frontpage.
newsnewestaskshowjobs

Open Source @Github

fp.

Open in hackernews

Show HN: Whippy Term - GUI terminal for embedded development (Linux and Windows)

https://whippyterm.com
96•SurvivorTed•1y ago

Comments

SurvivorTed•1y ago
New GUI based serial terminal for embedded development (Linux and Windows)

Hi all, just wanted to let everyone know of my new open-source serial (and TCP/IP) terminal program aimed at embedded developers.

I wasn't happy with what was available on Linux, so I decided to write my own. The goals were to have a modern GUI (tab based, pull out panels, etc) and I wanted support for binary protocols.

It has support for ANSI escape sequences, XModem (up/down), binary blocks, hex dumps, bridging 2 open connections, and more.

Source link: https://github.com/TheBeef/WhippyTerm

This is the first release (version 1.0), and I am hoping people will have a look (and hopefully like it).

stavros•1y ago
This seems really nice, thank you! Does it support auto-reconnect, like `tio` does?
SurvivorTed•1y ago
It doesn't currently support it, but I was planning in the next release (a number of people have asked for it so it's a definitely going to add).
svth•1y ago
Why no macOS support?
SurvivorTed•1y ago
I don't have a mac. I did have a guy who was going to add support for it but he backed out.

The main GUI is built in QT so making a mac port shouldn't be too hard (the serial port detection would be the hardest part I think).

pjmlp•1y ago
Kudos for going with Qt. It looks nice.
mystified5016•1y ago
Oh damn, this could easily replace my own bespoke serial monitors.

Can a plugin filter the list of available ports? For instance serial over Bluetooth creates two virtual ports for initiating and accepting connections (on windows at least). My bespoke monitor filters these and only shows the outbound ports to the user. It also pulls in the Bluetooth device name from WinRT, etc.

SurvivorTed•1y ago
There isn't any filtering of serial ports (it lists everything it finds).

However it does support bookmarks. With bookmarks you open the serial port you want to use then select to bookmark it. WhippyTerm will take the current config you are using and save it for later. You can then just pick the bookmark later to reopen that connection. Bookmarks also store some of the settings (like is it a binary or text connection, terminal size, colors, etc).

It's a lot like bookmarks in a web browser.

SurvivorTed•1y ago
Thinking about it a bit more, if someone wanted to filter the comports like this you could copy the standard comport IO driver and make a new plugin that only listed the outbound ports (you could also restrict the list to Bluetooth devices).

Internally the comport IO driver is just a plugin that gets compiled into the main exe (any plugin can be made into a built in, just add the source to the .pro file, add a call to the register function and now the extern plugin is built in).

So you could copy the existing comport IO driver, change the 'REGISTER_PLUGIN_FUNCTION_PRIV_NAME' and 'COMPORT_URI_PREFIX' defines to something else (so it doesn't conflict with the built in 'COM' one). Change the code so filter any comport that isn't for the Bluetooth device. Compile the source and package the resulting .dll using the ExternPluginMaker tool. Done

When the new plugin is installed the new connection dialog you will list your detected "devices" listed along with all the other types (you could prefix them with bluetooth for example).

Feel free to email me if you would like more details.

AriedK•1y ago
This is neat. The send buffers and live display give it a nice edge over something like Tera Term. One nitpick: I couldn't find the option to disable autoscroll on incoming serial streams. Like 'Auto scroll only in bottom line' in Tera Term. Thanks!
SurvivorTed•1y ago
It seems like I missed this option. I'll be adding it to the list of things to do for version 1.1 :)

Thanks for the feed back.

alias_neo•1y ago
This looks great. I don't do serial/embedded stuff too often at the moment; ESPHome took away much of my need to hand-build stuff (happy and sad about that), but when I do I always find it slightly irritating to remember the syntax to connect with minicom or screen (I'm a Linux user).

I'm sorry I can't give more useful feedback at the moment, but this is certainly encouraging me to come up with an idea for an embedded project so I can try it!

ac29•1y ago
Can you add Linux build instructions for people not on Debian/Ubuntu?

I didnt see anything on the github or in the source download.

Alternatively an AppImage or Flatpak is a nice way to test software.

SurvivorTed•1y ago
Can't really help with exact instructions for other distros, but the "in a nutshell" is you need to install qtcreator and QT5.

After you have them installed and working all you have to do is load the .pro file from the Project directory (https://github.com/TheBeef/WhippyTerm/tree/main/Project) you should be able to just hit the green debug/go button and it should work (you do need to be using the gcc toolchain). This is the same for the Windows build.

Hope this helps.

Breaking Up with Google Play: Why Conversations Is Now Free

https://gultsch.de/posts/breaking-up-with-google-play/
261•ezst•3h ago•101 comments

Understanding the Impact of LLM Watermarking on AI Agent Behavior

https://www.lasso.security/blog/the-provenance-tax-understanding-the-impact-of-llm-watermarking-o...
38•nisosguy•1h ago•14 comments

Fifteen years later, the Apple Cards origin story

https://lexontech.org/fifteen-years-later-the-apple-cards-origin-story
144•ksec•5h ago•17 comments

Revealing the details of how OpenAI agents hacked Hugging Face

https://swarmtraces.org/
563•specked-citrus•17h ago•359 comments

We're gonna need a lot more mathematicians

https://terrytao.wordpress.com/2026/09/24/were-gonna-need-a-lot-more-mathematicians/
210•srcreigh•11h ago•293 comments

Plan mode is dead

https://www.aymannadeem.com/artificial/intelligence,/developer/tools/2026/09/24/plan-mode-is-dead...
401•jmvldz•1d ago•365 comments

Modern Object Pascal Introduction for Programmers – Castle Game Engine

https://castle-engine.io/modern_pascal
20•birdculture•2d ago•7 comments

ASML currently sells no chipmaking machines in Europe, executive says

https://nltimes.nl/2026/09/22/asml-currently-sells-chipmaking-machines-europe-executive-says
79•doener•2d ago•63 comments

Ollaya – Ollama for open-source, Jev-style decision models

https://ollaya.dev/
512•Ardakilic•19h ago•126 comments

Floci: Locally emulating any cloud service

https://floci.io
75•theanonymousone•5h ago•10 comments

A single function Jev-like wrapper for LLMs, including vision models

http://allanrbo.blogspot.com/2026/09/a-jev-like-wrapper-for-llms-including.html
107•allanrbo•10h ago•30 comments

Is your Postgres migration safe or not safe?

https://safenotsafe.dev/
71•vira28•6h ago•20 comments

Show HN: Jev Plays Pokémon Red

https://jev-pokemon.vercel.app/
222•pancomplex•23h ago•91 comments

16GB iPod Nano 3G Upgrade

https://tuckerosman.com/projects/16gb-ipod-nano
72•Ivoah•2d ago•8 comments

Parsing Expression Grammar vs. Regexes: Building Org Parser in Lisp, Export HTML

https://jointhefreeworld.org/blog/articles/lisps/parsing-expression-grammar-lisp-org-convert-to-h...
49•jjba23•2d ago•9 comments

What even is an OS now?

https://sockpuppet.org/blog/2026/09/25/what-even-is-an-os-now/
226•fratellobigio•16h ago•323 comments

Calculating atmospheric drag on satellites for a Cubesat [pdf]

https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1124870
13•walrus01•2d ago•5 comments

Gravity seems holographic. What does that mean for reality?

https://www.quantamagazine.org/gravity-seems-holographic-what-does-that-mean-for-reality-20260925/
236•ibobev•22h ago•185 comments

Ask HN: Who's still keeping a DOS machine up because the business depends on it?

173•mlaux•18h ago•162 comments

The Murky History of Soviet-Born Tetris

https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-bizarre-murky-history-of-soviet-born-tetris/
66•EA-3167•1d ago•15 comments

Scientists build most accurate atomic clock

https://phys.org/news/2026-09-scientists-world-accurate-atomic-clock.html
33•wglb•2d ago•16 comments

Jury finds Facebook liable for deceiving users in Cambridge Analytica case

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-liable-deceiving-users-cambridge-analytica/
307•pseudolus•12h ago•79 comments

One Month Without AI

https://blog.bustikiller.com/2026/09/25/one-month-without-ai.html
120•saibotk•4h ago•125 comments

HomelabFest will be in St. Louis in September 2027

https://www.homelabfest.org
63•geerlingguy•12h ago•36 comments

The Copilot+ PC brand is dead

https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/the-copilot-pc-brand-is-dead-microsoft-and-pc...
40•bj-rn•4h ago•21 comments

Fourier Analysis: Drawing Llamas with Circles

https://adekau.github.io/posts/2020/llamas.html
59•cebert•2d ago•6 comments

The far side of the Moon provides clues to a previous magnetic field

https://ethz.ch/en/news-and-events/eth-news/news/2026/09/the-far-side-of-the-moon-provides-clues-...
16•croes•6h ago•1 comments

Excel now supports multiple values in a single cell

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/blog/microsoft365insiderblog/put-multiple-values-in-one-cell-...
219•luispa•17h ago•152 comments

From Thin Air to Bootable Images: The Tine Build System

https://amutable.com/blog/tine-build-system
25•Levitating•2d ago•8 comments

Lab on a Contact Lens Can Measure Stress Through Serotonin

https://spectrum.ieee.org/serotonin-stress-smart-contact-lens
53•marc__1•15h ago•20 comments