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+WEBVTT
+
+00:00:00.880 --> 00:00:03.760
+Hello and welcome to this talk.
+
+00:00:03.760 --> 00:00:06.080
+The title of this talk is a tour of vterm,
+
+00:00:06.080 --> 00:00:08.559
+a fast and fully featured terminal emulator
+
+00:00:08.559 --> 00:00:10.800
+inside GNU Emacs.
+
+00:00:10.801 --> 00:00:12.719
+So let's try to understand what we mean
+
+00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:14.559
+with "fast and fully featured."
+
+00:00:14.559 --> 00:00:16.800
+To do that we'll compare vterm
+
+00:00:16.801 --> 00:00:20.400
+with the packages which are built in Emacs,
+
+00:00:20.401 --> 00:00:22.400
+mainly, term.
+
+00:00:22.400 --> 00:00:25.039
+So let's jump into the vterm.
+
+00:00:25.040 --> 00:00:26.720
+So this is a vterm buffer
+
+00:00:26.720 --> 00:00:29.439
+and this is a ansi-term buffer.
+
+00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:30.720
+What I'm going to do now is
+
+00:00:30.721 --> 00:00:32.160
+first I'm going to prove to you
+
+00:00:32.160 --> 00:00:34.160
+what we mean by fast.
+
+00:00:34.161 --> 00:00:37.440
+To do that, let me open a large file display on screen--
+
+00:00:37.441 --> 00:00:40.239
+a large file, this is about one megabyte of data--
+
+00:00:40.239 --> 00:00:41.840
+and let me time that.
+
+00:00:41.841 --> 00:00:45.200
+It takes about 0.6 seconds with vterm.
+
+00:00:45.201 --> 00:00:48.320
+Let's do the same with with ansi-term.
+
+00:00:48.321 --> 00:00:51.520
+Well, we already see the difference.
+
+00:00:51.520 --> 00:00:53.039
+So I will use this time to tell you
+
+00:00:53.039 --> 00:00:56.320
+what's different, and what is vterm exactly.
+
+00:00:56.321 --> 00:00:58.399
+vterm is a terminal emulator
+
+00:00:58.400 --> 00:01:00.800
+built on top of an external library.
+
+00:01:00.801 --> 00:01:02.719
+The library is called libvterm,
+
+00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:05.519
+and is the same library used by Newton
+
+00:01:05.519 --> 00:01:07.200
+for their own terminal emulator.
+
+00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:10.799
+It's a C library, and this is what gives us
+
+00:01:10.799 --> 00:01:15.119
+a lot of good features. First, the speed.
+
+00:01:15.119 --> 00:01:17.119
+Time spent here, 0.6, is essentially
+
+00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:18.479
+the time that it takes to:
+
+00:01:18.479 --> 00:01:22.240
+1. convert the Emacs representation of text
+
+00:01:22.241 --> 00:01:25.040
+into the vterm representation of what is a string,
+
+00:01:25.041 --> 00:01:27.360
+and 2., into actually displaying that,
+
+00:01:27.361 --> 00:01:29.520
+and that can take time
+
+00:01:29.520 --> 00:01:32.240
+if there's fontification involved.
+
+00:01:32.241 --> 00:01:34.240
+So these are the 0.6 seconds there.
+
+00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:38.479
+As we say, in ansi-term, that's much more time.
+
+00:01:38.480 --> 00:01:40.720
+It's much slower. So the terminal will feel
+
+00:01:40.721 --> 00:01:42.880
+much snappier, much faster.
+
+00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:46.720
+But that's not the main benefit or the only benefit
+
+00:01:46.721 --> 00:01:49.759
+of using this external library vterm.
+
+00:01:49.760 --> 00:01:53.040
+The second big benefit is that
+
+00:01:53.041 --> 00:01:56.560
+vterm has support for all the escape codes
+
+00:01:56.560 --> 00:01:58.320
+that xterm has support for,
+
+00:01:58.321 --> 00:02:01.119
+so vterm is essentially as running xterm
+
+00:02:01.119 --> 00:02:03.600
+inside an Emacs buffer. So let's see that.
+
+00:02:03.600 --> 00:02:05.759
+For example, let's start by looking
+
+00:02:05.760 --> 00:02:08.239
+at the support for colors.
+
+00:02:08.239 --> 00:02:10.319
+We have support for all the colors out of the box.
+
+00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:11.840
+We don't have to do anything.
+
+00:02:11.840 --> 00:02:14.720
+And if we did the same here, well,
+
+00:02:14.721 --> 00:02:16.800
+we have only 20 colors.
+
+00:02:16.801 --> 00:02:18.239
+There's a way to get all the colors,
+
+00:02:18.240 --> 00:02:19.680
+but it's much more involved.
+
+00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:23.040
+But this is not where vterm shines.
+
+00:02:23.040 --> 00:02:27.200
+We can run all the commands that we want.
+
+00:02:27.200 --> 00:02:31.440
+htop, ncdu, everything runs here.
+
+00:02:31.441 --> 00:02:35.519
+Also this title, it's a fairly complicated
+
+00:02:35.520 --> 00:02:37.920
+manipulation of the window
+
+00:02:37.921 --> 00:02:40.879
+and it will not work here.
+
+00:02:40.879 --> 00:02:42.000
+It just doesn't work actually.
+
+00:02:42.001 --> 00:02:46.160
+Now the terminal is probably messed up. Yes.
+
+00:02:46.161 --> 00:02:48.400
+So using this external library
+
+00:02:48.400 --> 00:02:50.959
+removes the burden from the developers
+
+00:02:50.959 --> 00:02:52.319
+of having to implement support
+
+00:02:52.320 --> 00:02:53.280
+for all the escape codes.
+
+00:02:53.281 --> 00:02:55.360
+We just use those.
+
+00:02:55.360 --> 00:02:58.480
+So in many ways, running vterm
+
+00:02:58.480 --> 00:03:01.760
+is running xterm inside Emacs,
+
+00:03:01.760 --> 00:03:04.159
+but it's better than that because,
+
+00:03:04.160 --> 00:03:05.840
+since this is an Emacs buffer,
+
+00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:09.760
+we can enjoy a lot of features from Emacs
+
+00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:11.360
+as well as a tighter integration
+
+00:03:11.361 --> 00:03:13.200
+with Emacs itself.
+
+00:03:13.200 --> 00:03:15.840
+For example, as you see here,
+
+00:03:15.841 --> 00:03:20.239
+the title of my buffer is from the directory I'm in.
+
+00:03:20.240 --> 00:03:21.760
+So let's go to my tmp.
+
+00:03:21.760 --> 00:03:23.440
+The title will change.
+
+00:03:23.441 --> 00:03:25.920
+So there's information being exchanged
+
+00:03:25.921 --> 00:03:28.000
+between vterm and Emacs.
+
+00:03:28.000 --> 00:03:30.000
+And of course, the title is not the only place
+
+00:03:30.001 --> 00:03:32.000
+where information is exchanged.
+
+00:03:32.000 --> 00:03:35.920
+I can find a file and I will be in the directory
+
+00:03:35.920 --> 00:03:37.680
+where my terminal is.
+
+00:03:37.681 --> 00:03:40.000
+This feature is also available in ansi-term,
+
+00:03:40.000 --> 00:03:41.360
+and it works also on vterm,
+
+00:03:41.361 --> 00:03:43.440
+and it follows me. So if I go to tmp,
+
+00:03:43.441 --> 00:03:44.720
+I'll get the tmp.
+
+00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:47.120
+If I ssh to a remote server,
+
+00:03:47.121 --> 00:03:50.239
+it will work also on remote servers as well,
+
+00:03:50.240 --> 00:03:53.920
+which is a very nice way to edit files remotely
+
+00:03:53.920 --> 00:03:55.599
+while we're working on a shell.
+
+00:03:55.600 --> 00:03:59.280
+And second, while vterm is not an Elisp interpreter
+
+00:03:59.281 --> 00:04:01.200
+like eshell, what we can do is
+
+00:04:01.201 --> 00:04:04.720
+we can still run Emacs functions.
+
+00:04:04.721 --> 00:04:06.080
+So for example...
+
+00:04:06.081 --> 00:04:08.000
+that requires some configuration.
+
+00:04:08.001 --> 00:04:11.599
+vterm command (message "hi")
+
+00:04:11.600 --> 00:04:13.120
+as you see there's a "hi" here.
+
+00:04:13.121 --> 00:04:14.959
+So what I'm doing is I'm executing
+
+00:04:14.960 --> 00:04:16.239
+the Elisp function hi.
+
+00:04:16.239 --> 00:04:18.959
+I can drop that and turn it around,
+
+00:04:18.960 --> 00:04:21.600
+hash function to run Elisp functions.
+
+00:04:21.601 --> 00:04:24.880
+Or another one, find-file, same.
+
+00:04:24.880 --> 00:04:27.360
+We call this feature "message passing,"
+
+00:04:27.361 --> 00:04:30.000
+and it requires some configuration
+
+00:04:30.001 --> 00:04:32.000
+on the Emacs side as well as in the shell side.
+
+00:04:32.000 --> 00:04:33.440
+It's important to stress
+
+00:04:33.441 --> 00:04:35.360
+what's the nature of vterm.
+
+00:04:35.360 --> 00:04:37.919
+For instance, every time I'm sending a key binding,
+
+00:04:37.920 --> 00:04:40.000
+it's not immediately clear if my intention is
+
+00:04:40.001 --> 00:04:41.840
+to send it to the shell or to Emacs.
+
+00:04:41.841 --> 00:04:44.320
+So vterm implements some reasonable defaults,
+
+00:04:44.320 --> 00:04:46.800
+but at the moment it's mainly packaged
+
+00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:49.120
+to display characters on a screen.
+
+00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:50.720
+So for example, if you're using evil,
+
+00:04:50.721 --> 00:04:52.639
+the editing commands in evil
+
+00:04:52.640 --> 00:04:54.080
+will not work immediately.
+
+00:04:54.081 --> 00:04:55.759
+There's some work to be done
+
+00:04:55.759 --> 00:04:58.160
+and integration can be improved on that side,
+
+00:04:58.161 --> 00:05:00.240
+but sometimes we really want this to behave
+
+00:05:00.240 --> 00:05:02.240
+exactly like a Emacs buffer.
+
+00:05:02.240 --> 00:05:03.680
+We want to be able to search.
+
+00:05:03.681 --> 00:05:06.639
+If I try to get it to search,
+
+00:05:06.640 --> 00:05:07.280
+it will not work.
+
+00:05:07.281 --> 00:05:08.400
+I will send it to the shell.
+
+00:05:08.401 --> 00:05:11.919
+So to do that, we enabled vterm copy mode.
+
+00:05:11.920 --> 00:05:14.720
+As you see, copy mode, and now this buffer
+
+00:05:14.721 --> 00:05:17.039
+is essentially a fundamental buffer.
+
+00:05:17.039 --> 00:05:21.120
+I can move around. I can search.
+
+00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:25.520
+So it must have... I can do everything I want.
+
+00:05:25.521 --> 00:05:26.479
+And there are additional features.
+
+00:05:26.480 --> 00:05:30.560
+For example, I can jump around all the prompts.
+
+00:05:30.561 --> 00:05:32.639
+I find this extremely useful,
+
+00:05:32.639 --> 00:05:35.039
+because I can copy updates from my programs.
+
+00:05:35.040 --> 00:05:38.320
+What I always have to do is
+
+00:05:38.321 --> 00:05:41.520
+I have to Google some errors.
+
+00:05:41.521 --> 00:05:43.120
+So what I do is I select that
+
+00:05:43.120 --> 00:05:45.120
+and I have my keybinding in Emacs conf,
+
+00:05:45.121 --> 00:05:48.479
+and I'm Googling what I have to Google.
+
+00:05:48.480 --> 00:05:51.120
+So this is very nice and if I...
+
+00:05:51.121 --> 00:05:52.639
+now that I have selected something,
+
+00:05:52.640 --> 00:05:53.840
+if I just press return,
+
+00:05:53.841 --> 00:05:56.400
+I will go back to my normal editing mode
+
+00:05:56.401 --> 00:06:00.160
+with the text copied, so I can paste it back.
+
+00:06:00.161 --> 00:06:02.720
+So it's a quick way to interact with copy
+
+00:06:02.721 --> 00:06:05.840
+and interact with the output of a buffer.
+
+00:06:05.841 --> 00:06:09.120
+So finally, let's discuss how to actually use vterm.
+
+00:06:09.121 --> 00:06:10.560
+Let's circle back, let's go,
+
+00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:12.400
+and let's look at the GitHub repo
+
+00:06:12.400 --> 00:06:14.000
+where development is happening.
+
+00:06:14.001 --> 00:06:15.520
+vterm is available in MELPA,
+
+00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:17.759
+but since it's leveraging the power
+
+00:06:17.760 --> 00:06:18.960
+of an external module,
+
+00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:20.479
+you must have Emacs compiled
+
+00:06:20.480 --> 00:06:22.000
+with support for modules,
+
+00:06:22.000 --> 00:06:25.600
+and many distros like Ubuntu, Debian,
+
+00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:26.880
+that's not there. So you have to
+
+00:06:26.881 --> 00:06:29.199
+get Emacs with support for modules:
+
+00:06:29.200 --> 00:06:31.360
+compiling or getting images somewhere else.
+
+00:06:31.361 --> 00:06:33.840
+And also, the first time you are going to use this,
+
+00:06:33.840 --> 00:06:38.960
+which works only on Mac or GNU Linux systems,
+
+00:06:38.961 --> 00:06:41.759
+Emacs will try to find and compile this module,
+
+00:06:41.759 --> 00:06:44.240
+so it's important. This requirement is important.
+
+00:06:44.241 --> 00:06:46.400
+If you're using Windows, well,
+
+00:06:46.401 --> 00:06:49.199
+it's not available and will not work.
+
+00:06:49.199 --> 00:06:53.440
+So to conclude, I want to just advertise this page.
+
+00:06:53.440 --> 00:06:56.240
+If you have problems, look at the issues
+
+00:06:56.240 --> 00:06:58.240
+and open an issue in case.
+
+00:06:58.241 --> 00:06:59.199
+We'll try to help you.
+
+00:06:59.200 --> 00:07:00.800
+We are very excited about vterm,
+
+00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.639
+and I think it's a transformative
+
+00:07:02.639 --> 00:07:10.319
+terminal experience inside GNU Emacs.