forked from pool/zutty
48100e372a
Version update to 0.16 OBS-URL: https://build.opensuse.org/request/show/1183502 OBS-URL: https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/X11:terminals/zutty?expand=0&rev=11
239 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
239 lines
11 KiB
Markdown
[](https://raw.githubusercontent.com/tomscii/zutty/master/icons/zutty_128x128.png)
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What you never thought you'd need to know about Zutty
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### Q: What operating systems does Zutty run on?
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**A**: Zutty is primarily developed and extensively tested on Linux,
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and (to a lesser extent) on OpenBSD.
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Zutty is portable: provided that necessary prerequisites are present,
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it builds from source and runs without the need for any code fixes or
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configuration changes on default installs of recent stable versions
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of FreeBSD and OpenBSD.
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Zutty will probably work on other UNIX-like systems as well; making
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the necessary (small) adjustments is left as an exercise to interested
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users. If you have a patch to make Zutty run somewhere not listed
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above, I want to hear from you!
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If you use Windows or MacOS, I'm afraid Zutty is not going to be
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useful for you. I have no interest to work on making Zutty available
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on closed source, proprietary operating systems.
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### Q: I compiled Zutty successfully but the program cannot start, why is that?
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I am getting an error like this:
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E [charvdev.cc:181] Error: Compiling fragment shader:
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0:1(10): error: GLSL ES 3.10 is not supported. Supported versions are: 1.00 ES, and 3.00 ES
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**A**: Your graphics hardware or driver is not sufficient, you need
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support for GLSL ES 3.1 or better.
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The actual support level of the OpenGL (ES) implementation is only
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detectable at runtime, i.e., having the right EGL and GLES libraries
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to compile with (which is what the configure script is able to check)
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does not guarantee that the OpenGL implementation supports the
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required level at runtime. Note that compiling and running a dedicated
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test program as part of the configure phase would not solve this: the
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Zutty binary can be packaged, distributed and run on other machines
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with different graphics hardware (or the hardware of the same machine
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could be changed).
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You could buy hardware that has sufficient support; the SBC on which I
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primarily run Zutty set me back the equivalent of about $50.
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Alternatively, see the next question.
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### Q: Can I use Zutty without supported graphics hardware?
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**A**: Yes. If you can tolerate higher resource usage (primarily CPU
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usage), you could try the `llvmpipe` software renderer. Note that you
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need a sufficiently recent version that includes support for compute
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shaders. Mesa 20.2.6 (present in Debian Bullseye) is ok. Please note
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that using Zutty with such a setup is experimental and be prepared for
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subpar performance.
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### Q: Font XYZ does not load in Zutty or looks crappy, what should I do?
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**A**: As a preliminary note: Zutty does work perfectly fine with a
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wide range of fonts, both fixed and scalable, loadable from several
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font file formats (see
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[Screenshots](https://github.com/tomscii/zutty/wiki/Screenshots)). However,
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fonts are a highly diverse bunch, so this does not mean that any
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random font you found on the 'net will magically work! I personally
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have all the fonts I could ever want, so if you insist on using a font
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that does not work with Zutty out of the box, *it is on you to do the
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extra work to make that happen*. Please keep this in mind.
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Now to the specifics. If you get an error message like this:
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E [fontpack.cc:218] Error: No Regular variant of the requested font 'Cozette' could be identified.
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In that case, Zutty is telling you that the [font file selection
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process](https://tomscii.sig7.se/zutty/doc/USAGE.html#Font%20selection)
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did not succeed in identifying a suitable font file. Please carefully
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read and understand the
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[documentation](https://tomscii.sig7.se/zutty/doc/USAGE.html#Making%20fonts%20discoverable)
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on how you might make it work.
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In case of certain filename endings (extensions) not recognized by
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Zutty, you might have to add them to the filter in `src/fontpack.cc`
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(search for `.pcf.gz` in `fontFileFilter`) and recompile. Then get
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ready to debug all sorts of weird issues related to this new format.
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You are on your own.
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On the other hand, Zutty might have started up, having found suitably
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named font files, but you feel that the font rendering is off, for
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example all letters are "stuck to the ceiling" or overly wide, have
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wide gaps in between, or rendered with some such distortion. It is up
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to you to debug why it does not work like all the fonts that do. You
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have the source code of Zutty and all dependencies, so *please do not
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expect me to do it for you!*
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If you don't have the time to do that, don't know C++, don't know how
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to debug, or have any other lame excuse, please do yourself a favour
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and use some of the well documented font alternatives [known to
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work](https://tomscii.sig7.se/zutty/doc/USAGE.html#Recommended%20fonts)
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with Zutty.
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*Do not submit bug reports* in the Zutty issue tracker unless you have
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a well understood font loading or rendering issue due to an actual,
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demonstrable bug in Zutty. Tickets amounting to "Font XYZ does not
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work" will be closed with a reference to this FAQ item.
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### Q: What about Wayland?
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**A**: Zutty has been written (in the year 2020) against plain Xlib.
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Yeah, *I know*. That said, according to user reports, Zutty works fine
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with XWayland, so just install `xorg-xwayland` (if you haven't
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already) and you should be good to go!
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### Q: Why would I try (or care about) Zutty? There are lots of terminal emulators, how is Zutty better than others?
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**A**: Zutty is not necessarily better than any other program. I do
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not have "world domination" on my TODO list, so you are free to ignore
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Zutty and use another program.
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That said, I believe Zutty has a number of interesting properties. It
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is a terminal with accurate VT support, high performance, low latency,
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a small codebase and is potentially compatible with a wide array of
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contemporary graphics hardware. This combination is, as far as I am
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aware, a unique proposition. You might be interested in my articles
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that add substance to these claims,
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[here](https://tomscii.sig7.se/2020/12/A-totally-biased-comparison-of-Zutty)
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and
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[here](https://tomscii.sig7.se/2021/01/Typing-latency-of-Zutty).
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### Q: Why would I *not* want to use Zutty?
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**A**: Lots of reasons! If you want any of these, Zutty is not for
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you, and will probably remain so in the future:
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- availability on MacOS or Windows
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- transparent backgrounds
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- scrollbar, menu bar, interactive configuration, etc.
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- ligatures
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- right-to-left text
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- curvy underlines and similar fancy markup
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- bitmap images (SIXEL, ReGIS, ...)
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- overriding certain symbols / picking and mixing from different fonts
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On the other hand, certain features are missing, but only due to the
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very limited time I can spend working on Zutty. For details, see the
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[README](https://tomscii.sig7.se/zutty/README.html#Omissions%20and%20limitations).
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### Q: Can I subscribe to announcements of new versions? Is there a mailing list?
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**A**: There is no mailing list, but you can keep track of changes to
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Zutty by subscribing to one of the Atom feeds provided by GitHub.
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Here's one for
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[releases](https://github.com/tomscii/zutty/releases.atom) and
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another for
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[commits](https://github.com/tomscii/zutty/commits/master.atom),
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depending on your level of interest.
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### Q: I don't have a GitHub account, can I collaborate with you on Zutty?
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**A**: You are free to send me bug reports, patches, or just general
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correspondence via e-mail (but please see the next few questions to
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set your expectations). Please use my email address in the latest
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published commit. I am perfectly fine with this more traditional kind
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of open-source collaboration, which used to be the standard before
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GitHub (and similar sites) got popular.
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### Q: Can I donate / sponsor / pay you to support the development of Zutty? Can I incentivize work on certain bugs or features?
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**A**: No, you cannot do that. This is by intention, to preserve my
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intellectual freedom and independence, and to ensure that Zutty
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remains what it is: a hobby project. I want to be able to say no to
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(or ignore) any request, from any person -- having accepted payments
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from someone would possibly make this awkward.
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### Q: As a user, how can I help you with Zutty?
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**A**: First of all, thank you for your interest in Zutty. If you run
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into issues, or have ideas on how to meaningfully improve Zutty, you
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are welcome to *collaborate* (investing a share of your own time and
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mental resources, as opposed to just demanding a slice of mine) to
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understand and solve the problem, or discuss a possible improvement.
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When asking for an enhancement or new feature, please motivate why you
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think it's important (for you, at least) and please cite prior art
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(what other terminals are out there already supporting it? what do the
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relevant standards say? etc).
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I appreciate well thought-out, well written, clear feedback on what
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could be better, as well as high quality bug reports, and I try hard
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to respond to all such correspondence. Pro tip: I am not a robot. It
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helps a lot if you contact me in a friendly way, with some basic
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courtesy and respect.
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### Q: As a developer, how can I help you with Zutty?
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**A**: First of all, thank you for your interest in improving Zutty.
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To be honest, I am not overly interested in receiving unsolicited
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patches or pull requests, unless you have a clear fix to an actual
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(demonstrable) bug. In general, if you have ideas for improvement,
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try to convey them without coding them up -- try to put them into well
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readable, concise English prose instead! If you found a bug, send me a
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high quality report with all the necessary details (and your analysis,
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if any) so I can easily reproduce and fix it. If you want to send a
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patch with your proposed fix, that's fine, but absolutely not a
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requirement!
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If you do want to contribute code, make sure you have read the
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[Contribution guide](https://tomscii.sig7.se/zutty/doc/HACKING.html#Contribution%20guide),
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and please note that my standards for accepting code for inclusion are
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*very* high. Your PR will be, in all likelihood, completely rewritten
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or ignored.
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### Q: How do I correctly pronounce Zutty? What does it mean?
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**A**: The IPA notation is `[zuːc̟]`. I'm afraid you won't be able to
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pronounce that, unless you happen to natively speak a
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[language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hungarian_phonology#Consonants)
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featuring the
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[voiceless palatal plosive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiceless_palatal_plosive).
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If you decide to try, make sure to go for the alveolo-palatal variant.
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Hint: Zutty does *not* rhyme with *kitty* (or how English-speaking
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people commonly pronounce PuTTY).
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The word *zutty* itself is an
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[onomatopoetic](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Onomatopoeia)
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interjection in the Hungarian language, similar in its meaning to the
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English *whoops* in referring to some sudden, quick action, but
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lacking the element of (often negative) surprise. This fairly obscure
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word is borrowed to stand for *zero-cost unicode teletype*.
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