Terminal emulator: Difference between revisions

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{{short description|Program that emulates a video terminal}}

{{refimprove|date=October 2009}}

[[File:Xterm.png|thumb|300px|[[xterm]], a terminal emulator designed for the [[X Window System]]]]

[[File:Windows Terminal v1.0 1138x624.png|thumb|300px|[[Windows Terminal]], an open-source terminal emulator for [[Windows 10]] and [[Windows 11]]]]

A '''terminal emulator''', or '''terminal application''', is a [[Application software|computer program]] that [[Emulator|emulates]] a video [[Computer terminal#Dumb terminals|terminal]] within some other display architecture. Though typically synonymous with a [[Command-line interface|shell]] or [[text terminal]], the term ''terminal'' covers all remote terminals, including graphical interfaces. A terminal emulator inside a [[graphical user interface]] is often called a '''terminal window'''.

A terminal window allows the user access to a text terminal and all its applications such as [[command-line interface]]sinterfaces (CLI) and [[text user interface]] (TUI) applications. These may be running either on the same machine or on a different one via [[telnet]], [[Secure Shell|ssh]], [[dial-up]], or over a direct [[serial port|serial connection]]. On [[Unix-like]] operating systems, it is common to have one or more terminal windows connected to the local machine.

Terminals usually support a set of [[escape sequences]] for controlling color, [[Cursor (computers)|cursor]] position, etc. Examples include the family of terminal control sequence standards known as [[ECMA-48]], [[ANSI X3.64]] or [[ISO/IEC 6429]].

== Background ==