now that i think about it, i'm pretty sure an e-ink display would actually make a pretty decent computer terminal, given sufficient integration with the software stack? if one interpreted the raw teletype commands, and only refreshed the part of the display that corresponded to changing characters, the user experience might not actually be terrible; certainly better than just using one as a monitor, at least.
honestly, if such a device existed, i might probably use it, if only as an emacs box that might be easier on the eyes than my current setup. losing access to color would suck, but i already run emacs in terminal mode,
wait, i wonder if anyone's actually done this? jailbreaking an old kindle isn't that hard, and then one ends up with an SoC and battery hooked up to an e-ink display and already running a linux-adjacent OS. alternately, there's android E-ink devices, which can probably just run termux.
no, but all these solutions are built under the framework of drawing images to a screen, and then updating the display to fit the screen, as opposed to the piecemeal, per-character updating that is a better fit to the constraints of electronic ink. i don't know how good the software is in regards to making up for this; the refresh rates might be worse than a custom solution would be.
but does that matter? probably. but is it enough to make it not worth it, especially for an assertive typer who is used to navigating intense ssh lag? i don't know. there's a world where all this works almost out-of-the-box and exceeds my expectations. there's a world where it sucks and there's nothing i can do about it without learning way too much about firmware.
in the end, this is probably one of those things i will never quite get around to trying, alas. the chances that i will have to do a substantial amount of custom work to get it all to a spot that i am happy with are high, and the benefits are unfortunately not quite enough to merit them. ah well