#terminaux8 — Public Fediverse posts

Terminaux 8.7 – The Command

Since the release of Terminaux 8.0, we make monthly feature updates or bug fix packs that make applications using Terminaux more powerful and reliable. This is part of our broader goal of updating our libraries and applications for improvements and new features.

Starting from today, we are very excited to introduce you to a brand new version of Terminaux, dubbed v8.7, which brings in significant improvements and new features!

Here are some of the new features that we’ve added to this version.

Theme Customization

When it comes to customizing themes, we have further expanded on this topic and made almost all theme-related properties editable. As a result, there is no longer a friction when it comes to editing basic theme metadata, such as event-related properties and theme name.

Improvements made to the Terminaux shell

Since Terminaux 8.7 was released, it has received many improvements related to the Terminaux shell API, which incorporates breaking changes so that we provide you with the most streamlined command implementation yet. We have made changes to the Terminaux shell API so that more features are added that allow you to access the shell instance right from the command implementation class without having to query the shell manager. This is useful for shells that have variables in the shell class.

Color conversion

Previously, Nitrocid provided color conversion commands that made it easier for shells to be able to process color conversions for different models, but they were not in sync with Colorimetry’s latest color models that were implemented. Now, the color conversion shell commands have been relocated to this version of Terminaux so that all Terminaux-powered apps can have the ability to convert color models.

To learn more about this version, as well as instructions on how to upgrade Terminaux, visit Aptivi Newsroom below.

Terminaux 8.6 – Through The Horizon

Since the release of Terminaux 8.0, we make monthly feature updates or bug fix packs that make applications using Terminaux more powerful and reliable. This is part of our broader goal of updating our libraries and applications for improvements and new features.

Starting from today, we are very excited to introduce you to a brand new version of Terminaux, dubbed v8.6, which brings in significant improvements and new features!

Here are some of the new features that we’ve added to this version.

Prosery and Quote

You can now use Terminaux to render a piece of prosery or poetry to your console with an amazing layout with left padding. Terminaux processes text and renders it, optionally wrapping the lines for readability for some text. There are two writers that do this job, which is Prosery and Quote. While the prosery writer is a base writer, the quote writer is derived from the prosery writer so that configuration and behavior is the same.

The quote writer renders quotes in an italic text with author attribution and double quotations around the text.

High-density canvases

We’ve also added high-density canvases to allow you to render more detailed pixel art without worrying about used space in the console. If you create a pixel art in those canvases, you’ll be able to see beautiful pixel art in your console and in high pixel density.

Horizontal scrolling

Previously, Terminaux reported vertical scrolling events when you use horizontal scrolling on your mouse or on your touchpad. This posed limitations on graphical console applications that require horizontal scrolling for better experience, so we’ve decided to add support for such scrolling direction. As a result, Terminaux applications can now distinguish horizontal scrolling from vertical scrolling.

To learn more about this version, as well as instructions on how to upgrade Terminaux, visit Aptivi Newsroom below.

Mouse improvements in Terminaux 8.1

Since Terminaux 4.0, mouse support was added to make C# console applications more interactive. This was done by abstracting the implementations of both the Windows API for detecting mouse clicks in the terminal using the combination of PeekConsoleInput() and MOUSE_INPUT_RECORD, and the Linux method for mouse clicks using the SGR/X10 VT sequences that we have to parse ourselves. The end result is a single function that handles mouse and keyboard input on a ReadPointerOrKey() function, further branched to a non-blocking version.

As a result, we’ve integrated mouse support to all kinds of interactive user interfaces within Terminaux, which resulted in both the library and Nitrocid handling all mouse input, as well as Terminaux programs having mouse support built-in without re-implementing support. However, there was room for improvements when it comes to the selection-based user interfaces.

Terminaux 8.1, which will be released two weeks from now, will feature improvements to mouse support when it comes to the choice selection style TUIs, as well as the interactive selector TUIs. Starting from this version:

• In the selector TUI, double-clicking on an item in either the first pane or the second pane will trigger the “submit” action, which, by default, is defined to an action bound to the Enter key. For example, in Nitrocid 0.2.0, if you double-click on an SMultivar settings entry in the second pane, the child settings entries underneath this entry will be revealed.
• In both the selection style and the infobox selection input TUIs, double-clicking on an item in the list of choices will confirm the selection. This allows you to confirm your selection without accidentally selecting a wrong item, since those TUIs always show a list of choices.

This is a behavioral change to the three affected Terminaux input components, which will land to Nitrocid 0.2.0 and 0.1.0 Service Pack 6 next month.

Photo by Rainer Eli on Unsplash