Hey there, I'm actually on the windows console dev team. Any specific features you're looking for from iTerm2? There's already hundred of items on the backlog, but I'm always curious what things in particular people are looking for.
Auto updating the prompt isn't possible in CMD unfortunately. I do believe it's possible in powershell, but that's not my cup of tea. I do have a batch script that gets the branch and re-sets my prompt. You could create a git.bat that calls such a script on every git command, or like me, create `vf.bat` that I use to cd and update the prompt at once.
Also in this picture: cmd.exe running inside tmux in WSL. Coming soon to Insider's Builds near you
posh-git is a great powershell module that shows your current branch, has customizable colors, and adds tab completion to git commands. I think that stuff should stay as add-ons rather than be built into the console host.
Yes amazing because for the best part of 20 years, nothing significant has changed and now it’s functional enough to get work done.
And I don’t care about the *nix implementations because the first thing I do is start tmux and use that. Same as I only care for the Linux userland which is what WSL gives me.
I'm interested to understand the delta here too. I used cmder daily for work and iterm2 at home and I am quite happy with both. Sure they are different, but they are always going to be.
How does ConEmu compare to iTerm2? Why do you think its not up to the mark? I have recently moved to a company using windows computers and ConEmu with WSL has been my lifeboat.
I think you mean conhost (cmd is the shell program, not the terminal). It does have it's rough edges but it's much improved from where it was only a few years ago and its far from the only way to host a WSL session. This includes support for ANSI escape codes (TERM=xterm works fine) and better colors (though you may need to reset the defaults if you're upgrading from an old system). Lastly, there are plenty of other terminal apps which make this much more familiar for folks who prefer things like tabbed windows, or theming.
A second point, WSL programs don't rely on an active conhost shell to keep running. You can kick them off and run them in the background just fine. On one of my machines, I have a full i3 session running with no conhost window in sight. Everything works seamlessly, I can talk to my editor running as a Windows app, cut & paste back and forth, see file change notifications, hook up my docker command with my docker for windows VM, and so on. It's nice enough that I miss it when on my Mac and get annoyed with some of the fussy application alternatives on the typical Linux desktop.
I use a native linux box for most things, but I do have a windows PC for time wasting stuff. WSL is very close to being a good enough for most of my uses. It is an impressive product.
I tried insider for a few months and found the frequent updates too much, have some stability issues and stop it. Maybe it is a good reason to to start it again.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn't have to be inside cmd. A lot of people use cmder/conemu, and it works great with WSL. You can even put your own shell on top of WSL (zsh, fish, etc.), if you are inclined to do so.
Comments
for me to dev solely on windows, it needs:
1) coreutils + some other nix commands
2) iTerm2 equivalent(ConEmu/Cmder do not compare)
Hey there, I'm actually on the windows console dev team. Any specific features you're looking for from iTerm2? There's already hundred of items on the backlog, but I'm always curious what things in particular people are looking for.
Can't answer iTerm2, but I use Cmder daily. I don't think the Windows Console can (as I want for day-to-day usage)
1) show the Git branch in the prompt 2) display nice colours 3) open multiple tabs
Looking forward to being proved wrong :) Cmder works well for me but I'd rather have something core to Windows to use instead.
Do you mean any of the following: https://i.imgur.com/zyC4A73.png
Colors can be customized, but changing them is a PITA so we made (ColorTool)[https://github.com/Microsoft/console/tree/master/tools/Color...] to make it a little easier
Auto updating the prompt isn't possible in CMD unfortunately. I do believe it's possible in powershell, but that's not my cup of tea. I do have a batch script that gets the branch and re-sets my prompt. You could create a git.bat that calls such a script on every git command, or like me, create `vf.bat` that I use to cd and update the prompt at once.
Also in this picture: cmd.exe running inside tmux in WSL. Coming soon to Insider's Builds near you
posh-git is a great powershell module that shows your current branch, has customizable colors, and adds tab completion to git commands. I think that stuff should stay as add-ons rather than be built into the console host.
If it's any consolation what you guys have done with windows 10 is amazing. Big thumbs up here.
Thanks :) We do what we can, and we're certainly not about to stop trying to impress.
Amazing? Resizing, some better keyboard shortcut integration, and transparency?
It's still ages behind *nix OSs.
Yes amazing because for the best part of 20 years, nothing significant has changed and now it’s functional enough to get work done.
And I don’t care about the *nix implementations because the first thing I do is start tmux and use that. Same as I only care for the Linux userland which is what WSL gives me.
And yet you don't see users leaving in droves for that fancy terminal action. I wonder why? Hmmm...
Not from iTerm2 but I really enjoy the speed and features of urxvt. Any chance Windows will implement a similar fast open source console?
Dear God why would you want core-utils? It's full of esoteric commands and relies on text parsing for its pipelining.
Powershell is miles ahead in every way I can think of.
Try WSL with MobaXTerm (https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/)
I'm interested to understand the delta here too. I used cmder daily for work and iterm2 at home and I am quite happy with both. Sure they are different, but they are always going to be.
How does ConEmu compare to iTerm2? Why do you think its not up to the mark? I have recently moved to a company using windows computers and ConEmu with WSL has been my lifeboat.
They already have #1 in the form of WSL.
Yes but it runs inside CMD which is the WORST Windows terminal host.
I think you mean conhost (cmd is the shell program, not the terminal). It does have it's rough edges but it's much improved from where it was only a few years ago and its far from the only way to host a WSL session. This includes support for ANSI escape codes (TERM=xterm works fine) and better colors (though you may need to reset the defaults if you're upgrading from an old system). Lastly, there are plenty of other terminal apps which make this much more familiar for folks who prefer things like tabbed windows, or theming.
A second point, WSL programs don't rely on an active conhost shell to keep running. You can kick them off and run them in the background just fine. On one of my machines, I have a full i3 session running with no conhost window in sight. Everything works seamlessly, I can talk to my editor running as a Windows app, cut & paste back and forth, see file change notifications, hook up my docker command with my docker for windows VM, and so on. It's nice enough that I miss it when on my Mac and get annoyed with some of the fussy application alternatives on the typical Linux desktop.
I use a native linux box for most things, but I do have a windows PC for time wasting stuff. WSL is very close to being a good enough for most of my uses. It is an impressive product.
Just installed Xming, "apt install xfce4-terminal".
DISPLAY=:0.0 xfce4-terminal &
After that, it about 90% of typical Unix setup with all the control key bindings for copy-paste, etc.
I wish WSL 's bash environment can run windows programs/utilities like Cygnus.
It can run windows programs as of the Fall Creator's Update, and you can also run WSL stuff inside a Powershell window.
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/interop
Good to know. Thanks
I tried insider for a few months and found the frequent updates too much, have some stability issues and stop it. Maybe it is a good reason to to start it again.
Correct me if I am wrong, but it doesn't have to be inside cmd. A lot of people use cmder/conemu, and it works great with WSL. You can even put your own shell on top of WSL (zsh, fish, etc.), if you are inclined to do so.
I recommend WSL + WSLtty. It's the same as using Linux in PuTTT.