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.

Three new discoveries in mathematics, computer science, and physics

https://openai.com/index/building-scientific-understanding-with-academic-communities/
548•jonluca•5h ago•230 comments

The Exponential Time Hypothesis Is False [pdf]

https://github.com/openai/math/blob/main/preprints/The-Exponential-Time-Hypothesis-is-False-Octob...
352•vok•4h ago•136 comments

Sebastian Raschka's from-scratch video course on building reasoning models

https://magazine.sebastianraschka.com/p/building-reasoning-models
583•sgiannopoulos•11h ago•85 comments

Oldest GUI application that still runs on Windows 11

https://blog.enlyth.com/posts/oldest-windows-gui-app-win-11/
319•enlyth•8h ago•195 comments

Type Server Protocol

https://github.com/microsoft/pylance-release/blob/main/docs/tsp/type-server-protocol.md
201•adamnemecek•8h ago•141 comments

Cross-request KV cache exposure in the GLM-5.3 Workers AI model (155 responses)

https://blog.cloudflare.com/kv-cache-exposure-remediation/
87•wondersky•4h ago•23 comments

16-bit Windows (Windows 1.x, 2.x, 3.0, 3.1, etc.) on 64-bit Windows

https://github.com/otya128/winevdm
23•doener•1h ago•1 comments

A Printer Printing onto Paper

https://twitter.com/macrofying/status/2112904628509528219
70•MrBuddyCasino•3d ago•19 comments

CSS-Tricks has a new owner

https://css-tricks.com/css-tricks-has-a-new-owner/
396•edent•11h ago•90 comments

LISPy things you can do in 64K bytes of core (2019)

https://t3x.org/lisp64k/index.html
35•andsoitis•1d ago•5 comments

Solar power is becoming bigger than nuclear

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20261023-how-solar-became-bigger-than-nuclear
162•geox•11h ago•265 comments

Nietzschian Debugger

https://github.com/DilawarShafiq/nietzschian-debugger
136•dilawargopang•9h ago•45 comments

A Man from the Future: Why Johnny Can't Stop Abstracting

http://muratbuffalo.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-man-from-future-why-johnny-cant.html
129•aray07•9h ago•65 comments

Is PHP Running on Your ColdFusion Server? How to Check, and Remove It

https://www.gregoryalexander.com/blog/2026/10/23/is-php-quietly-running-on-your-coldfusion-server...
28•rmason•4h ago•18 comments

GPT-6.1 Terra

https://openai.com/index/introducing-gpt-6-1-terra/
527•meetpateltech•8h ago•331 comments

Anthropic S-1

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/2130357/000162828026067168/anthropicpbc-sx1.htm
1501•SiNTEx•13h ago•1465 comments

New iPad mini

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/10/apple-gives-ipad-mini-its-biggest-update-ever/
145•soheilpro•13h ago•409 comments

Virtual and Real World Combine at LAN Party (1998)

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1998-aug-10-mn-11870-story.html
9•npunt•2d ago•0 comments

Blaise Pascal invented fixed route public transport (2024)

https://humantransit.org/2024/12/one-of-the-greatest-inventions-in-the-history-of-human-transport...
268•skadamat•4d ago•136 comments

SIMD-accelerated computer vision on a $2 microcontroller

https://shraiwi.com/blog/simd-fast-esp32s3/
180•zdw•1d ago•56 comments

Microsoft offers mass buyouts for roughly a quarter of its workforce

https://www.seattletimes.com/business/microsoft/microsoft-offers-mass-buyouts-for-roughly-a-quart...
795•doctorzook•11h ago•706 comments

Websites Should Be Printable

https://brennenputh.me/blog/printable-websites/
283•bagatelle•16h ago•179 comments

APC says let there be light, with standards to speed up photonics manufacturing

https://www.nextplatform.com/connect/2026/10/23/apc-says-let-there-be-light-with-raft-of-standard...
5•rbanffy•1d ago•0 comments

Pharo 14

https://pharo.org/news/2026-10-26-Pharo14Release.html
242•xkriva11•15h ago•65 comments

Diamond Transistor

https://www.df.com/diamond-transistor
130•Gravityloss•3d ago•68 comments

In Context [video]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5eO7BNyJao
15•adityaathalye•3d ago•0 comments

Show HN: Hob - Open-source, on device alternative to Claude Cowork and ChatGPT

https://github.com/FrigadeHQ/hob
124•pancomplex•10h ago•30 comments

Sigma Says the Compact, Modular FP2 Is the Ultimate Hybrid Camera

https://petapixel.com/2026/10/22/sigma-says-the-compact-modular-fp2-is-the-ultimate-hybrid-camera/
46•thm•3d ago•60 comments

Native Prometheus Integration with Nginx

https://categorica.io/blog/2026.10.16_nginx-stats-prometheus/
39•foxhill•3d ago•9 comments

Fixing Tool-Call Accuracy in vLLM

https://www.ubicloud.com/blog/fixing-tool-call-accuracy-in-vllm
151•coffeemug•13h ago•65 comments