Abstract

• In the continuously evolving world of programming, the number of aspiring developers is only increasing.

• To encourage the pursuit of software engineering, the provision of a smooth shell programming experience for beginners as well as experienced programmers with a user-friendly and efficient terminal shell is essential.

• This project aims to design a terminal shell that focuses more on user interface and optimized commands to cater to the needs of a larger group of programmers that don’t want to use the same old bland terminal shells.

Why this project?

Everyone starts somewhere. But no one wants to start with a black and white command prompt terminal that is difficult to learn with.

When we ourselves were novices in the programming field, we would have certainly preferred to have a clear understanding of how to work around a terminal shell. In fact, even now, who doesn’t want a nicer programming experience?

Starting as only a baseline for the project, we foresee this terminal design having a larger scope with several features to optimize the user experience. After a few test runs, we will be able to gain more insights and feedback to upgrade the design even further.

A look into it

High Level Design

• Window made using tkinter with components from customtkinter.

• Contains a button to run the inputted commands and a help button to display preprogrammed commands and their descriptions.

• Contains a button to toggle between dark and light mode.

• Terminal View: Main window of the terminal.

• Command is extracted from the command line and processed to provide an output in the terminal window.

• History View: Previously run commands are stored here using an array

• Help window: Comprehensive documentation explaining each command line function with their respective usages.

• Directory: Contains a sub window to display the current working directory

• Widgets to display dynamic CPU and memory utilisation metrics. Additionally, multithreading is used to provide concurrency

• Scalability: Scope for addition of customisable commands to suit the user’s personal requirements

What's the point?

Terminal (command-line) programming seems dry, but it remains highly relevant in the software realm.

• Terminal programs are universally compatible across different operating systems.

• Scripting is done best on terminal shells and this design helps programmers have an amazing experience with it.

TermEZ is EZ:

• This terminal design greatly improves the comprehensibility of shell programming.

• Learning curve smoothened for beginners and terminal programming is more appealing.

TermEZ is EZ.2:

• This terminal also appeals to advanced programmers with many more features, metric displays and customizations.

• The elegant design and potential customization just contributes to an overall improvement in user experience.

Command line familiarity:

• Command-line engineering is a crucial skill and being familiar with necessary commands is invaluable. With the help of easy comprehension and a command helpdesk available in the terminal, it is easy to get familiar.

User Guide and Help

Please refer to the file 'TermEZ Final PPT' for a detailed look into this project including low level design, modules and function set.

Contributors:

• Sriram B. Swami

• AO Navin Kumar

• Meghna Varma

Thank you :D