Microsoft wants to make Windows Command Line great again with awesome new features coming soon to Windows 10

[AlTech]

Microsoft wants to modernize the Windows Command Line infrastructure with awesome features coming in a future Windows 10 version.

 

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Over the last few years, Microsoft has been working to improve the Windows console. Console windows now maximize properly, for example. In the olden days, hitting maximize would make the window taller but not wider. Today, the action will fill the whole screen, just like any other window. Especially motivated by the Windows subsystem for Linux, the console in Windows 10 supports 16 million colors and VT escape sequences, enabling much richer console output than has traditionally been possible on Windows.

Even with this work, however, the Windows console still leaves a lot to be desired when compared to its counterparts on Linux and macOS. Linux in particular has a wide range of console applications offering, for example, tabbed consoles. It also has applications like screen and tmux that allow multiple applications to share the same console. While there are third-party efforts to do the same on Windows (with programs such as ConEmu), they all tend to be quite limited: they work by creating a Windows console window, hiding it somewhere off-screen, and scraping the characters from that console window. This approach isn't robust; command-line applications that try to do complex things (such as showing full screen interfaces) often end up breaking.

But change is afoot. Microsoft is working to build a better console for Windows, one that we hope will open the door to the same flexibility and capabilities that Unix users have enjoyed for more than 40 years. To be clear, this work is changing not the command-line programs themselves, but the text-heavy windows that command-line applications use: PowerShell, cmd, and the Windows subsystem for Linux all use the same console infrastructure, which is why their windows all look the same and have the same features and limitations.

5

 

Currently, every Console app on Windows regardless of framework or programming language uses the same Command Line Infrastructure under the hood.

 

The Windows Command Line has fallen far behind Unix in the past 40 years and Microsoft wants to modernize it.

 

Some of the modernizations planned include Emoji support, full rich Unicode support, Console Tabs, and other features that the Windows Command Line doesn't support.

 

Some of the planned features have already made their way into the latest Windows 10 Insider Preview builds. Hopefully this means the improved console experience should be a part of Windows 10 Version 1809 or more likely Version 1903 since Version 1809 is nearing completion.

 

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The new and improved APIs seem to be in the latest Windows 10 Insider builds, though documentation is a little scarce for now. The command-line team is publishing a series of blog posts describing the history of the Windows command-line, and how the operating system's console works. The big reveal of the new API is coming soon, and with this, Windows should finally be able to have reliable, effective tabbed consoles, with emoji support, rich Unicode, and all the other things that the Windows console doesn't do... yet.

 

 

It's cool that the Windows Command Line is catching up to Bash

 

Source: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/07/microsoft-is-making-the-windows-command-line-a-lot-better/

 

[ARikozuM]

Quote

Emoteji support

sudo aptget -xyz.plugin.itunes

Command unknown

sudo aptget -xyz.plugin.itunes 

Retrieving -xyz.plugin.itunes

 

I can see this being a thing as we await Skynet, our one and only savior. 

[ScratchCat]

Bash for life

[Drak3]

9 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

GNU/Linux command line

AKA Bash.

 

10 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Emoji support

The idiot that pushed this idea deserves nothing less than a slow, painful, gruesome death.

 

11 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

and other features that the Windows Command Line doesn't support.

Technically, making me coffee is a feature WCLI doesn't support...

[PeterBocan]

ZSH for life. Bash is miles ahead of CMD, but ZSH is just Creme de la Creme! 

EDIT: I wonder whether they come up with better scripting language than that nightmare. 

[ScratchCat]

6 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

sudo aptget -xyz.plugin.itunes

Command unknown

sudo aptget -xyz.plugin.itunes 

Retrieving -xyz.plugin.itunes

 

I can see this being a thing as we await Skynet, our one and only savior. 

I for one do not accept our new savior/overlord/evil-corporate-entity

[emosun]

19 minutes ago, AluminiumTech said:

Some of the modernizations planned include Emoji support

 

[GoodBytes]

It support Unicode, so that it means it support Emoji, which are part of Unicode. That is how you can send emoji's via SMS. SMS doesn't support text + image mix within 1 message.

[2FA]

They aren't improving command prompt, they are improving the console which runs the command prompt or powershell. The distinction isn't immediately obvious when they announced this.

[Ryujin2003]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

Some of the modernizations planned include Emoji support, full rich Unicode support, Console Tabs, and other features that the Windows Command Line doesn't support.

Because it's totally not annoying when I send a code snippet to a co-worker via Skype and it turns my glorious code into a freaking Emoji......

 

C:\> cd Dpictures/Reinosaur/

 

'Dpictures/Reinosaur/' is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program or batch file.

 

C:\>    **puts my feelings into emoji**

 

Deleting C:\ ...

 

 

...fuck...

[aezakmi]

2 hours ago, AluminiumTech said:

with emoji support

RIP console

 

 

[Syntaxvgm]

Command line emoji support. 

This is their priorities. 

 

 

This might be the thing that pushes me from windows for good. 

Not joking. 

[TetraSky]

Eh, as long as I don't have to ever interact with the Console and everything can still be done through the GUI, they can do whatever they want.

[ARikozuM]

I love how everyone is fixated on Emoji support. 

[Drak3]

37 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Command line emoji support. 

This is their priorities. 

Pretty sure that it's just a consequence of updating unicode support, not them going out of their way to add emoji.

 

27 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I love how everyone is fixated on Emoji support. 

It's not like they're adding something worth while.

[Beskamir]

Hopefully they don't ruin the Linux shell they've implemented in W10 with this emoji nonsense.

[Linus_torvalds]

Windows still will be shit! Fucking canonical works with MS. They implemented powershell in ubuntu. Who the hell needs powershell in linux? What the fuck do you want microsoft? Get the fuck out of here. You have your shitty OS and take care of it. Hands OFF LINUX bitch! I hate MS i wish it to get bankrupt!!! Go to hell bill for creating this shitty OS!

[vorticalbox]

5 hours ago, Ryujin2003 said:

Because it's totally not annoying when I send a code snippet to a co-worker via Skype and it turns my glorious code into a freaking Emoji......

The problem is you're using Skype to send code, you're using it in a why it wasn't intended.

[DrMacintosh]

7 hours ago, 2FA said:

They aren't improving command prompt, they are improving the console which which runs the command prompt or powershell. The distinction isn't immediately obvious when they announced this.

Really interesting that the people who are so happy about this haven’t noticed that. 

 

That being said I’m happy with using Terminal as little as possible

Though I have to admit that the macOS terminal is pretty cool and powerful. 

[AlTech]

20 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

snip

 

Why though?

 

Terminal on macOS is very cool.

[ARikozuM]

21 minutes ago, DrMacintosh said:

Though I have to admit that the macOS terminal is pretty cool and powerful. 

Is that the one where you say "Hey, Siri"?

[AlTech]

1 minute ago, ARikozuM said:

Is that the one where you say "Hey, Siri"?

Nope. That's Spotlight.

[PlayStation 2]

Maybe it's because I'm lazy or maybe it's because I can't follow directions, but using the command line in any sort of OS is tedious to me.

[DrMacintosh]

1 minute ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Maybe it's because I'm lazy or maybe it's because I can't follow directions, but using the command line in any sort of OS is tedious to me.

It is tedious. It makes 0 sense for an average user. I love the novelty of the ideal of opening an app with a terminal command like I'm in the control room of the original Jurassic Park.....

 

But If I want to open up anything its cmd+spacebar and the first letter is often enough to find what I want. 

 

 

[vorticalbox]

12 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

Maybe it's because I'm lazy or maybe it's because I can't follow directions, but using the command line in any sort of OS is tedious to me.

Taking you hands off your keyboard to the mouse is slow. The move you can do without moving to the mouse the more productive you'll be but it will have a learning curve.

 

At work I do a lot of my work from the terminal, when I have to exec In to a docker container I literally only have terminal and vim.