5 ms·

Yaft – Yet another framebuffer terminal

130 points by mcbuilder 10y ago

astrodust 10y ago
The term's not something I've heard a lot, but is a "framebuffer terminal" the thing that engages outside of running a graphical session? It's kind of neat to see improvements made here if that's the case. Not everyone will make extensive use of this, but having proper support for a lot of modern conveniences is never a bad thing.
- sjtgraham 10y ago
  Exactly. The Linux console for example only supports a tiny number of colours. Folks use FB terminals for tty* for this reason etc.
new299 10y ago
Yay! This is cool. I wrote something like this myself a while back: http://41j.com/hterm/ http://41j.com/hterm/ I recommend checking out libvterm (http://www.leonerd.org.uk/code/libvterm/ http://www.leonerd.org.uk/code/libvterm/). It abstracts out of lot of the v220/xterm terminal rendering code and is very neat. I'd love to see it get more support. Also nice to see Sixel support (graphical terminal are fun!).
- VexorLoophole 10y ago
  My programming skills are not advanced enough, to talk about the technical aspect of libvterm. But neovim uses it, and damn, it runs fast and smooth and feels native like any other terminal emulator INSIDE of neovim. Simply great. Hope someone will port it also over to emacs.
digi_owl 10y ago
> sixel (experimental) Well hello there. Makes a guy wonder if it would be possible to run a web browser without X.
- viraptor 10y ago
  It's possible without X. Links (http://links.twibright.com/ http://links.twibright.com/) did it via framebuffer for years. Unless you mean in actual text/sixel mode. Then I haven't heard of one.
  - stuaxo 10y ago
    Links definitely works in text mode, in fact I've only used it that way.
    - viraptor 10y ago
      I meant sixel, as in text pretending it's graphics.
      - digi_owl 10y ago
        Iirc, links do not use sixel but rather a trick of X. Meaning that it can only show images when run within certain terminal emulators (not anything derived from GTK or Qt).
        LukeShu 10y ago
        The "trick of X" you speak of is that it figures out X window ID of the terminal, then asks the X server the coordinates of that window, then creates borderless windows at the correct coordinates above that window to show images. However, in addition to this "trick of X" mode, links also supports rendering its own X window; with proportional fonts and everything; no terminal emulator needed. However, the graphics system isn't based on X; X is just one backend; it can also render to the Linux framebuffer, so it doesn't even need X11 to be running, it can render full graphics straight in your TTY.
- wonko1 10y ago
  Check out w3m (which has some graphics support). There's also Netsurf, I've not used it but it. Looks awesome: http://www.netsurf-browser.org http://www.netsurf-browser.org
hellofunk 10y ago
I can't figure out what mkfont_bdf is doing. Converting TTF to what kind of glyph?
- noselasd 10y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Form...
zyllonbane 10y ago
tmux is a window manager if I say it is!

130 points by mcbuilder 10y ago

The term's not something I've heard a lot, but is a "framebuffer terminal" the thing that engages outside of running a graphical session? It's kind of neat to see improvements made here if that's the case. Not everyone will make extensive use of this, but having proper support for a lot of modern conveniences is never a bad thing.

sjtgraham 10y ago
Exactly. The Linux console for example only supports a tiny number of colours. Folks use FB terminals for tty* for this reason etc.

new299 10y ago

Yay! This is cool. I wrote something like this myself a while back: http://41j.com/hterm/ http://41j.com/hterm/ I recommend checking out libvterm (http://www.leonerd.org.uk/code/libvterm/ http://www.leonerd.org.uk/code/libvterm/). It abstracts out of lot of the v220/xterm terminal rendering code and is very neat. I'd love to see it get more support. Also nice to see Sixel support (graphical terminal are fun!).

VexorLoophole 10y ago
My programming skills are not advanced enough, to talk about the technical aspect of libvterm. But neovim uses it, and damn, it runs fast and smooth and feels native like any other terminal emulator INSIDE of neovim. Simply great. Hope someone will port it also over to emacs.

digi_owl 10y ago

> sixel (experimental) Well hello there. Makes a guy wonder if it would be possible to run a web browser without X.

viraptor 10y ago
It's possible without X. Links (http://links.twibright.com/ http://links.twibright.com/) did it via framebuffer for years. Unless you mean in actual text/sixel mode. Then I haven't heard of one.
- stuaxo 10y ago
  Links definitely works in text mode, in fact I've only used it that way.
  - viraptor 10y ago
    I meant sixel, as in text pretending it's graphics.
    - digi_owl 10y ago
      Iirc, links do not use sixel but rather a trick of X. Meaning that it can only show images when run within certain terminal emulators (not anything derived from GTK or Qt).
      - LukeShu 10y ago
        The "trick of X" you speak of is that it figures out X window ID of the terminal, then asks the X server the coordinates of that window, then creates borderless windows at the correct coordinates above that window to show images. However, in addition to this "trick of X" mode, links also supports rendering its own X window; with proportional fonts and everything; no terminal emulator needed. However, the graphics system isn't based on X; X is just one backend; it can also render to the Linux framebuffer, so it doesn't even need X11 to be running, it can render full graphics straight in your TTY.
wonko1 10y ago
Check out w3m (which has some graphics support). There's also Netsurf, I've not used it but it. Looks awesome: http://www.netsurf-browser.org http://www.netsurf-browser.org

hellofunk 10y ago

I can't figure out what mkfont_bdf is doing. Converting TTF to what kind of glyph?

noselasd 10y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Format https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Form...

zyllonbane 10y ago

tmux is a window manager if I say it is!