The Terminal

The Terminal is where you spend 99% of your time. Netcatty's terminal is not a simple wrapper; it is a highly tuned implementation of xterm.js 5, leveraging WebGL acceleration to deliver a 60fps experience even under heavy load.

Rendering Engine

Most web-based terminals (and many Electron apps) suffer from "DOM thrashing" when processing fast output (like cat /var/log/syslog).

Netcatty uses a custom WebGL renderer with intelligent fallback.

• Architecture: Text is rendered as textures on a GPU canvas, bypassing the DOM layout engine entirely.
• Performance: Capable of sustaining >50MB/s of text throughput without freezing the UI.
• Smart Fallback: On systems where WebGL stability is an issue (or specifically on macOS to ensure perfect subpixel antialiasing), Netcatty automatically switches to a high-performance Canvas renderer.
• Ligatures: Full support for font ligatures (Fira Code, JetBrains Mono), rendered correctly across all engines.

Window Management (Split Panes)

Netcatty abandons the traditional "Window per connection" model in favor of a Workspace model.

Splitting Strategies

You can tile your interface to monitor multiple contexts simultaneously.

1. Contextual Splits:

   • Right-click a tab > Split Right.
   • This creates a duplicate view of the current session properties (allowing you to connect to the same host again easily), or choose a different host.
   • UseCase: Editing a config file in the left pane (vim nginx.conf) while tailing the error log in the right pane (tail -f error.log).

2. Drag and Drop Docking:

   • Grab any tab from the top bar.
   • Drag it to the Center/Left/Right/Bottom of the viewport.
   • Drop it to dock. You can create complex 2x2 or 3x1 grids this way.

Broadcast Mode (Cluster Management)

Broadcast Mode is a power-user feature that allows you to control multiple servers simultaneously.

The Workflow:

1. Open 4 connections to your web servers (Web-01, Web-02, Web-03, Web-04).
2. Arrange them in a 2x2 grid so you can see all of them.
3. Click the Broadcast Icon (Radio Tower) in the toolbar.
4. Visual Feedback: The Broadcast Icon in the toolbar will turn green, indicating that Input Synchronization is active.
5. Type uptime. You will see the characters appear on all 4 screens instantly.

Theming & Appearance

Your terminal should look and feel like yours.

1. Color Schemes

Netcatty ships with 50+ industry-standard themes (Dracula, Nord, Monokai, Solarized).

• Switching: Go to Settings > Appearance > Terminal Theme. The change applies immediately to all open sessions.
• Custom Themes: You can import standard JSON theme definitions.

2. Fonts

• Family: We default to a sensible monospace, but you can use any font installed on your OS.
  • Tip: Fonts like "MesloLGS NF" (for Powerlevel10k) work perfectly.
• Size & Line Height: Fine-tune the density. Increase line height (e.g., 1.2) for better readability, or decrease it (0.9) for maximum data density.

3. Cursor Styling

• Block (Standard)
• Bar (I-Beam)
• Underline
• Blinking options for all styles.

Search & Buffer

Scrollback Buffer

By default, Netcatty retains 10,000 lines of history per session.

• Configurable: You can increase this in Settings, but be aware that extremely large buffers (1M+ lines) consume significant RAM.

Smart Search

Press Cmd + F (Mac) or Ctrl + Shift + F (PC). The search bar allows you to quickly find text in the terminal buffer.

• Case Sensitivity: Matches are currently case-insensitive for maximum speed.
• Match Highlighting: Navigation between matches is instant, with the active match highlighted in a distinct color.

Keyword Highlighting

Netcatty includes a powerful Keyword Highlighting engine that processes terminal output in real-time.

• Automatic Detection: Predefined rules instantly highlight ERROR, WARN, SUCCESS, and DEBUG levels with distinct colors.
• Network Artifacts: IP addresses and MAC addresses are automatically detected and colored to help them stand out in messy logs.
• Customization: You can define your own Regex-based rules in Settings > Terminal > Highlighting to monitor specific patterns unique to your workflow.

Troubleshooting

"Garbled Text / Weird Characters"

This is usually an encoding or font issue.

1. Encoding: Netcatty defaults to UTF-8. If you are connecting to a legacy system using ISO-8859-1 or GBK, you may see replacement characters (). Check the "Encoding" setting in the Host Advanced tab.
2. Powerline Symbols Missing: If you see boxes instead of arrows/git icons in your shell prompt, you need to install a "Nerd Font" on your local machine and select it in Netcatty Settings.