From 43b0708769eb61392050045b881f8e6ba39c5b66 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mitja Felicijan Date: Fri, 26 May 2023 00:40:40 +0200 Subject: Massive update to posts, archetypes Added a archetypes for creating notes and posts so it auto-populates fields. Fixed existing posts so they align with the rule of 80 columns now. --- ...ing-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md | 140 ++++++++++++++++----- 1 file changed, 107 insertions(+), 33 deletions(-) (limited to 'content/posts/2023-01-26-trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.md') 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. 🕵️‍♂️ + -- cgit v1.2.3