Project 13: Full Terminal Emulator

Integrate all previous projects into a fully functional terminal emulator with a GUI, running as a standalone application.

Quick Reference

Attribute Value
Primary Language C
Alternative Languages Rust, Zig
Difficulty Level 4: Expert (The Systems Architect)
Time Estimate 8-12 weeks
Knowledge Area Complete Terminal Implementation
Tooling Complete Terminal Emulator
Prerequisites All projects 1-12

What You Will Build

Integrate all previous projects into a fully functional terminal emulator with a GUI, running as a standalone application.

Why It Matters

This project builds core skills that appear repeatedly in real-world systems and tooling.

Core Challenges

  • GUI integration → SDL2, GTK, Qt, or native (Cocoa/Win32)
  • Event loop design → Handle input, output, resize, signals
  • Configuration → Parsing config files
  • Tabs/splits → Window management
  • Selection and clipboard → Mouse interaction

Key Concepts

  • All previous projects combined
  • GUI Toolkits: SDL2, GTK, Qt documentation
  • Real Terminal Sources: Alacritty, Kitty, WezTerm source code

Real-World Outcome

$ ./myterm

# It's a real terminal emulator!
# - Type commands
# - Use vim, htop, tmux
# - Full color support
# - Clickable links
# - Copy/paste works
# - Font rendering is good
# - GPU accelerated (smooth scrolling)
# - Scrollback history
# - Configurable via ~/.mytermrc

Implementation Guide

  1. Reproduce the simplest happy-path scenario.
  2. Build the smallest working version of the core feature.
  3. Add input validation and error handling.
  4. Add instrumentation/logging to confirm behavior.
  5. Refactor into clean modules with tests.

Milestones

  • Milestone 1: Minimal working program that runs end-to-end.
  • Milestone 2: Correct outputs for typical inputs.
  • Milestone 3: Robust handling of edge cases.
  • Milestone 4: Clean structure and documented usage.

Validation Checklist

  • Output matches the real-world outcome example
  • Handles invalid inputs safely
  • Provides clear errors and exit codes
  • Repeatable results across runs

References

  • Main guide: TERMINAL_EMULATOR_DEEP_DIVE_PROJECTS.md
  • Multiple (all previous)