Introduce a terminal toggle in the status bar

[miguelsolorio]

Refs #115641

This idea is to introduce a terminal toggle in the status bar to increase visibility and discoverability. Once the user starts a terminal session, the terminal item should update the count to reflect this.

Screen.Recording.2021-02-02.at.8.49.01.PM.mov

I'll bring this up in our ux sync to discuss with the team

[usernamehw]

It would be great to:

• Have different icon for each terminal (3 terminal sessions - 3 icons)
• Have different icons for different types of terminal (cmd vs bash vs powershell vs other types)
• Have a busy indicator that something is running in the terminal

This feature will be helpful for all users, not only new users.

[Tyriar]

Have different icon for each terminal (3 terminal sessions - 3 icons)

This is essentially my extension: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=Tyriar.terminal-tabs, I don't think we should do this as it will be covered by terminal tabs eventually (#10546) , the main purpose of this feature would be helping with discoverability of the terminal.

Have different icons for different types of terminal (cmd vs bash vs powershell vs other types)

Again this would belong in an extension imo.

Have a busy indicator that something is running in the terminal

I mentioned this yesterday, it's a little tricky defining what is "running" though. For example often it is when some process is running but that can't be relied upon because maybe the process isn't busy (eg. running bash inside bash, running git log and leaving it). Maybe the most useful thing here is when output happens in a backgrounded terminal the spinner goes for a second or something 🤔. I'm not sure if there's an issue tracking this yet but it would make sense to tackle again after tabs.

[usernamehw]

@Tyriar Is there an extension api: If you can type / send text to terminal or not?

[krish-r]

+1

I believe following are the options available right now to open/toggle the terminal (on Windows). And, I don't think there is any one-click option to access the terminal (other than the first option).

• Ctrl + `
• View -> Toggle
• Command Palette -> View: Toggle Terminal
• Terminal -> New Terminal (Only applicable for the first time)
• Problems view toggle -> select Terminal tab

And, I find the last option to be easy compared to the rest (may be I'm just used to it).

So, IMHO it will be really helpful to have a dedicated Terminal toggle similar (& next) to Problems view toggle.
(Even if it doesn't display the terminal count).