Productize the WPF, UWP Terminal Controls

[zadjii-msft]

This scenario tracks the remaining work to productize the UWP and WPF versions of the Terminal Control. These will allow 3rd-party developers to embed terminal instances in their applications. That way, external developers won't need to write their own terminals, they can just re-use the one we build in this repo.

Currently, the Windows Terminal uses the UWP version of the control. Similarly, Visual Studio embeds the WPF version.

Pre-Requisites

These tasks aren't immediately related, but will need to get done first to unblock this work

• Scenario: Windows Terminal 2.0 Process Model Improvements #5000 / Add support for tab tearoff and tab merge #1256: I'm planning on tearing up the TermControl as a part of the window/content process model refactor. Undoubtably, this will affect the API boundary that will be exposed
• ConPTY: pass through requests for the alt buffer #381: Before we ask anyone else to use us, we should probably be a better terminal emulator. The Alt buffer is an important part of that story.
• Should we perhaps also finish the VT implementation for the TerminalCore as well? Currently the Terminal Core only implements the VT sequences that ConPTY will emit. Hypothetically, someone might be using this in a scenario where conpty isn't on the other end.

Tasks

Tasks

Beta Give feedback

1. Introduce abstraction layer between TermControl and TerminalCore (aka Interactivity) Introduce abstraction layer between TermControl and TerminalCore (aka Interactivity) #6842
2. Tear out the SearchBoxControl from the TermControl, so it can be its own control
3. Remove the SharedShadow thing in SearchBoxControl, noted in Command palette and search box visual tweaks #12913
4. Finalize API boundary - Where is the real line between TermControl / ControlInteractivity / ControlCore?
5. Re-base the WPF control on the shared TerminalContent.
6. Package as a nuget
7. Deploy to some nuget feed somewhere?
8. Cannot find info on hosting terminal in another app. #4572
   Area-TerminalControl Issue-Docs Product-Meta +3
   
9. Request: Right-click menu inside TerminalControl (w/ Copy & Paste?) #3337
   Area-User Interface In-PR Issue-Feature Needs-Tag-Fix Product-Terminal +5
10. Close the gap between Terminal and Conhost ITerminalApi #13408
    Area-VT Issue-Scenario Priority-2 Product-Terminal +4
11. The WPF nuget package isn't signed by our CI #15404
    Area-WPFControl In-PR Issue-Bug Needs-Tag-Fix Product-Terminal +5
    
12. wpf: cursor is same color as last rendered foreground (?) #6967
    Area-WPFControl Issue-Bug Priority-3 Product-Terminal +4
13. wpf: TerminalContainer consumes WM_MOUSEWHEEL and doesn't let the native HWND have it #6996
    Area-WPFControl Issue-Bug Priority-2 Product-Terminal +4
    
14. Terminal: add support for Window Manipulation (CSI t, resize), or reject it explicitly (and force a client resize) #5094
    Area-VT In-PR Issue-Task Priority-2 Product-Terminal +5
15. Pasting is super wacky. The control shouldn't ask the app to paste to it.
16. Feature Request: IME mode after pressing Escape or Enter key in CJK input #1304
    Area-TerminalControl In-PR Issue-Task Needs-Tag-Fix Priority-2 Product-Terminal +6
    
17. IME mode changed at startup in Google Japanese Input #14407
    Area-i18n Help Wanted In-PR Issue-Feature Needs-Tag-Fix Product-Terminal +6
18. Multiple compatibility issues with Google Japanese Input (IME) in vim with WSL #13681
    Area-Input Issue-Bug Needs-Triage Product-Terminal +4
19. The CursorStyle in TerminalTheme does not seem to work #16404
    Area-WPFControl Help Wanted Issue-Bug Product-Terminal +4

related

• Scenario: TerminalControl Interactivity Improvements Scenario: TerminalControl Interactivity Improvements #6106
• starting Terminal with wt no longer returns the main window handle of the resulting window starting Terminal with wt no longer returns the main window handle of the resulting window #7084
  • This is the "reparent the terminal to another HWND thread"

[minecraftchest1]

This is something that I would like to see, especially if it was done in such a way that it could be ported to other frameworks such as avaloniaui.

[OculiViridi]

This is something that I would like to see, especially if it was done in such a way that it could be ported to other frameworks such as avaloniaui.

And maybe also in Uno Platform UI too! 😉

[OculiViridi]

@zadjii-msft Any progress about those Tasks?

[zadjii-msft]

Unfortunately nope. I think we originally slated this for late 2023, but alas, other internal priorities came in and bumped this. I think we fully intend to do this sometime Soon^TM.

[OculiViridi]

Soon ™️.

Love it! 😆

Anyway, I'm thinking about moving (at least for Now ™️) to a web-based terminal emulator like xterm.js (or others) and embed it within a WebView control.
Maybe you can give me suggestions about this approach?
Thanks!