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diff --git a/posts/img/weltschmerz-hyperlinks.png b/posts/img/weltschmerz-hyperlinks.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ef4b157 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/img/weltschmerz-hyperlinks.png diff --git a/posts/img/weltschmerz-open-directory.png b/posts/img/weltschmerz-open-directory.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8d1353b --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/img/weltschmerz-open-directory.png diff --git a/posts/new-features-in-weltschmerz.md b/posts/new-features-in-weltschmerz.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f189909 --- /dev/null +++ b/posts/new-features-in-weltschmerz.md @@ -0,0 +1,132 @@ +title: New features in weltschmerz 1.3.0 +date: 2020-04-13 +author: Wynn Wolf Arbor + +Over the past few weeks I have been working on bringing a few new +features to [weltschmerz](weltschmerz.html), my terminal emulator. One +of them is the addition of a major VTE feature that I had overlooked +when I first prototyped it: The support for **OSC 8 hyperlinks**. + +The remaining two are smaller in nature, but hopefully just as useful: +The context menu has learned a couple of new tricks, namely **copying a +selection as HTML**, and the ability to **open the current directory** +in the desktop environment's default file manager. + +Additionally, I have overhauled and improved the configuration +management code to make future changes and additions easier. These +improvements include a small bug fix, but are otherwise invisible to the +end user. + +Head on over to the [project page](weltschmerz.html) to get the newest +version right away, or read on to take a closer look at each new +feature. + +## Hyperlink support + +The motivation for this feature came when I [read about](https://developers.redhat.com/blog/2020/03/26/static-analysis-in-gcc-10/) +the new `-fanalyzer` static analysis pass that will come with GCC 10. +The post mentions that in sufficiently capable terminals, new CWE +identifiers and the option names for warnings are clickable hyperlinks +pointing people to the right place in the documentation. + +Since the post mentioned _gnome-terminal_ as one such capable emulator, +I assumed that VTE had to have been updated with hyperlink support and +went to find out when that happened. It turned out that it had been +added [way back when](https://gist.github.com/egmontkob/eb114294efbcd5adb1944c9f3cb5feda) +in 2017, I just never paid much attention to it. + +Since VTE already had full support, I decided to add this feature to +weltschmerz as well. Now, if enabled, hyperlinks are clickable; they +open up in the application that GLib thinks is best for the given URI. +To make the user aware of what they will open, the terminal now renders +a tooltip with the URI when hovering over a hyperlink: + + + +Given the relative infancy of this functionality, and a couple of +[security concerns](https://gist.github.com/egmontkob/eb114294efbcd5adb1944c9f3cb5feda#security), +this feature is disabled by default. If you want to try it out, it can +be enabled in weltschmerz's config file like so: + +```ini +[misc] +allow-hyperlinks = true +``` + +## Copy as HTML + +Whilst looking through VTE's [Vala +documentation](https://valadoc.org/vte-2.91/Vte.Terminal.html) to find +out more about hyperlinks, I stumbled across the [definition](https://valadoc.org/vte-2.91/Vte.Format.html) +for the _Format_ enum which controls in what format the selection is +copied to the clipboard. `TEXT` makes the clipboard contain the plain +text copy of the selection, and `HTML` formats the selection as HTML, +with mostly complete style and colour information, like this: + +<pre class="indent clear"> +<b>diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS</b> +<b>index a9b1359..4e1c329 100644</b> +<b>--- a/NEWS</b> +<b>+++ b/NEWS</b> +<font color="#5C4BC8">@@ -1,5 +1,11 @@</font> + This file lists important changes to the weltschmerz terminal emulator. + +<font color="#377945">+Changes in version 1.2.1, released on January 17, 2020:</font> +<font color="#377945">+</font> +<font color="#377945">+ --- MINOR BUGFIXES ---</font> +<font color="#377945">+ * weltschmerz.1: The manual page now contains updated contact and author</font> +<font color="#377945">+ information.</font> +<font color="#377945">+</font> + Changes in version 1.2.0, released on December 30, 2019: + + --- MINOR NEW FEATURES --- +</pre> + +Adding support for this was straightforward. **Copy as HTML** is now +available as a context menu entry whenever there is an active selection. +The above is an excerpt of the output of `git-diff(1)` from one of the +release commits. Except for the font (which depends on your browser), +this is exactly how it looked in my terminal. + +## Open directory + +For the longest time I primarily used [ranger](https://github.com/ranger/ranger), +a terminal file manager, to traverse directories and open files quickly. +A few months back I decided to try out a few GUI-based ones and found that +[Thunar](https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/start) does the job very +well. So well, in fact, that I rarely use ranger anymore these days. I +find that for regular day-to-day browsing, I am much faster with the +mouse and quick drag-and-drop actions are now essential to me. + +I still spend most of my time in a terminal, however, and whilst it is +very easy to open a terminal from within Thunar, it used to be not so +easy to open an instance of Thunar (or whichever file manager you +prefer) from within weltschmerz. + + + +Now, with the new **Open directory** context menu entry (or by hitting +`Ctrl+Shift+O`), weltschmerz opens the current directory in the desktop +manager's default file manager. Note that VTE relies on **OSC 7** to +determine which directory an application is in. + +The shell I use, [fish](https://fishshell.com/), emits the correct +escape sequence [automatically](https://github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell/blob/8029f15f1fd4f77b0105fcf7421a5cdf551e2fec/share/functions/__fish_config_interactive.fish#L269) +whenever it enters a new directory, but other shells will most likely +**not** do this by default. In that case, the menu entry will be greyed +out. However, for other shells, it should simply be sufficient to put the +proper escape sequence into `PS1` or something comparable to +`PROMPT_COMMAND` in bash. Note that it has to contain a URI (and not +a regular path). + +Consider something like the following (though note that `hostname` and `path` +should be URL-encoded): + +```sh +printf '\e]7;file://%s%s\a' "$hostname" "$path" +``` + +## Closing + +That's it for this release. I hope these new features will be useful (or +at least interesting) to people. Until next time! |
