys nonetheless!

Great, simply great fun!

There is nothing like playing a shell game like Nethack or one of the Infocom emulators on an 80's style TTY emulator. GL Terminal was very good, but is now unsupported, and acts kind of wonky at times. It's wonderful to see this polished application. It has a wonderful set of controls to customize appearance -- all of the retro TTY goodness you desire is available. It's a fine price for a stable piece of software!