Project idea: Offer an option to let Git Bash open in Windows Terminal, if that is available

[dscho]

Currently, Git Bash always runs in a MinTTY window. That was a great choice when all that was available was Windows' old console window, especially in times when all one could select was rectangular areas, instead of continuous spans of text that might potentially wrap across multiple lines.

However in the meantime there's Windows Terminal and it's actually really great: It's very flexible actively developed, it has tons of options, it get constantly improved. I actually use it myself a lot, except for Git Bash because Git Bash currently only runs in MinTTY.

So here is a splendid opportunity for new contributors to the Git for Windows project! I want to state explicitly here that I am not opposed at all to AI-assisted contributions in this project, just make sure that the modifications make sense before contributing them 😄.

The idea is to detect whether Windows Terminal is available (this is something to be determined how best to do) and if so ,coffer it as as an alternative to MinTTY.

To get started, check out the documentation about creating a new installer, verify that you can generate the page that let's the user choose between Bash and CMD , figure out a way to detect whether Windows terminal is available, then add the appropriate check to install.iss in the section where the choice between Bash and MinTTY is implemented, and offer Git Bash in Windows Terminal as a 3rd choice if it is available.

That choice should probably reuse the code that we already have to add a Windows terminal profile, and then replace the Start Menu item "Git Bash" to call that instead (wt -p "Git Bash").

[FibreTTP]

I don't know if you know this, but selecting to use cmd.exe in the installer will actually result in Git Bash using Windows Terminal, if Windows Terminal is set as the default terminal in Windows Developer settings (and as far as I can tell, even if it's set to the default of "Let Windows Decide").

[dscho]

selecting to use cmd.exe in the installer will actually result in Git Bash using Windows Terminal

You mean the "Use Windows' default console window" option, right?

(Yes, it unfortunately talks about cmd.exe still, but it distinctly does not use CMD, so that's misleading.)

It is true that Windows 11 has the Windows Terminal as console window by default. But it can be turned off, and Windows 10 does not have that default (and we still support Windows 8.1 in this project...). And in any case, the idea is to integrate it better: using the current "Windows' default console window" option does not add a profile, and for what I know does not even attach Git for Windows' icon to the new tab in Windows Terminal.

So I think that this is still a thing worth doing.

[dscho]

We should probably do this in conjunction with what I suggested elsewhere:

1. install Git for Windows' SDK,
2. sdk cd installer,
3. edit install.iss
   The windowsterminal component will need a Check parameter pointing to a new function similar to the EnableSymlinksByDefault() function, in particular imitating the part that looks for a minimum Windows version.
4. build a new installer via sdk build installer/test the page via ./release.sh -d wpSelectComponents
5. verify that that installer works as expected?
6. open a PR?