alt.hn

3/24/2026 at 4:57:47 PM

Show HN: Gridland: make terminal apps that also run in the browser

 https://www.gridland.io/

by rothific

3/25/2026 at 6:44:55 AM

This is really cool — the "try before install" problem is real for terminal apps.

I built a terminal collaboration tool and one of the hardest parts of getting my friends to try it is that they have to install a binary and set up tmux before they can even see what it looks like. A browser preview would completely change that.

Do you have plans for WebSocket support in the browser runtime? Would be interesting to see if real-time features (like live chat or presence indicators) could work in the browser version too.

by curious1008

3/24/2026 at 8:17:10 PM

I love this. It needs to exist because it's fun.

by kamens

3/24/2026 at 8:20:28 PM

Thank you! I'm glad you think so. It's all about fun.

by rothific

3/24/2026 at 11:17:13 PM

Very nice

Could I use OpenTUI Core with this?

I'd like to replace the hero at https://blisswriter.app with the actual app

by oDot

3/24/2026 at 11:26:44 PM

You should be able to. We forked OpenTUI in order to avoid having to shim a bunch of native stuff. I'd like to make it compatible - email me at hi@cjroth.com if you find a way or want any help making it work

by rothific

3/25/2026 at 2:28:34 AM

Thanks. Will be a while before I could give this a shot...

by oDot

3/24/2026 at 10:43:23 PM

Can I replace xterm.js with this?

by theturtletalks

3/24/2026 at 10:46:18 PM

Yes (if you're also down to use React)

by rothific

3/24/2026 at 10:59:28 PM

Cool I’ll try it out. I recently replaced xterm with Ghostty-web for my terminal in the browser app, but this looks even better. I’m using Next.js and I see you have an example.

by theturtletalks

3/24/2026 at 11:06:05 PM

Nice! I made a proof-of-concept of using Ink + Ghostty Web a few months back - we didn't end up merging it, but it's still an interesting thing that's possible. I think Ghostty Web is also has tons of potential.

https://github.com/cjroth/ink-web/pull/1

by rothific

3/25/2026 at 2:31:04 AM

> Gridland is the successor to Ink Web (ink-web.dev) which is the same concept, but using Ink + xterm.js. After building Ink Web, we continued experimenting and found that using OpenTUI and a canvas renderer performed better with less flickering and nearly instant load times.

Ah, I was wondering how this was different to xterm.js embedded in a page. It's just the performance angle? I've been teaching the kids programming from the terminal and I've been planning to make the jump from the terminal to a terminal in the browser as we hit graphical limitations (and as they want to be able to share their games). I'll take it for a spin.

(and if nothing else, I'm going to steal that ripple effect for them ;) )*

* obligatory https://xkcd.com/541/

by rablackburn

3/25/2026 at 2:36:36 AM

Yep, mainly performance - specifically page load time (near instant for Gridland vs ~2-3s for Ink Web). The other issue was flickering. Tbh rendering directly into a canvas is just a better approach and OpenTUI's architect is more modern.

I love that xkcd, I never know what to do, so I'll just ：）)

by rothific