From 8e3b4b0b052fd92ce89cc861ee95fb8d9bfcd2cc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Jesse Luehrs Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 16:22:25 -0400 Subject: add license and readme --- README.md | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+) create mode 100644 README.md (limited to 'README.md') diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3ad8310 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ +Runes +===== + +As a programmer, I spend the vast majority of my time on a computer in a +terminal window. This has always meant dealing with a wide variety of +limitations related to the fact that a "terminal emulator" really is exactly +that - at its core, it's emulating a decades-old hardware terminal interface. +There's no reason why at this point we need to be tied to those old APIs, but +all of the attempts I've seen so far to move away from that have involved +rewriting the whole thing from the ground up, breaking compatibility with all +of the existing terminal applications out there. + +This is why I decided to write Runes. Runes is a new terminal emulator with a +goal not to fully emulate some ancient piece of hardware, but to support +enough existing terminal control codes to run modern terminal software, and +also to become a place to experiment with new features for terminal +applications. There's no reason why terminals can't use actual graphics, or +support mouse-based interfaces (better than xterm, which only supports +clicks), or many other things like that which currently require switching to +an entirely different application to run. + +Some amount of portability is also a goal. Rather than being Linux-specific, +I'd like to be able to support at least recent versions of Linux, OSX, +FreeBSD, and (maybe) Windows. Currently, only Linux is supported. + +Right now it is in a very early stage (I'm still in the process of +implementing enough existing terminal functionality to be useful), but it +works well enough for basic interactions (nethack is playable, for instance). +Once enough functionality has been implemented to make it usable, I'll start +looking into new extensions. + +Building +-------- +Runes requires cairo, xlib, and libuv. Once those dependencies are installed, +you should be able to build it just by running `make`. If you're interested in +modifying the parser, you'll also need to install flex. + +Contributing +------------ +You can report bugs and submit pull requests to https://github.com/doy/runes/. +You can also contact me with questions, ideas, or patches at @doyster on +twitter, or doy@tozt.net via email. -- cgit v1.2.3-54-g00ecf