starred/terminal
1
0
Fork 0
mirror of https://github.com/microsoft/terminal.git synced 2026-02-04 05:35:20 +00:00
Code Issues 19.0k Packages Projects Releases 20 Wiki Activity

Support the Alt+X keybinding to toggle between an Unicode character and its hex encoding #17909

New Issue
Open
opened 2026-01-31 05:58:08 +00:00 by claunia · 4 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-31 05:58:08 +00:00
Owner
Copy Link

Originally created by @lhecker on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022).

Description of the new feature/enhancement

As suggested by @MurraySargent:
A number of Microsoft applications (e.g. Word, Notepad) allow you to press Alt+X to switch between a Unicode character and its hex encoding. For instance you can enter a hex number like "222b", press Alt+X and get "∫". Pressing Alt+X again, will turn it back into "222b".

This appears to be a useful alternative to the old Alt+Numpad input, which fails to work on keyboards without numpad. However I'm unsure whether implementing this feature is trivially possible without running into edge cases (it requires us to erase characters previously sent to the shell).

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

RichEdit's CTxtRange::HexToUnicode().

Originally created by @lhecker on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022). # Description of the new feature/enhancement As suggested by @MurraySargent: A number of Microsoft applications (e.g. Word, Notepad) allow you to press Alt+X to switch between a Unicode character and its hex encoding. For instance you can enter a hex number like "222b", press Alt+X and get "∫". Pressing Alt+X again, will turn it back into "222b". This appears to be a useful alternative to the old Alt+Numpad input, which fails to work on keyboards without numpad. However I'm unsure whether implementing this feature is trivially possible without running into edge cases (it requires us to erase characters previously sent to the shell). # Proposed technical implementation details (optional) RichEdit's `CTxtRange::HexToUnicode()`.
claunia added the Issue-FeatureArea-InputProduct-TerminalArea-i18n labels 2026-01-31 05:58:09 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-31 05:58:09 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022):

Huh, I never knew that. TIL.

That being said, it's definitely not trivial for us, for the reason mentioned. What about for something like vim, or emacs? I suppose we could send backspaces for the number of characters we're expecting to replace. Well, I suppose that might kinda work.

I imagine this works (for us) as such:

  • when the action / keybinding is triggered,
    • scan the characters preceeding the cursor in the buffer
    • if they're a hex digit
      • send backspaces, followed by the unicode char(s)
    • (and the reverse for unicode)

it'd be weird for something like vim, outside of edit mode - the cursor would be in the middle of the buffer, after a "∫", you'd press the keybinding, and we'd yeet ^h222b at vim and just hope for the best

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022): Huh, I never knew that. TIL. That being said, it's definitely not trivial for us, for the reason mentioned. What about for something like vim, or emacs? I suppose we could send backspaces for the number of characters we're expecting to replace. Well, I suppose that might kinda work. I imagine this works (for us) as such: * when the action / keybinding is triggered, * scan the characters preceeding the cursor in the buffer * if they're a hex digit * send backspaces, followed by the unicode char(s) * (and the reverse for unicode) it'd be weird for something like vim, outside of edit mode - the cursor would be in the middle of the buffer, after a "∫", you'd press the keybinding, and we'd yeet `^h222b` at vim and just _hope for the best_
claunia commented 2026-01-31 05:58:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022):

I'm not necessarily in support of this. I'd rather it be a different input mode, ala vim's ^V u (Verbatim input, Unicode).

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Jul 12, 2022): I'm not necessarily in support of this. I'd rather it be a different input mode, ala vim's `^V u` (Verbatim input, Unicode).
claunia commented 2026-01-31 05:58:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2022):

I'm gonna yank triage off this and stick it in the icebox. It's an idea, for sure, but one that needs more massaging.

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Aug 19, 2022): I'm gonna yank triage off this and stick it in the icebox. It's an idea, for sure, but one that needs more massaging.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 05:58:10 +00:00
Author
Owner
Copy Link

@sba923 commented on GitHub (Mar 10, 2024):

If you're using PowerShell, check this out: https://github.com/PowerShell/PSReadLine/issues/3578#issuecomment-1987149796

@sba923 commented on GitHub (Mar 10, 2024): If you're using PowerShell, check this out: https://github.com/PowerShell/PSReadLine/issues/3578#issuecomment-1987149796
Sign in to join this conversation.
No Branch/Tag Specified
Branches Tags
Labels
Clear labels
⛺ Reserved
A11yCO
A11yMAS
A11ySev1
A11ySev2
A11ySev3
A11yTTValidated
A11yUsable
A11yVoiceAccess
A11yWCAG
Area-Accessibility
Area-AtlasEngine
Area-AzureShell
Area-Build
Area-Build
Area-Chat
Area-CmdPal
Area-CodeHealth
Area-Commandline
Area-CookedRead
Area-DefApp
Area-Extensibility
Area-Fonts
Area-GroupPolicy
Area-i18n
Area-Input
Area-Interaction
Area-Interop
Area-Localization
Area-Output
Area-Performance
Area-Portable
Area-Quality
Area-Remoting
Area-Rendering
Area-Schema
Area-Server
Area-Settings
Area-SettingsUI
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-ShellExtension
Area-Suggestions
Area-Suggestions
Area-TerminalConnection
Area-TerminalControl
Area-Theming
Area-UserInterface
Area-VT
Area-Windowing
Area-WPFControl
AutoMerge
Blocking-Ingestion
Culprit-Centennial
Culprit-WinUI
Disability-All
Disability-Blind
Disability-LowVision
Disability-Mobility
External-Blocked-WinUI3
Fixed
Gathering-Data
good first issue
HCL-E+D
HCL-WindowsTerminal
Help Wanted
Impact-Compatibility
Impact-Compliance
Impact-Correctness
Impact-Visual
In-PR
InclusionBacklog
InclusionBacklog-Windows TerminalWin32
InclusionCommitted-202206
Issue-Bug
Issue-Docs
Issue-Feature
Issue-Feature
Issue-Question
Issue-Samples
Issue-Scenario
Issue-Task
Needs-Attention
Needs-Author-Feedback
Needs-Bisect
Needs-Discussion
Needs-Repro
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Tag-Fix
Needs-Triage
No-Recent-Activity
Priority-0
Priority-1
Priority-2
Priority-3
Product-Cmd.exe
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Colortool
Product-Conhost
Product-Conpty
Product-Meta
Product-Powershell
Product-Terminal
Product-WSL
pull-request
Mirrored from GitHub Pull Request
 Resolution-Answered
Resolution-By-Design
Resolution-Duplicate
Resolution-External
Resolution-Fix-Available
Resolution-Fix-Committed
Resolution-No-Repro
Resolution-Won't-Fix
Severity-Blocking
Severity-Crash
Severity-DataLoss
spam
this-will-be-a-breaking-change
Tracking-External
WindowsTerminal_Win32
Work-Item
zAskModeBug
zInbox-Bug
No Label Area-i18n Area-Input Issue-Feature Product-Terminal
Milestone
No items
No Milestone
Projects
Clear projects
No project
Assignees
Clear assignees
claunia
No Assignees
1 Participants
Notifications
Due Date
No due date set.
Dependencies

No dependencies set.

Reference: starred/terminal#17909
Delete Branch "%!s()"

Deleting a branch is permanent. Although the deleted branch may continue to exist for a short time before it actually gets removed, it CANNOT be undone in most cases. Continue?