6cf6db86c9
* eat.el (eat--t-term): Put a vector of length 8 (instead of 10) in 'cut-buffers' slot. * eat.el (eat--t-manipulate-selection): Don't process the targets '8' and '9', since they are not in the protocol. Return correct list of queried targets to the client. Make sure base64 encoded data doesn't contain line breaks. * eat.el (eat--t-handle-output): Tolerate invalid targets in OSC 52 (manipulate selection data). * eat.el (eat--manipulate-kill-ring): Handle 'nil' correctly.
174 lines
6.4 KiB
Org Mode
174 lines
6.4 KiB
Org Mode
#+title: Eat: Emulate A Terminal
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Eat's name self-explainary, it stands for "Emulate A Terminal". Eat
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is a terminal emulator. It can run most (if not all) full-screen
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terminal programs, including Emacs.
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It is pretty fast, more than three times faster than Term, despite
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being implemented entirely in Emacs Lisp. So fast that you can
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comfortably run Emacs inside Eat, or even use your Emacs as a terminal
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multiplexer.
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It has many features that other Emacs terminal emulator still don't
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have, for example complete mouse support, shell integration, etc.
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It flickers less than other Emacs terminal emulator, so you get more
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performance and a smoother experience.
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To get the most out of Eat, you should also setup shell integration.
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* Usage
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To start Eat, run =M-x eat=. Eat has three keybinding modes:
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- "semi-char" mode: This is the default keybinding mode. Most keys
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are bound to send the key to the terminal, except the following
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keys: =C-\=, =C-c=, =C-x=, =C-g=, =C-h=, =C-M-c=, =C-u=, =C-q=,
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=M-x=, =M-:=, =M-!=, =M-&=. The following special keybinding are
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available:
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- =C-q=: Send next key to the terminal.
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- =C-y=: Like `yank', but send the text to the terminal.
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- =M-y=: Like `yank-pop', but send the text to the terminal.
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- =C-c C-k=: Kill process.
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- "emacs" mode: No special keybinding, except the following:
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- =C-c C-j=: Switch to semi-char mode.
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- =C-c M-d=: Switch to char mode.
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- =C-c C-k=: Kill process.
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- "char" mode: All supported keys are bound to send the key to the
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terminal, except =C-M-m= or =M-RET=, which is bound to switch to
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semi-char mode.
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If you like Eshell, then there is a good news for you. Eat integrates
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with Eshell. Eat has two global minor modes for Eshell:
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- ~eat-eshell-visual-command-mode~: Run visual commands with Eat
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instead of Term.
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- ~eat-eshell-mode~: Run Eat inside Eshell. After enabling this, you
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can run full-screen terminal programs directly in Eshell. You have
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the above three keybinding modes here too, except that =C-c C-k= is
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not special (i.e. not bound by Eat) in "emacs" mode and "line" mode.
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You can add any of these to ~eshell-load-hook~ like the following:
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#+begin_src emacs-lisp
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;; For `eat-eshell-mode'.
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(add-hook 'eshell-load-hook #'eat-eshell-mode)
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;; For `eat-eshell-visual-command-mode'.
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(add-hook 'eshell-load-hook #'eat-eshell-visual-command-mode)
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#+end_src
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To setup shell integration for GNU Bash, put the following at the end
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of your ~.bashrc~:
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#+begin_src sh
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[ -n "$EAT_SHELL_INTEGRATION_DIR" ] && \
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source "$EAT_SHELL_INTEGRATION_DIR/bash"
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#+end_src sh
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There's a Info manual available with more information, which can be
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accessed with =C-h i m Eat=, also available [[https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu-devel/doc/eat.html][here on the internet]].
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* Installation
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Eat requires at least Emacs 28.1 or above.
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** NonGNU ELPA
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Eat is available on NonGNU ELPA. If you don't have the archive setup,
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put something like the following in your init file:
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#+begin_src emacs-lisp
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(add-to-list 'package-archives
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'("nongnu" . "https://elpa.nongnu.org/nongnu/"))
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#+end_src
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** Quelpa
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#+begin_src emacs-lisp
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(quelpa '(eat :fetcher git
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:url "https://codeberg.org/akib/emacs-eat"
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:files ("*.el" ("term" "term/*.el") "*.texi"
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"*.ti" ("terminfo/e" "terminfo/e/*")
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("terminfo/65" "terminfo/65/*")
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("integration" "integration/*")
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(:exclude ".dir-locals.el" "*-tests.el"))))
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#+end_src
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** Straight.el
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#+begin_src emacs-lisp
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(straight-use-package
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'(eat :type git
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:host codeberg
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:repo "akib/emacs-eat"
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:files ("*.el" ("term" "term/*.el") "*.texi"
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"*.ti" ("terminfo/e" "terminfo/e/*")
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("terminfo/65" "terminfo/65/*")
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("integration" "integration/*")
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(:exclude ".dir-locals.el" "*-tests.el"))))
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#+end_src
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** Manual
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Clone the repository and put it in your ~load-path~.
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* Comparison With Other Terminal Emulators
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** Term
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Term is the Emacs built-in terminal emulator. Its terminal emulation
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is pretty good too. But it's slow. It is so slow that Eat can beat
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native-compiled Term even without byte-compilation, and when Eat is
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byte-compiled, Eat is more than three times fast. Also, Term
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flickers, just try to run =emacs -nw= in it. It doesn't support
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remote connections, for example over Tramp. However, it has "line"
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mode, which Eat still doesn't have. If you want line mode in a
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terminal, or use an old version of Emacs, you can use Term, but
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Coterm + Shell is probably a better choice in case your Emacs version
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is 26.1 or above.
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** Vterm
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Vterm is powered by a C library, libvterm. For this reason, it can
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process huge amount of text quickly. It is about 1.5 times faster
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than Eat (byte-compiled or native-compiled) (and about 2.75 faster
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then Eat without byte-compilation). But it doesn't have a char mode
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(however you can make a char mode spending some effort). And it too
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flickers like Term, so despite being much faster that Eat, it seems to
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be slow. If you need your terminal to handle huge bursts (megabytes)
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of data, you should Vterm.
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** Coterm + Shell
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Coterm adds terminal emulation to Shell mode. Although the terminal
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Coterm emulates is same as Term, it is much faster, about three times,
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just a bit slow than Eat. However, it too flickers like other
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terminals. Since it's an upgrade to Shell, you get all the features
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of Shell like "line" mode, completion using your favorite completion
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UI (Company, Corfu, etc), etc. Most of these features are available
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in Eat-Eshell-Mode as Eshell is similar to Shell, however it's not
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Shell mode. Recommended if you like Shell.
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* Acknowledgements
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This wouldn't have been possible if the following awesome softwares
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didn't exist:
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- [[https://gnu.org][GNU Operating System]]
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- [[https://st.suckless.org/][St]]
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- [[https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/][Kitty]]
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- [[https://invisible-island.net/xterm/][XTerm]]
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- [[https://www.gnu.org/software/linux-libre/][Linux-libre]]
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- [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Terminal-emulator.html][Term]]
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- [[https://repo.or.cz/emacs-coterm.git][Coterm]]
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- [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Interactive-Shell.html][Shell]]
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- [[https://github.com/akermu/emacs-libvterm][Vterm]]
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- [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/eshell/index.html][Eshell]]
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- Numerous terminal programs
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- And obviously, [[https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/][GNU Emacs]]
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