Terminal.Gui v2 in .net 8 shows weird escape characters in windows....

[GitHubThor]

Hello,

I created a .net 8 console application and trying to use Terminal.Gui v2 for testing and all the test applications I did do not render windows correctly, instead I see a mix of part of the windows with escape chars messing up the console window.

I have apps with Terminal.Gui v1.18 and works well.

Any ideas of what can I be doing wrong in v2? (BTW: I need to use .net 8, not 9, just in case that is the issue)

[tig]

Need more info on your environment. Screen shots would help too.

[tznind]

Please provide sample of how you boot (Init etc) the driver and shutdown etc (e.g. your Program.cs file)

Make sure the code you are testing does not use methods like Console.WriteLine as they will interfere with Terminal.Gui rendering itself into the UI

Also please indicate which driver you are using (or if just the default, this is arg to Init)

Also indicate what terminal(s) you have tested with.

[GitHubThor]

Hello,

I'm new with Terminal Gui so, sorry if I'm doing something wrong.

My environment: Windows 11 24H2. Visual Studio 2022, .NET 8 and testing in windows with command line standard console (cmd.exe).

I also tested in Linux Ubuntu and Mac (Big Sur) with the default terminal. Terminal Gui v1 is working well in three of them.

I did not have to initialize console or encoding in v1, it worked right away. So I'm a bit lost in v2.

I had some luck by doing this before the initialization:

Console.OutputEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode;
Aplication.Init(driverName: "NetDriver");

Without the Unicode or UTF8 encoding initialization, and other driver than "NetDriver", it does not work to me.

I fixed the issue with above two lines but still see some weird characters in buttons and some components.

Without above lines, just doing Aplication.Init(); as v1 does, it simple did not work at all.

Send you attached my very little v2 starting project in case you can have a look, any advise and help will be very welcome.

Thank you very much in advance.

myproj.zip

[GitHubThor]

Are these question mark and arrows correct? I did not see them in v1?

Thanks!

[tznind]

Those arrows indicate a button IsDefault. The question marks are characters that your terminal font does not support e.g. rounded corners on frames.

You can change the default symbols by using the Glyphs class e.g. Glyphs.ULCorner = '.'

In future there will be support for named character sets so you can pick maximum compatibility or pretty etc

[GitHubThor]

The question marks are characters that your terminal font does not support e.g. rounded corners on frames.

Is there any recommendation in v2 of which terminal to use in Windows? I use default cmd.exe because it worked to me well in v1, but any other suggestions are very welcome. Thanks.

[tznind]

Windows Terminal should have you sorted. Alternatively you can probably just select a different font for the terminal you have to get the characters to appear.

Try switching fonts.

[tig]

Those arrows indicate a button IsDefault. The question marks are characters that your terminal font does not support e.g. rounded corners on frames.

You can change the default symbols by using the Glyphs class e.g. Glyphs.ULCorner = '.'

That's not quite right. Don't change the Glyphs class. If you want to override any of these settings, use ConfigurationManager.

In any Theme you can do this:

 "Glyphs.ULCorner": "┌",

E.g. here's a config.json file that overrides this glyph for the Default theme:

{
  "Themes": [
    {
      "Default": {
        "Glyphs.ULCorner": "*"
      }
    }
  ]
}

[GitHubThor]

I have a .NET 8 application in Terminal.Gui v1, without any driver or console encoding initialization.

It works well in Windows, Linux and Mac as it is. When running in Windows, it auto selects "WindowsDriver" and looks good.

In my Terminal.Gui v2 test application, if I run it letting .Init() to choose the driver, it of course selects also "WindowsDriver" but then the result is this:

In v2, I have to force Init() to use "NetDriver" instead "WindowsDriver", even running under Windows. Then, by forcing "NetDriver" it looks better, not as good as v1 but is ok.

Is this how is supposed to be or its just because v2 still in development?

Thank you!

[GitHubThor]

The latest v2 nuget package is "2.0.0-prealpha.1895"

Thanks, I updated the package to "2.0.0-prealpha.1895" and now WindowsDriver works for me, but not "v2win", which has the same issue inside the IDE.

I cannot use WT since VS2022 in Admin mode only launches console host and does not allow WT.

Additionally, if I use Console.SetWindowSize(cols, rows), it works perfect in conhost but not to me in WT;

WT is better, no doubt. But when I try to be in line with Linux and Mac, conhost is what works to me.

[tig]

My apologies for the confusion around version #s of the pre-release builds.

For clarity (for v2):

2.0.0-prealpha.xxxx are built from v2_release which is updated from v2_develop INFREQUENTLY.

2.0.0-develop.yyyy are built from v2_develop ANYTIME a new PR is merged.

Thus the highest yyyy in 2.0.0-develop.yyyy builds will always be the latest.

Once we get past the alpha stage, the builds from v2_release which change to 2.0.0-alpha.xxxx.

For now, just ignore -prealpha as the only real purpose it serves is to prove that we can build and publish from the v2_release branch.

[GitHubThor]

For now, just ignore -prealpha as the only real purpose it serves is to prove that we can build and publish from the v2_release branch.

Ok, just to avoid confusion due my English barrier, I was good then using 2.0.0-v2-develop.2203, correct?

[tznind]

The latest stable version which works with the designer is "2.0.0-develop.4400"

https://github.com/gui-cs/TerminalGuiDesigner/blob/edbc1814a299f42cbe63b06593990d0d18733158/src/TerminalGuiDesigner.csproj#L156

[GitHubThor]

The latest stable version which works with the designer is "2.0.0-develop.4400"

See this please: #4004 (comment)

[GitHubThor]

Correct, outside Visual Studio, executed outside de IDE works well, I did not test that way.

But for whatever reason it does not work well in debug mode, running inside the Visual Studio IDE, even using the same terminal application.

I'm going to compile for Linux and Mac without forcing the driver and try, I guess it will work too, but I will let you know.

Thanks!

[GitHubThor]

I'm curious why you must run VS2022 as admin.

Sure, 80% or 90% of what I develop requires admin privileges in Windows, or sudo in Linux and Mac. If I don't run VS in admin mode it is always asking me to re-start VS in admin mode when the app.manifest requires admin, and its annoying... to avoid that I have VS running as Admin by default.

[GitHubThor]

This makes no sense to me. Conhost is ancient and very buggy compared to even iTerm on the mac and most modern Linux consoles.

Agree with you, but since I run always as admin, WT does not allow that elevated permissions. If you try to elevate WT to admin, it switches to Powershell. By using admin mode as I explained in my other answer, conhost is the only way to go.

Additionally, I'm using certain features in my software, like resizing the console, in windows by Console.SetWindowSize(cols, rows);, and this doesn't work at all in WT.

Anyway, admin mode is just a deal breaker to stay on conhost, and so far I could test in conhost very well everything that goes later to Linux and Mac... till today no issues found, at least with the kind of software I develop.

[tig]

Got it.

Please let me know if remapping the glyphs helps.

[GitHubThor]

Please let me know if remapping the glyphs helps.

Remapping glyphs does not fix the issue, still happening:

{
"Themes": [
{
"Default": {
"Glyphs.ULCorner": "",
"Glyphs.URCorner": "",
"Glyphs.LLCorner": "",
"Glyphs.LRCorner": "",
"Glyphs.HLine": "-",
"Glyphs.VLine": "|"
}
}
]
}

[tig]

Can you please move this to the Issue?

#4004

I'll respond there.