From 58904b7d9b781c9a7eb18183392b3a565fdbcd51 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Mitja Felicijan Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2023 23:26:39 +0200 Subject: Removed public folder --- ...g-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html | 191 --------------------- 1 file changed, 191 deletions(-) delete mode 100755 public/trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html (limited to 'public/trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html') diff --git a/public/trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html b/public/trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html deleted file mode 100755 index e670f3a..0000000 --- a/public/trying-to-build-a-new-kind-of-terminal-emulator.html +++ /dev/null @@ -1,191 +0,0 @@ -Trying to build a New kind of terminal emulator for the modern age

Trying to build a New kind of terminal emulator for the modern age

Jan 26, 2023

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 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 Operating system. More specifically -9FRONT. The way that ACME editor -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.

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.

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!
  • 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, 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 in order to achieve the -desired results. I had considered other options, but ultimately determined that -SDL2 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 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. 🙂

// Oh, Hi Mark!
-// Create the window, obviously.
-SDL_Window *window = SDL_CreateWindow(
-  WINDOW_TITLE, SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED, SDL_WINDOWPOS_UNDEFINED,
-  WINDOW_WIDTH, WINDOW_HEIGHT,
-  SDL_WINDOW_RESIZABLE | SDL_WINDOW_OPENGL | SDL_WINDOW_SHOWN);
-

I continued like this to get some text displayed on the screen.

I noted that -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 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.

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 and mroe about -pooling the events on -SDL_PollEvent.

while (SDL_PollEvent(&event) > 0)
-{
-  switch (event.type)
-  {
-  case SDL_QUIT:
-    running = false;
-    break;
-
-  case SDL_TEXTINPUT:
-    if (!meta_key_pressed)
-    {
-      strncat(input_prompt_text, event.text.text, 1);
-      update_input_prompt = true;
-    }
-    break;
-	}
-}
-

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.

typedef struct
-{
-  char *command;
-  char *result;
-  SDL_Surface *surface;
-  SDL_Texture *texture;
-  SDL_Rect rect;
-} 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 have also added a simple INI file like -configuration support. It is done in an -STB style of -header 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.

#ifndef CONFIG_H
-#define CONFIG_H
-
-/*
-# This is a comment
-
-# This is the first configuration option
-dettach=value11111
-
-# This is the second configuration option
-preview=value22222
-
-# This is the third configuration option
-debug=value33333
-*/
-
-// Define a struct to hold the configuration options
-typedef struct
-{
-    char dettach[256];
-    char preview[256];
-    char debug[256];
-} Config;
-
-// Read the configuration file and return the options as a struct
-extern Config read_config_file(const char *filename)
-{
-  // Create a struct to hold the configuration options
-  Config config = {0};
-
-  // Open the configuration file
-  FILE *file = fopen(filename, "r");
-
-  // Read each line from the file
-  char line[256];
-  while (fgets(line, sizeof(line), file))
-  {
-    // Check if this line is a comment or empty
-    if (line[0] == '#' || line[0] == '\n')
-      continue;
-
-    // Parse the line to get the option and value
-    char option[128], value[128];
-    if (sscanf(line, "%[^=]=%s", option, value) != 2)
-      continue;
-
-    // Set the value of the appropriate option in the config struct
-    if (strcmp(option, "dettach") == 0)
-    {
-      strncpy(config.option1, value, sizeof(config.option1));
-    }
-    else if (strcmp(option, "preview") == 0)
-    {
-      strncpy(config.option2, value, sizeof(config.option2));
-    }
-    else if (strcmp(option, "debug") == 0)
-    {
-      strncpy(config.option3, value, sizeof(config.option3));
-    }
-  }
-
-  // Close the configuration file
-  fclose(file);
-
-  // Return the configuration options
-  return config;
-}
-
-#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. 🕵️‍♂️

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