Introducing Windows Terminal
Windows Terminal is a new, modern, fast, efficient, powerful and productive terminal application for users of command line tools and shells, such as Command Prompt, PowerShell and WSL.
Windows Terminal will be shipped through the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 and will be updated regularly, ensuring that you will always keep up with the times and will be able to use the latest features and the latest improvements with minimal effort.
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You asked, and we heard! The most frequently requested feature for the terminal is support for multiple tabs, and we are very pleased that we were finally able to provide this feature. Now you can open any number of tabs, each of which is connected to a command line shell or an application of your choice, for example, Command Prompt, PowerShell, Ubuntu on WSL, Raspberry Pi via SSH, etc.
The Windows Terminal uses GPU-accelerated DirectWrite / DirectX based text rendering engine. This new text rendering engine will display text characters, glyphs and characters present in fonts on your PC, including CJK ideographs, emoji, powerline symbols, icons, programming ligatures, etc. This engine even renders text much faster than the previous engine GDI console!
You will also have the opportunity to use our new font! We wanted to create a fun, new, monospaced font to enhance the modern look and feel of the terminal. This font will not only include programming ligatures, but will also have its own Open-Source repository. Stay tuned for more information about the new font project!
We have contacted many command line users who like to customize their terminals and command line applications. Windows Terminal provides many settings and configuration options that give a lot of control over the appearance of the terminal and each of the shells / profiles that can be opened as new tabs. Settings are stored in a structured text file, which simplifies configuration for users and / or tools.
Using the terminal configuration mechanism, you can create several “profiles” for each shell / application / tool you want to use, be it PowerShell, Command Prompt, Ubuntu, or even SSH connections to Azure or IoT devices. These profiles can have your own combination of font styles and sizes, color themes, background blur / transparency levels, etc. You can now create your own terminal in your own style, which is personalized to your unique taste!
After the release of Windows Terminal 1.0, we plan to start working with many features that are already in our backlog, in addition to many features that you, as a community, are likely to add!
To date, Windows Terminal and Windows Console are available in Open-Source, so you can already clone, build, run, and test the code from the repository on GitHub:
github.com/Microsoft/Terminal
Also, this summer, a preview version of Windows Terminal will be released for pioneers and providing feedback on Microsoft Store.
And in the winter we are planning to finally release Windows Terminal 1.0, and we will work with the community to make sure that it is fully ready before we release!
[Happy Joy Gif - Giphy]
Yes it is! We are pleased to announce that we are opening not only Windows Terminal, but also the Windows Console, which contains the command line infrastructure on Windows and provides the traditional Console UX.
We can’t wait to work with you on improving and expanding the Windows command line!
The main goal of the Windows Console is to maintain backward compatibility with existing command line tools, scripts, etc. Although we managed to add many key improvements to the console functionality (for example, add support for VT and 24-bit color, etc., see this blog post ), we cannot make further significant improvements to the console UI without “breaking the peace”.
Therefore, it is time for a new, fresh approach.
Windows Terminal installs and works with an existing Windows Console application. If you directly launch Cmd / PowerShell / AV, they will start connecting to the traditional console instance just as usual. Thus, backward compatibility remains unchanged, and at the same time you can use Windows Terminal if / when you want to do it. The Windows Console will continue to ship to Windows for decades to support existing / outdated applications and systems.
We carefully studied this option during planning and decided that our participation in an existing project would require a change in the requirements and architecture of the project in such a way that it would be too destructive.
Instead, by creating a new Open-Source terminal application and the Open-Source Windows Console, we can offer the community to work with us to improve the code and use it in their respective projects.
We believe that there is enough space on the market for new / different ideas about what the terminal can and should do, and we are trying to help the ecosystem of terminal (and related) applications to thrive and grow through the introduction of new ideas, interesting approaches and exciting innovations in this space.
Visit the repository at github.com/Microsoft/Terminal to clone, build, test and launch a terminal! In addition, we would be grateful if you would report bugs and share feedback with us and the community, as well as correct problems and make improvements to GitHub.
This summer, try installing and running Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store. If you encounter any errors, share your feedback via the Feedback Hub or the Issues section on GitHub, which is intended for questions and discussions.
We are glad to work with you! If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact Kayla @cinnamon_msft and / or Rich @richturn_ms on Twitter. We can not wait to see what wonderful improvements and features you bring to the Windows Terminal and the Windows Console.
Windows Terminal will be shipped through the Microsoft Store in Windows 10 and will be updated regularly, ensuring that you will always keep up with the times and will be able to use the latest features and the latest improvements with minimal effort.
')
Key features of Windows Terminal
Multiple tabs
You asked, and we heard! The most frequently requested feature for the terminal is support for multiple tabs, and we are very pleased that we were finally able to provide this feature. Now you can open any number of tabs, each of which is connected to a command line shell or an application of your choice, for example, Command Prompt, PowerShell, Ubuntu on WSL, Raspberry Pi via SSH, etc.
Beautiful text
The Windows Terminal uses GPU-accelerated DirectWrite / DirectX based text rendering engine. This new text rendering engine will display text characters, glyphs and characters present in fonts on your PC, including CJK ideographs, emoji, powerline symbols, icons, programming ligatures, etc. This engine even renders text much faster than the previous engine GDI console!
You will also have the opportunity to use our new font! We wanted to create a fun, new, monospaced font to enhance the modern look and feel of the terminal. This font will not only include programming ligatures, but will also have its own Open-Source repository. Stay tuned for more information about the new font project!
Settings and configurability
We have contacted many command line users who like to customize their terminals and command line applications. Windows Terminal provides many settings and configuration options that give a lot of control over the appearance of the terminal and each of the shells / profiles that can be opened as new tabs. Settings are stored in a structured text file, which simplifies configuration for users and / or tools.
Using the terminal configuration mechanism, you can create several “profiles” for each shell / application / tool you want to use, be it PowerShell, Command Prompt, Ubuntu, or even SSH connections to Azure or IoT devices. These profiles can have your own combination of font styles and sizes, color themes, background blur / transparency levels, etc. You can now create your own terminal in your own style, which is personalized to your unique taste!
More!
After the release of Windows Terminal 1.0, we plan to start working with many features that are already in our backlog, in addition to many features that you, as a community, are likely to add!
When can I get it?
To date, Windows Terminal and Windows Console are available in Open-Source, so you can already clone, build, run, and test the code from the repository on GitHub:
github.com/Microsoft/Terminal
Also, this summer, a preview version of Windows Terminal will be released for pioneers and providing feedback on Microsoft Store.
And in the winter we are planning to finally release Windows Terminal 1.0, and we will work with the community to make sure that it is fully ready before we release!
[Happy Joy Gif - Giphy]
Wait ... did you say in Open-Source?
Yes it is! We are pleased to announce that we are opening not only Windows Terminal, but also the Windows Console, which contains the command line infrastructure on Windows and provides the traditional Console UX.
We can’t wait to work with you on improving and expanding the Windows command line!
That sounds awesome, but why don't you just upgrade your existing Windows Console?
The main goal of the Windows Console is to maintain backward compatibility with existing command line tools, scripts, etc. Although we managed to add many key improvements to the console functionality (for example, add support for VT and 24-bit color, etc., see this blog post ), we cannot make further significant improvements to the console UI without “breaking the peace”.
Therefore, it is time for a new, fresh approach.
Windows Terminal installs and works with an existing Windows Console application. If you directly launch Cmd / PowerShell / AV, they will start connecting to the traditional console instance just as usual. Thus, backward compatibility remains unchanged, and at the same time you can use Windows Terminal if / when you want to do it. The Windows Console will continue to ship to Windows for decades to support existing / outdated applications and systems.
Well, what about participation in an existing project of a terminal or application in Open-Source?
We carefully studied this option during planning and decided that our participation in an existing project would require a change in the requirements and architecture of the project in such a way that it would be too destructive.
Instead, by creating a new Open-Source terminal application and the Open-Source Windows Console, we can offer the community to work with us to improve the code and use it in their respective projects.
We believe that there is enough space on the market for new / different ideas about what the terminal can and should do, and we are trying to help the ecosystem of terminal (and related) applications to thrive and grow through the introduction of new ideas, interesting approaches and exciting innovations in this space.
Convinced How to participate?
Visit the repository at github.com/Microsoft/Terminal to clone, build, test and launch a terminal! In addition, we would be grateful if you would report bugs and share feedback with us and the community, as well as correct problems and make improvements to GitHub.
This summer, try installing and running Windows Terminal from the Microsoft Store. If you encounter any errors, share your feedback via the Feedback Hub or the Issues section on GitHub, which is intended for questions and discussions.
We are glad to work with you! If you have any questions or feedback, feel free to contact Kayla @cinnamon_msft and / or Rich @richturn_ms on Twitter. We can not wait to see what wonderful improvements and features you bring to the Windows Terminal and the Windows Console.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/452338/
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