1 files changed, 107 insertions, 33 deletions

diff --git a/content/posts/2023-01-26-trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md b/content/posts/2023-01-26-trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md
index 03fcc59..4ec307f 100644
--- a/content/posts/2023-01-26-trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md
+++ b/content/posts/2023-01-26-trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md
@@ -1,15 +1,36 @@
 ---
 title: Trying to build a New kind of terminal emulator for the modern age
 url: trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html
-date: 2023-01-26
+date: 2023-01-26T12:00:00+02:00
 draft: false
 ---
 
-Over the past few weeks, I have been really thinking about terminal emulators, how we interact with computers, the separation of text-based programs and GUI ones. To be perfectly honest, I got pissed off one evening when I was cleaning up files on my computer. Normally, I go into console and do `ncdu` and check where the junk is. Then I start deleting stuff. Without any discrimination, usually. But when it comes to screenshots, I have learned that it's good to keep them somewhere near if I need to refer to something that I was doing. I am an avid screenshot taker. So at that point I checked Pictures folder and also did a basic search `find . -type f -name "*.jpg"` for all the JPEG files in my home directory and immediately got pissed off. Why can’t I see thumbnails in my terminal? I know why, but why in the year of 2022 this is still a problem. I am used to traversing my disk via terminal. I am faster, and I am more comfortable this way. But when it comes to visualization, I then need to revert to GUI applications and again find the same file to see it. I know that programs like `feh` and `sxiv` are available, but I would just like to see the preview. Like [Jupyter notebook](https://jupyter.org/) or something similar. Just having it inline. Part of a result.
-
-It also didn’t help that I was spending some time with the [Plan 9](https://plan9.io/plan9/) Operating system. More specifically [9FRONT](http://9front.org/). The way that [ACME editor](http://acme.cat-v.org/) handles text editing is just wonderful. Different and fresh somehow, even though it’s super old.
-
-So, I went on a lookout for an interesting way of visualizing results of some query. I found these applications to be outstanding examples of how not to be a captive of a predetermined way of doing things.
+Over the past few weeks, I have been really thinking about terminal emulators, 
+how we interact with computers, the separation of text-based programs and GUI
+ones. To be perfectly honest, I got pissed off one evening when I was cleaning 
+up files on my computer. Normally, I go into console and do `ncdu` and check 
+where the junk is. Then I start deleting stuff. Without any discrimination, 
+usually. But when it comes to screenshots, I have learned that it's good to 
+keep them somewhere near if I need to refer to something that I was doing. I 
+am an avid screenshot taker. So at that point I checked Pictures folder and 
+also did a basic search `find . -type f -name "*.jpg"` for all the JPEG files 
+in my home directory and immediately got pissed off. Why can’t I see thumbnails 
+in my terminal? I know why, but why in the year of 2022 this is still a 
+problem. I am used to traversing my disk via terminal. I am faster, and I am 
+more comfortable this way. But when it comes to visualization, I then need to 
+revert to GUI applications and again find the same file to see it. I know that 
+programs like `feh` and `sxiv` are available, but I would just like to see the 
+preview. Like [Jupyter notebook](https://jupyter.org/) or something similar. 
+Just having it inline. Part of a result.
+
+It also didn’t help that I was spending some time with the [Plan 9](https://plan9.io/plan9/) 
+Operating system. More specifically [9FRONT](http://9front.org/). The way 
+that [ACME editor](http://acme.cat-v.org/) handles text editing is just 
+wonderful. Different and fresh somehow, even though it’s super old.
+
+So, I went on a lookout for an interesting way of visualizing results of some 
+query. I found these applications to be outstanding examples of how not to be 
+a captive of a predetermined way of doing things.
 
 - [Wolfram Mathematica](https://www.wolfram.com/mathematica/)
 - [Jupyter notebooks](https://jupyter.org/)
@@ -17,29 +38,57 @@ So, I went on a lookout for an interesting way of visualizing results of some qu
 - [Temple OS](https://templeos.org/)
 - [Emacs](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/)
 
-My idea is not as out there as ACME is, but it is a spin on the terminal emulators. I like the modes that Vi/Vim provides you with. I like the way the Emacs does its own `M-x` `M-c`.  Furthermore, I really like how Mathematica and Jupyter present the data in a free flowing form. And I love how Temple OS is basically a C interpreter on some level.
+My idea is not as out there as ACME is, but it is a spin on the terminal 
+emulators. I like the modes that Vi/Vim provides you with. I like the way 
+the Emacs does its own `M-x` `M-c`.  Furthermore, I really like how Mathematica 
+and Jupyter present the data in a free flowing form. And I love how Temple OS 
+is basically a C interpreter on some level.
 
-> **Note:** This is part 1 of the journey. Nowhere finished yet. I am just tinkering with this at the moment. This whole thing can easily spectacularly fail.
-> 
+> **Note:** This is part 1 of the journey. Nowhere finished yet. I am just 
+> tinkering with this at the moment. This whole thing can easily spectacularly 
+> fail.
 
-So I started. I knew that I wanted to have the couple of modes, but I didn’t like the repetition of keystrokes, so the only option was to have some sort of toggle and indicate to the user that they are in a special mode. Like Vi does for Normal and Visual mode.
+So I started. I knew that I wanted to have the couple of modes, but I didn’t 
+like the repetition of keystrokes, so the only option was to have some sort of 
+toggle and indicate to the user that they are in a special mode. Like Vi does 
+for Normal and Visual mode.
 
 These modes would for the first version be:
 
 - *Preview mode* (toggle with Ctrl + P)
-    - When this mode would be enabled, the `ls` command would try to find images from the results and display thumbnails from them in the terminal itself. No ASCII art. Proper images. In a grid!
+    - When this mode would be enabled, the `ls` command would try to find images 
+    from the results and display thumbnails from them in the terminal itself. 
+    No ASCII art. Proper images. In a grid!
 - *Detach mode* (toggle with Ctrl + D)
-    - When this mode would be enabled, every command would open a new window and execute that command in it. This would be useful for starting `htop` in a separate window.
-
-The reason for having these modes togglable is to not ask for previews every time. You enable a mode and until you disable it, it behaves that way. Purely out of ergonomic reasons.
-
-I would like to treat every terminal I open as a session mentally. When I start using the terminal, I start digging deeper into the issue I am trying to resolve. And while I am doing this, I would like to open detached windows etc. A lot of these things can be done easily with something like [i3](https://i3wm.org/), but also that pull you out of the context of what you were doing. I would like to orchestrate everything from one single point.
-
-In planning for this project, I knew that I would need to use a language like C and a library such as [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) in order to achieve the desired results. I had considered other options, but ultimately determined that [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) was the best fit based on its capabilities and reputation in the programming community.
-
-At first, I thought the idea of a hardware accelerated terminal was a bit of a joke. It seemed like such a niche and unnecessary feature, especially given the fact that terminal emulators have been around for decades and have always relied on software rendering. But to be fair, [Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/) is doing the same thing. Well, they are doing a remarkable job at it.
-
-So, I embarked on a journey. Everything has to start somewhere. For me, it started with creating a window! It has to start somewhere. 🙂
+    - When this mode would be enabled, every command would open a new window 
+    and execute that command in it. This would be useful for starting `htop` 
+    in a separate window.
+
+The reason for having these modes togglable is to not ask for previews every 
+time. You enable a mode and until you disable it, it behaves that way. 
+Purely out of ergonomic reasons.
+
+I would like to treat every terminal I open as a session mentally. When I start 
+using the terminal, I start digging deeper into the issue I am trying to resolve. 
+And while I am doing this, I would like to open detached windows etc. A lot of 
+these things can be done easily with something like [i3](https://i3wm.org/), 
+but also that pull you out of the context of what you were doing. I would 
+like to orchestrate everything from one single point.
+
+In planning for this project, I knew that I would need to use a language like 
+C and a library such as [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) in order to achieve 
+the desired results. I had considered other options, but ultimately determined 
+that [SDL2](https://www.libsdl.org/) was the best fit based on its capabilities 
+and reputation in the programming community.
+
+At first, I thought the idea of a hardware accelerated terminal was a bit of 
+a joke. It seemed like such a niche and unnecessary feature, especially given 
+the fact that terminal emulators have been around for decades and have always 
+relied on software rendering. But to be fair, [Alacritty](https://alacritty.org/) 
+is doing the same thing. Well, they are doing a remarkable job at it.
+
+So, I embarked on a journey. Everything has to start somewhere. For me, it 
+started with creating a window! It has to start somewhere. 🙂
 
 ```c
 // Oh, Hi Mark!
@@ -52,13 +101,28 @@ SDL_Window *window = SDL_CreateWindow(
 
 I continued like this to get some text displayed on the screen.
 
-I noted that [`TTF_RenderText_Solid`](https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_ttf/TTF_RenderText_Solid) rendered text really poorly. There were no antialiasing at all. In my wisdom, I never checked the documentation. Well, that was a fail. To uneducated like me: `TTF_RenderText_Solid` renders Latin1 text at fast quality to a new 8-bit surface. So, that's why the texts looked like shit. No wonder.
-
-Remarks on `TTF_RenderText_Solid`: This function will allocate a new 8-bit, palettized surface. The surface's 0 pixel will be the colorkey, giving a transparent background. The 1 pixel will be set to the text color.
-
-After I replaced it with [`TTF_RenderText_LCD`](https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_ttf/TTF_RenderText_LCD) which renders Latin1 text at LCD subpixel quality to a new ARGB surface, the text started looking good. Really make sure you read the documentation. It’s actually good. As a side note, you can find all the documentation regarding [SDL2 on their Wiki](https://wiki.libsdl.org/).
-
-After that was done, I started working on displaying other things like `Preview` and `Detach` modes. This wasn’t really that hard. In SDL2 you can check all the available events with `while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) > 0)` and have a bunch of switch statements to determine which key is currently being pressed. More about keys, [SDLKey](https://documentation.help/SDL/sdlkey.html) and mroe about pooling the events on [SDL_PollEvent](https://documentation.help/SDL/sdlpollevent.html).
+I noted that [`TTF_RenderText_Solid`](https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_ttf/TTF_RenderText_Solid) 
+rendered text really poorly. There were no antialiasing at all. In my wisdom, 
+I never checked the documentation. Well, that was a fail. To uneducated like 
+me: `TTF_RenderText_Solid` renders Latin1 text at fast quality to a new 8-bit 
+surface. So, that's why the texts looked like shit. No wonder.
+
+Remarks on `TTF_RenderText_Solid`: This function will allocate a new 8-bit, 
+palettized surface. The surface's 0 pixel will be the colorkey, giving a 
+transparent background. The 1 pixel will be set to the text color.
+
+After I replaced it with [`TTF_RenderText_LCD`](https://wiki.libsdl.org/SDL_ttf/TTF_RenderText_LCD) 
+which renders Latin1 text at LCD subpixel quality to a new ARGB surface, the 
+text started looking good. Really make sure you read the documentation. It’s 
+actually good. As a side note, you can find all the documentation regarding 
+[SDL2 on their Wiki](https://wiki.libsdl.org/).
+
+After that was done, I started working on displaying other things like 
+`Preview` and `Detach` modes. This wasn’t really that hard. In SDL2 you can 
+check all the available events with `while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) > 0)` and 
+have a bunch of switch statements to determine which key is currently being 
+pressed. More about keys, [SDLKey](https://documentation.help/SDL/sdlkey.html) 
+and mroe about pooling the events on [SDL_PollEvent](https://documentation.help/SDL/sdlpollevent.html).
 
 ```c
 while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) > 0)
@@ -80,7 +144,9 @@ while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) > 0)
 }
 ```
 
-After that was somewhat working correctly, I started creating a struct that would hold all the commands and results and I call them Cells. Yes, I stole that naming idea from Jupyter.
+After that was somewhat working correctly, I started creating a struct that 
+would hold all the commands and results and I call them Cells. Yes, I stole 
+that naming idea from Jupyter.
 
 ```c
 typedef struct
@@ -93,9 +159,13 @@ typedef struct
 } Cell;
 ```
 
-I am at a place now where I am starting to implement scrolling. This will for sure be fun to code. Memory management in C is super easy. 😂
+I am at a place now where I am starting to implement scrolling. This will for 
+sure be fun to code. Memory management in C is super easy. 😂
 
-I have also added a simple [INI file like configuration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file) support. It is done in an [STB style of header](https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt) and maps to specific options supported by the terminal. It is not universal, and the code below demonstrates how I will use it in the future. 
+I have also added a simple [INI file like configuration](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/INI_file) 
+support. It is done in an [STB style of header](https://github.com/nothings/stb/blob/master/docs/stb_howto.txt) 
+and maps to specific options supported by the terminal. It is not universal, 
+and the code below demonstrates how I will use it in the future. 
 
 ```c
 #ifndef CONFIG_H
@@ -169,4 +239,8 @@ extern Config read_config_file(const char *filename)
 #endif
 ```
 
-This is as far as I managed to get for now. I have a daily job and this prohibits me to work on these things full time. But I should probably get back and finish this. At least have a simple version working out, so I can start testing it on my machines. Fingers crossed. 🕵️‍♂️
\ No newline at end of file
+This is as far as I managed to get for now. I have a daily job and this 
+prohibits me to work on these things full time. But I should probably get 
+back and finish this. At least have a simple version working out, so I can 
+start testing it on my machines. Fingers crossed. 🕵️‍♂️
+