Vscode: Support use option as meta in terminal

[mikehaas763]

• VSCode Version: 1.4.0
• OS Version: 10.11.6 mac os x

Steps to Reproduce:

1. type in a word/command into vs code terminal
2. hold option key and tap delete key

Deleting a whole word while holding option "meta" key does not work. One character is deleted. In the regular terminal for os x in preferences there is a checkbox that lets you enable the option key to be used as a meta key which allows holding the option key and hitting delete to delete an entire word at a time.

[adamluzsi]

+1 for this :)
👍

[Tyriar]

ctrl+w does this now, you should be able to do this by remapping keys to send the escape sequence you want (^W).

[Tyriar]

Actually maybe you can't do that now as the same escape sequence is sent regardless of whether alt/option was pressed. I filed this upstream https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/issues/486

[adamluzsi]

Option key is more than just for deleting. There is a couple of great thing you can do with option key, delete is only one thing from that. :)

[Tyriar]

@adamluzsi any others in particular that you can do with other terminals but not vscode?

[mikehaas763]

@Tyriar All I use it for personally is moving one word at a time as opposed to one letter. Moving includes deleting and using arrow keys.

[Tyriar]

Thanks, we're looking into how to solve this problem in the general case so we can remove some of the non-standard keybindings we hard coded into the terminal code https://github.com/sourcelair/xterm.js/issues/487

[LeviticusMB]

Essentials: Arrow keys, backspace, d (delete current word), c (capitalize), l (lowercase), u (uppercase) but see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Readline and http://www.aboutlinux.info/2005/08/bash-shell-shortcuts.html.

[qinix]

+1 for this

[dodalovic]

👍

[peabnuts123]

On OSX "Use Option as Meta Key" is a setting in the default Terminal app. All this does is change the functionality of Option to send the Meta key instead (as opposed to typing in special characters such as ∂, not very useful on a Terminal IMO). The Meta key is then used for whatever by whatever application you run within it. A List of Features that the Option key "should do" is not really the right solution for this. For example, when using tmux, I have Meta-Z bound as my prefix for commands; so to split a pane I first press Option-Z (Meta-Z) and then \. This does not work in the VSCode integrated terminal, and no amount of feature documenting is going to fix that.

I think that the change that is needed here is a similar option for the Integrated terminal on OSX to support the Meta key within the terminal. I realise this may be an issue with the underlying terminal library itself, however.

[so0k]

Is there an issue to track regarding the feature to Use Option as a Meta key in sourcelair/xterm.js?

[danseethaler]

My personal favorite is alt+. which inserts the last argument from the previous command. Any progress on this issue? I don't see any comments in the upstream issue since January.

[DiegoSalazar]

I would love to move forward/back by word meta + b, meta + f as well.

[owenthereal]

Any update on this? Happy to put up a PR for this

[ricard0ff]

+1

[Tyriar]

Actually I just saw https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/31262 which has a pretty nice solution to this:

@mikelward

Originally https://stackoverflow.com/questions/45257525/ctrlc-inside-vscode-terminal

Inside the integrated terminal, I'd like to be able to make Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V copy and paste, and have Ctrl+Shift+C and Ctrl+Shift+V send literal Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V.

I can do the first two by setting custom key bindings for workbench.action.terminal.copySelection and workbench.action.terminal.paste.

It looked like maybe I could do the second two using workbench.action.terminal.sendText, but when I try it I get command 'workbench.action.terminal.sendText' not found, presumably because it's not defined in terminalActions.ts.

And if it was available as a command, I'm not sure how I'd pass arguments, or specify control characters. I would try something like:

   {
        "key": "ctrl+shift+c",
        "command": "workbench.action.terminal.sendText",
        "args": ["\003", false],
        "when": "terminalFocus"
    }

but maybe something more explicit would be better.

@raphadko

This would be incredibly useful for running all sorts of commands in the terminal. For example I would like to create a macro to switch to terminal and run the last command I ran (CTRL + P) or (arrow up), currently I can't find a way to do this.

[Tyriar]

@jingweno if you're still up for doing a PR you can try exposing the workbench.action.terminal.sendText command to be accessible via keybindings.json as in the above comment.

[Frodox]

Same story for Alt + . (not working. For linux - last argument in terminal)

[Tyriar]

Another case: https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/31823

[saamalik]

Found a temporary solution. Add the following to your ~/.inputrc file:

"ƒ": forward-word
"∫": backward-word
"≥": yank-last-arg

And restart your terminal (or run bind -f ~/.inputrc). _I tested the above on Hyper terminal, but should work in vscode as well._

[DiegoSalazar]

Brilliant! That works in vscode. Thanks!

• Diego E. Salazar

On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 3:22 AM, Saad Malik [e-mail]
wrote:

Found a temporary solution. Add the following to your ~/.inputrc file:

"ƒ": forward-word
"∫": backward-word
"≥": yank-last-arg

And restart your terminal (or run bind -f ~/.inputrc). I tested the
above on Hyper terminal, but should work in vscode as well.

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[saamalik]

@DiegoSalazar cool!

btw I think this is an even better option: Mac OSX: altIsMeta support! If @Tyriar is okay with the PR, then you'll probably need to make a corresponding change in VScode to enable altIsMeta.

[DiegoSalazar]

Noticed a problem though, on vscode after applying your fix to .inputrc I
was no longer able to press the regular b key! I can type f normally, but
the terminal ignores the b key :/

• Diego E. Salazar

On Fri, Jan 19, 2018 at 3:44 PM, Saad Malik [e-mail]
wrote:

@DiegoSalazar https://github.com/diegosalazar cool!

btw I think this is an even better option: Mac OSX: altIsMeta support
https://github.com/xtermjs/xterm.js/pull/1225! If @Tyriar
https://github.com/tyriar is okay with the PR, then you'll probably
need to make a corresponding change in VScode to enable altIsMeta.

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[saamalik]

@DiegoSalazar oh really! That's actually a lot worse than not being able to jump between words. btw the altIsMeta fix will probably be merged soon. In the interim you can also use 'ESC'+b, 'ESC'+f, etc. to jump between words.

[Tyriar]

Here's the setting:

"terminal.integrated.macOptionIsMeta": true