Microsoft's New Windows Terminal Preview Offers a Retro CRT Screen Effect (microsoft.com) 53
"The release of the Windows Terminal preview v0.8 has arrived!" announces a post on Microsoft's Command Line blog:
Search functionality has been added to the Terminal! The default key binding to invoke the search dropdown is {"command": "find", "keys": ["ctrl+shift+f"]}. Feel free to customize this key binding in your profiles.json if you prefer different key presses! The dropdown allows you to search up and down through the buffer as well as with letter case matching.
You can search through multiple tabs, reports the Verge -- and those tabs can also be resized "so you can fit more tabs into View." But they also note that Microsoft added some interesting retro-style CRT effects: If you're old enough to be a fan of CRT monitors then this one is for you. A new experimental feature will be enabled that includes the classic scan lines that you might have seen before the world switched to flat monitors and LCD technology.
To enable it just add the following code snippet to any of your profiles: "experimental.retroTerminalEffect": true
Search functionality has been added to the Terminal! The default key binding to invoke the search dropdown is {"command": "find", "keys": ["ctrl+shift+f"]}. Feel free to customize this key binding in your profiles.json if you prefer different key presses! The dropdown allows you to search up and down through the buffer as well as with letter case matching.
You can search through multiple tabs, reports the Verge -- and those tabs can also be resized "so you can fit more tabs into View." But they also note that Microsoft added some interesting retro-style CRT effects: If you're old enough to be a fan of CRT monitors then this one is for you. A new experimental feature will be enabled that includes the classic scan lines that you might have seen before the world switched to flat monitors and LCD technology.
To enable it just add the following code snippet to any of your profiles: "experimental.retroTerminalEffect": true
Nostalgia is funny (Score:1, Insightful)
Stuff like that is WHY we switched! This is pandering to people who are nostalgic *for 15 years ago* - i.e. children.
Re:Nostalgia is funny (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Nostalgia is funny (Score:1)
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No, to him, dictating *your own* opinions is A-OK, having to listen to anyone else's is "hate speech".
I liked it better when it was "children should be seen, not heard".
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The good thing about CRTs was the low latency. Let's bring that back, MS.
Re:Nostalgia is funny (Score:4, Informative)
CRTs were also pretty darn good at not having an annoying fixed resolution that makes everything but the native resolution look like crap.
Re:Nostalgia is funny (Score:5, Interesting)
CRTs were also pretty darn good at not having an annoying fixed resolution that makes everything but the native resolution look like crap.
Very true. Back in the CRT days, I'd usually create a new resolution for X that was just a little higher than the standard (1064x798 or something). Most monitors of the time would allow you to increase the timings and resolution slightly without any issue.
Of course switching to lower resolutions for games and such was also handled much better than on an LCD.
Overall, I'd never go back though.
Re:Nostalgia is funny (Score:4, Informative)
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For the true nostalgia, let's simulate the scanning at 60Hz under 60Hz fluorescent lighting.
I swear this was an operational requirement at computerized testing centers for years after everyone else switched to LCDs (or at least better CRTs).
Personally, while it did take me a while to make the jump (since the only LCD with the resolution I wanted was quite expensive at the time), I've always insisted on only using Trinitron CRTs running at at least 75Hz or higher.
(The only 60Hz CRTs I ever found tolerable were the super-extra-heavy monitors IBM RS/6000 workstations used to use. But I'm pretty sure
Re: (Score:3)
Someone who is nostalgic for something that is 15 years in the past is unlikely to be a child. You should consider getting an education in basic arithmetic.
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OK, Toddler...
EGA lines are way older than 15 years ago. Try over 30 years, ya pipsqueak.
Lack of Style (Score:4)
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Yeah, you want cool-retro-term for a far better accuracy.
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There are retroarch plugins that do just that: throw a metric ton of shaders at the problem and model beam splash effects, curvature effects, scattering in glass, etc, on the CRT mask of your choice (trinitron or original flavor). You pretty much have to have a 4k monitor to get the full effect.
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Also wasting electric just to make a screen less legible is crazy.
So is 99% of what we do, what's your point?
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What's taking so long? (Score:3)
It's been a couple of years of previews now it looks like. What's taking so long? The current terminal program in Windows (and all the third party programs such as Cmder) suck ass pretty bad and are slow as molasses.
Huh? (Score:2)
Shooting at the wrong goal (Score:4, Funny)
Why work on bringing back the crappy parts of a CRT without bringing back the corresponding good parts? Where's the 15,735 Hz coil whine? The RF obliteration of everything in the vicinity? The 30 pounds to carry around? The X-rays (mostly) stopped only because of all the lead in those 30 pounds? We want our classic LAN party experiences back.
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I forgot to mention susceptibility to magnets. How the fuck do THEY work?
Re: (Score:2)
A CRT that doesn't spew RF is useless. Perhaps you should learn some science.
Scanlines (Score:2)
Just trying to be Cathode (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
The only thing missing from these attempts at scanlines on Cathode is the reflection of that kindly old gentleman running his vacuum cleaner in the background, wheeling that trash-bin-on-wheels behind you.
Cool Retro Term has been around for a while (Score:2)
https://github.com/Swordfish90... [github.com]
Been using it for a while now, when I feel that my eyesight is too good.
Nah, I don't miss CRTs that much (I love the extra desk space), but it is fun to use once in a while.
If you're old enough to be a fan of CRT monitors (Score:3)
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Scanlines? (Score:3)
I honestly, truly don't miss black scanlines at all. The last computer I ever owned with visible scanlines was my Amiga 1000. Upgrading to an Amiga 2000 with FlickerFixer was the kindest thing I ever did for my eyes.
Interesting trivia: officially, the Atari ST can only use 640x400 on a monochrome monitor. In reality, if you hook it up to a modern multisync monitor that can make sense of nearly any sensible permuation of horizontal and vertical timing AND run a patch that tricks TOS into not resetting the computer when it realizes you don't have a monochrome monitor attached, you can trick it into doing 640x400 with ANY two colors from the ST's palette, as well as do all of its official "color" modes.
So... why didn't anyone discover this ST capability 30 years ago? Because prior to around 1988, multisync analog RGB monitors capable of syncing up to any sensible permutation of timings basically didn't exist... and TOS was basically hardwired to work properly only with Atari's two official monitors.
Meanwhile (Score:1)
GNOME developers remove desirable features (such as transparency) from their own terminal emulator.
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=695371
Re: (Score:2)
Try Enlightenment's terminal:
https://www.enlightenment.org/... [enlightenment.org]
I miss the time when televisions (Score:3)
signed off at night. Anthem, beautiful nature screens then a test pattern with a monotone.
ah. feature bloat. (Score:2)
not that there are hundreds of issues that need fixing
not that they have issues RENDERING TEXT
but yeah, let's add shaders. THAT'S what we need when opening up a term. effects.
PowerShell feels clunky to me (Score:3)
I tried implementing a project in PowerShell and found it takes more effort to do the same thing compared to scripting with bash.
I get it that it is windows powerful, and even some bits I like, but things that should be easy, weren't.
Key bindings (Score:2)
"Key bindings" and "customization in profiles" - what a innovation!
Let me try to remember when UNIX/Linux did that ...
I thing the stupid already started with ... (Score:2)
... using Windows. :)
The clone generation. (Score:2)
I feel like the last decade, and maybe this one too, consists only of culture clones of past decades.
A generation that doesn't exist, because it is merely an echo of former generations. Looking back, instead of forward.
In a few decades, there will be nothing in the history books describing the culture of those decades. Only "See: 1980s, 1990s. Apply cargo culting." or something like that.
Re: The clone generation. (Score:1)
You know what else we need (Score:2)
A printer driver that emulates a line printer.
The new-bad outweighs the new-good. (Score:2)
I've been trying to use the new Terminal, from github, for months. But it doesn't handle elevations (administrative consoles) well.
I won't hash it all out, but basically it can't do mixed modes across the sessions and, across different revisions, has been inconsistent with elevated cmd.
On the bright side, it can easily seamlessly gather powershell, cmd and wsl prompts all into a nice-looking tabbed interface with some nice new features. But for now I'm mostly living in dedicated wsl bash, tcc and powers
Any other retro effects? (Score:3)
To enable it just add the following code snippet to any of your profiles: "experimental.retroTerminalEffect": true
"retroBlueScreenOfDeath", however, was left out as it was determined it wasn't retro."
Holy Crap! (Score:2)
Here's why I'm gonna use it (probably without the scan line stuff):
I just tried it, thinking it wouldn't work, but ALT-ENTER makes it absolutely FULL SCREEN!! Yes!!!