CommandPalete\NewTab... Type a command name ... allow exe name

[vefatica]

In order to help a user, I downloaded and installed an ancient version of TCC. I figured the CommandPalette\NewTab... was the perfect place to run it. Nope! The only thing accepted in the "Type a command name" box is the name of something already appearing in the list of profiles below (which you can pretty easily get to with a few down-arrows). That seems a little lame. Can you allow a fully-qualified name of a console executable in that box (so it would work like "wt nt drive:\path\app.exe")?

Please tell me if I've missed a way to NewTab an un-profiled app.

Ditto for the CommandPalette\SplitPane... dialog.

[DHowett]

This is a great question! By default, the command palette lets you run any individual pre-defined action from your settings. However! If you backspace the > at the beginning of the prompt, you can run "wt" commandline commands. This includes spawning new tabs hosting applications (and it's pretty easy, too!)

Backspace:

Type something:

Observe that it can even take multiple commands and tell you what they do:

[DHowett]

You're right, we could surface this feature a lot better.

Interesting about the nested command issue. @zadjii-msft, should we suppress backspace=commandline mode when you're in a nested command? We need to refine the UX for nested commands anyway...

Idle thought: what if entering commandline mode while in a nested command could generate a partial command for you, so inside "split pane..." backspace would give you sp. It would let you upgrade/downgrade actions into commandlines...!

[vefatica]

P.S., I didn't include "nt" in the NewPane dialog, just the exe name that was OK (got a new pane). Given that the two dialogs have different names, couldn't the "nt" and "sp" be automatic?

It's a bit weird that if you put "sp" in the NewPane dialog you get a split pane and if you put "nt" (or nothing) in the SplitPane dialog you get a new pane.

[zadjii-msft]

should we suppress backspace=commandline

this seems doable

Idle thought: what if entering commandline mode while in a nested command could generate a partial command

This seems less doable. Next to impossible, I'd reckon.

[vefatica]

The backspace is fine but it needs to be in the prompt. "nt" and "sp" should be the defaults in their respective dialogs.

[vefatica]

How about key actions to get to the NewTab and SplitPane dialogs, in addition to >? Alt+shift+n and alt+shift+s seem to be available.