xterm.js VS refterm

Here is a screenshot: https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/pull/4519#issue-17129655...

I'm on the VS Code team and maintain xterm.js which is what Hyper's frontend is based on. There are actually multiple developments happening in this area.

First, there's a contribution from the author of DomTerm which adds grapheme cluster support to xterm.js, which will correctly merge and size things like emoji that are called out in the post. This is currently based on Unicode 15. See https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/pull/4519

Second, while Windows Terminal does seem to work with emoji sometimes, it doesn't all the time. I'm not 100% sure, but I think it may only work on Windows ptys, not in WSL for example. Last time I spoke with the team they said they're working on a rewrite which could lead to proper emoji support.

Ooh, I lack the time to play with this, but I think someone could compile the lib to WebAssembly and tie it in to https://xtermjs.org/

Then you could have a web page with static DOM elements that do this effect!

xterm is a JavaScript library that provides a web-based terminal emulator with ANSI escape sequences, Unicode characters, and other features. It is easy to use and customize, making it a popular choice for adding a terminal interface to web applications.

Setting scrollback to infinite? #518

The simpler path would be starting the WASM port using Emacs character mode running alongside an in-browser terminal emulator such as XTerm.js.

refterm, a terminal emulator proof of concept.

> licensing it so that they couldn’t even look at it

https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm/blob/main/LICENSE

It’s just GPL 2.0, what are you talking about!?

Are Microsoft employees vampires that will burn up instantly if they merely glance at GPL code or something?

This is sour grapes nonsense from Microsoft. “We don’t like your tone so we won’t even dignify your argument by considering it.”

At one point an MS employee said they would love to fix their code as suggested by Casey but he refused to even look at the YouTube video!

“I would love to hear your arguments but I refuse to listen to the sound of your voice.” is next-level dismissive.

You might also find https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm interesting.

Casey Muratori made a renderer/terminal a short while back. Might be a good reference of you intend to go that route. https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm

You keep complaining that it's not a fully working terminal. Casey, on the other hand, writes here: [1]

> These features are not designed to be comprehensive, since this is only meant to be a reference renderer, not a complete terminal.

[1] https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm#feature-support

After that post they did implement a full reference implementation:

https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm/commits/main

And there is movement in getting changes into the terminal itself:

https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/issues/10461

For a basic example of why you would want GPU acceleration, have a look at refterm: https://github.com/cmuratori/refterm

Even processes that you wouldn't think would be impacted by a terminal can be hurt relaly bad by your terminal's performance: your compiler's logs, etc. The GPU rendering part merely guarantees that your terminal sticks at 60FPS (or, whatever your refresh rate is) if the processing behind is efficient.