Embed Iterm2 in app

[Mads Hartmann]

Hey guys,

I'm working on a TextMate Plugin [1] and would really like to embed
iTerm in the plugin - Is this possible? The goal of the plugin is to
put a terminal emulator into TextMate but currently it's only able to
run SBT [2] commands as this was the most pressing feature i
needed :)

Thanks,
Mads Hartmann Jensen

[1] http://github.com/mads379/SBT-Console-Textmate-Plugin
[2] SBT = Simple Build Tool is a build system for Scala based projects.

[George Nachman]

Hi Mads,

Embedding was possible with the original iTerm but I believe it no
longer works. I don't think it would be hard to bring back, though. I
presume you can link a library in? What interfaces do you need
exposed?

[Mads Hartmann]

Hey George,

Yeah I'm able to link a library :)

It would be most convenient for me if you could provide a subclass of
NSView that I could just put into my NIB and it would work out of the
box ;) If this is not possible then what I'm currently missing is a
dictionary of application names and their location which also includes
applications added to $PATH in the .profile file.

Thanks,
Mads Hartmann

[George Nachman]

There is a ton of logic that's currently in the NSWindowController subclass. I think that makes it more difficult to run out of an NSView, although a lot of that logic will be moved out in the next release.  There are various other bad dependencies (like on the Preferences panel) that get in the way, too. I think we're overdue for a code & dependency cleanup which will make this more feasible. Will you file a feature request for this? It will make a good test of our code's dependency cleanliness.

[Mads Hartmann]

Sure thing! :)

Here's the issue: http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/issues/detail?id=135

[sgehrman]

I need this too. I'm currently using a heavily modified fork of an
old version of iTerm. If you want the code, email me. It works OK,
but I want to get on a newer version of the code.

-steve

[George Nachman]

Hi Mads,

Thanks for writing! It sounds like there is a decent amount of demand for this. It would be great if the people who want to embed iTerm2 could take the task of coming up with a design for how this could be done. I don't have the time to look at this right now as there are some pretty urgent bugs to attend to, but I'll support you as much as possible. What do you think?

-g

[Mads Hartmann]

Hey George,

Sorry for the late reply. I'm busy myself right now so I cant find the
time to work out a design. I'll write to this thread if I find the
time in the future :)

Thanks,
Mads Hartmann Jensen

[George Nachman]

No problem! I hope we can find some folks to help with this effort,
but it's not my highest priority at the moment.

[Lucas]

I'd love to help with this, but I really wouldn't know where to start. 

[George Nachman]

Got some free time? Start by reading this:
http://code.google.com/p/iterm2/wiki/Architecture

I'd recommend beginning by writing a design document laying out what
you plan to do. I can help out because this is a complex job. Once
there's a good plan, fork github.com/gnachman/iTerm2 and start
hacking.