microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Lock-Symbol for read-only panes

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Area-UserInterface Issue-Task Product-Terminal
Dominant language
C++
Stars
105k
Forks
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Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
29

Description

# Description of the new feature/enhancement

Find a way to highlight the fact, that a pane is in read-only mode

## Why though?

I use a 3 pane setup when I'm developing a web app.

1) just a console, git and stuff
2) watch-build backend
3) watch-build frontend

I want to be 2) and 3) in read-only mode most of the time to avoid typing into the pane when it accidentally gets focus. I dont know why but that happens quite often to me. But sometimes I want to cancel the process and then I never know if the pane is in read-only mode. That's kinda annoying

# Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

Some ideas:
- show a lock icon in the upper right corner of the pane for example
- change the background color of the pane
- change the frame color of the pane

A lock symbol in the tab is not good enough because it doesn't imply which pane is / which panes are locked if you have more than one pane.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

The issue names no files, tests, or entry points; start by locating the pane read-only state and the existing pane or tab UI in the Windows Terminal codebase. Before implementation, settle whether the indicator is an icon, background, or frame change, then verify that it distinguishes each locked pane rather than relying on a tab-level marker.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
30/100

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