I have coined the phrase terminal transformer for a class of programs like tmux, dvtm, tcvt, and splitvt. Perhaps there is already a phrase. A terminal transformer runs on top of a terminal emulator and acts as a terminal emulator itself, with an application like nano running on top of it. In other words, it uses a terminal emulator and is used as a terminal emulator.
I would like to experiment with a completely transparent transformer as a starting point. A transparent transformer passes through everything. Ideally it does nothing. Just as a--not useful--example, if I want hitting the left cursor key to move the cursor left then right then left again, I can add code to intercept that escape sequence and program it to do that. That is how I imagine experimenting with more sophisticated and useful transformations. I would like some guidance on developing a program that is a transparent terminal transformer in a way that is as simple and stupid as possible. Do you have any idea how short or long it would be? What I could look at as an example? I am thinking that in order to make it a simple and stupid as possible, it runs on top of st and masquerades as st. It uses no library like curses or libvte. It deals directly with escape sequences. Is such a thing possible or practical? It would be analogous to using cat as a filter, and would be as simple as sbase's cat.c (as an ideal, I know it does a lot more than cat). If or when I come up with a useful transformation, I might want to make it terminal independent by using curses or libvte, but that is for the future. Can anyone help?
