Serial Xterm - VS Code Extension

Overview

Serial Xterm is a Visual Studio Code extension designed to facilitate communication with serial devices directly from your editor.

Basic serial terminal functionality

AI/Language Model Integration support

Usage

1. Opening and Closing Serial Port

   • To open a serial port, click the Connect icon.
   • To close the serial port, click the Disconnect icon.

2. Multi-Session Support

   • Session Tabs: Multiple serial connections can be managed simultaneously using session tabs.
   • New Session: Click the + button to create a new session.
   • Close Session: Click the × button on a session tab to close that specific session.

3. Sending Data

   • You can send data to the connected serial device by typing directly in the terminal.

4. Receiving Data

   • Incoming data from the connected serial device is displayed in the terminal in real-time.

5. Clearing Terminal

   • To clear the terminal output, click the Clear icon.

6. Dumping All Terminal Contents

   • To save the current terminal session's output to a new editor tab for analysis or logging, click the Dump icon.

7. Copy and Paste with Right Click

   • Right-click to copy selected text from the terminal.
   • Right-click to paste text from clipboard to the terminal.

8. Word Highlighting

   • You can configure word highlighting patterns in the Tool menu.
   • Serial Xterm will highlight matching words in Red, Yellow, or Green colors.

9. AI/Language Model Integration

   • Serial Xterm supports AI assistants and language models through dedicated commands:
     • serial-xterm.ai.sendCommand - Send commands to serial device and get responses
     • serial-xterm.ai.getCommandResult - Retrieve recent output from serial device
     • serial-xterm.ai.getConnectionStatus - Check serial connection status
   • These commands can be used by AI assistants like GitHub Copilot to help you interact with serial devices programmatically.