Interesting. I'm wondering how it stacks up against ConEmu [1], which has been the MVP of terminal emulators on Windows for a long time now.
[1]: https://cmder.net/
(So far, it beats the heck out of cmd.exe, especially for WSL...)
And this terminal is "based on web technologies" so I doubt decent speed is really achievable.
It's almost ironic that web developers are creating terminals.
I basically changed the config.lua file to use clink.get_cwd() instead of pwd(), and to
local HEADfile = io.open(git_dir.."/HEAD")
if not HEADfile then return false end
local git_branch = HEADfile:read():match('ref: refs/heads/(.*)')
HEADfile:close()
return colors.git_dirty .. " (" .. git_branch .. ")"
I started using fluent when this was posted (3 days ago) and I quite like the experience so far! I haven't had to switch back to regular CMD for anything so far!
Breakdown of Windows Terminals
# Top Quality (supports line editing, history, scrollback, copy on select, right click paste, tabs, iterm colors, everything else you'd expect from iTerm2 or gnome-terminal)
- Fluent Terminal (native, lightweight)
- Terminus (electron, so heavier, but also excellent and stable)
- Hyper 3 Canary (electron, in beta as Hyper 2 has serious bugs, but a massive plugin ecosystem)
# Minimal (no tabs but fast and stable)
- Powershell 6.2's inbuilt terminal
- Alacritty
# Windows XP apps (UI has everything everywhere, some unfixable bugs)
- ConsoleZ
- ConEmu
# Not actually a terminal
- Cmder
More details, config files: https://github.com/mikemaccana/powershell-profile#for-a-dece...
- Console emulator ~ Conemu
- Cmd.exe enhancements ~ clink
- Unix tools on windows ~ git for windows
The Cmder website tells you this if you scroll down, but doesn't make it obvious. 'clink' in particular is of dubious utility - if you're using Windows, powershell is the default terminal, and powershell is one of Windows' best features.
The very first line of the README:
> A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
I understand the hate for electron apps and the demand for native. While I do use VSCode as my daily editor, I've also seen some electron apps that definitely don't make the cut.
That said, I don't understand the growing trend of using the native web view and calling it "native". (Meaning it can't be ported to other platforms, so it must be native?)
If you're building it with web technologies, you might as well just go with electron for the more modern browser[1], easier portability, and isolation from browser version changes.
[1]: I haven't looked much at the windows web view since edge came out. I was going to say perhaps this doesn't matter as much if you can select edge, but now that edge is becoming chromium anyway, I suppose the point is moot. Hooray for monocultures I guess.
You wont get something that feels like a modern Windows app if you make it with electron, also the app will balloon by 80 meg and portability again isn't an issue if your goal is to make something that feels like a modern Windows app.
I really appreciate the work of the people behind FluentTerminal and honestly had no idea it had web under the hood till I looked at the source because building it on UWP makes it feel like a first class windows app.
>The very first line of the README:
> A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
Yes. UWP is Windows' native development platform and has been for years now. There's some Web tech too, but it's still more lightweight than Electron. What's your point?