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The Windows Console gets support for Sixel images
- ranger_danger 2y agoFinally. msys2/mingw terminal (mintty) has had sixel support for many years now. Can't wait to see notcurses running on this.
- bloopernova 2y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sixel
- criddell 2y agoSo this is basically writing to the terminal as if it's a six pin dot matrix printer? Are Sixel images actually used very often these days? Is support in Windows Console a big deal, or just lots of fun?
- docandrew 2y agoThere are some fun things you can do with it like terminal image viewing, etc. The notcurses library uses it, some of their demo videos are really neat.
- ranger_danger 2y agohttps://saitoha.github.io/libsixel/ https://saitoha.github.io/libsixel/
- numpad0 2y agoI think it was necroed by a Japanese Twitter addict(@tsutsuii) to display Twitter user icons without X on NetBSD/luna68k, then others started doing all sorts of unholy things with it from w3m with images to terminal-based RDP client. There aren't a lot of "legitimate" use cases for now, I believe, but it's neat, and IMO an image mode extension for tty kind of makes it whole.
- Doxin 2y ago> So this is basically writing to the terminal as if it's a six pin dot matrix printer? Yes, if that dot matrix printer could then also select any color you like. Sixels can do full color images. > Are Sixel images actually used very often these days? No, but support and use of them is increasing, not decreasing as one might expect.
- rcarmo 2y ago_looks pointedly at Apple_
- renewedrebecca 2y agoYou don't actually use Terminal.app do you?
- Aloha 2y agoI do, it largely fits my needs - or rather I have not found I need the features in the alternatives.
- rcarmo 2y agoYou realize there are such things as corporate policies, right?
- renewedrebecca 2y agoI have a hard time imagining a situation where you'd need Sixel images in a corporate setting.
- db48x 2y agoYou’ve never run Gnuplot to examine some data? It is super convenient to run it and see the plot right there inline in your terminal.
- renewedrebecca 2y agoNope. Never had an application like that, although thanks for the example, it makes sense.
- makapuf 2y agothat's nice, but .. wouldn't it be better to implement kitty graphics directly at this time ? https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/ https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/graphics-protocol/
- jetbalsa 2y agohow long until its just X11 with some extra steps :V
- db48x 2y agoThere are already a couple of ways to run an X server inside of a sixel–capable terminal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOTMGdUPYRo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOTMGdUPYRo
- alchemist1e9 2y agoI love everything about kitty except the refusal to implement sixel. Maybe someone has an independent patch that can be applied?
- cwyers 2y agokitty is a product of a single open-source project, Sixel is a product of DEC with multiple independent implementations. DEC is out of business and there's very little risk of anyone coming out with a new version of VT333/VT340 reference manual, so Windows Terminal/conhost can have its own implementation of Sixel and ensure interoperability with other implementations as it sees fit, as opposed to committing to either chase compatibility with the Kitty project or committing to shipping someone else's code in perpetuity.
- mid-kid 2y agoKitty's standard is described for other people to implement both emulators and clients for. Since this relationship already exists, there's enough friction between emulators implementing new features, and clients actually using them (in a backwards-incompatible way), that I believe one can be relatively sure their emulator will support clients well into the future. Either way, I agree that kitty's protocol should become a versioned standard, but I also don't think that people will be very quick to change it at this point.
- runevault 2y agoWorth noting for people who don't use MS tech stack much, this is the new Terminal that you get from the windows store (for free) not cmd.exe Which anyone who knows how to actually use a terminal should have upgraded to years ago anyway, mind you.
- None4U 2y agoconhost.exe is the terminal, cmd.exe is the shell, this patch is in fact only currently used in conhost
- runevault 2y agoconhost is in the terminal repo? Huh interesting, that surprises me.
- zadjii 2y agoConhost and Terminal share quite a lot of code in fact. The text buffer, the renderer, the VT sequence parser - all that's the same codebase. That allows bugfixes and improvements to the the Terminal to also flow back to the vintage console (for people who still use that)
- slyfox125 2y agoInteresting tidbit - thank you for sharing. That's handy for those who prefer the vintage console (including myself).
- zadjii 2y agoThat is _technically_ correct (the best kind). There's some plumbing between conhost and Terminal we need to clean up before we can add it to Terminal too. We've got a branch ready, we've just got to merge a whole stack of PRs first before we can get there.
- pathartl 2y agoTerminal is built into newer versions of Windows 11.
- PaulHoule 2y agoGreat! I'm always looking for more places where I can make semigraphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semigraphics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semigraphics but I've fallen out of the habit because it's a hassle to get them to display right all of the time on the web. One of my favorite terminals of all times were the DEC ReGIS terminals https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReGIS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ReGIS which supported a set of commands similar to the drawing commands in BASIC back in the day but supported more and better colors than home computers at the time and could also freely mix graphics and text. Since the PDP-11 supported BASIC you could write graphical programs in BASIC that would draw on the terminal using the right character sequences.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- IshKebab 2y agoWoo, storming into the 1980s. Is this compatible with my Voodoo 2?
- wswope 2y agoCongrats to the Windows Terminal team member who went through the process of getting a PhD to implement this.
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- mid-kid 2y agoI kind of lament that a format that was invented for dot matrix printers, where switching heads is a costly operation, transfer speeds don't matter since moving the head is a bottleneck, and color accuracy doesn't matter as the technology wasn't there yet, is being revived, as opposed to some of the more modern ideas for doing this... It doesn't make sense in a terminal emulator context at all.