I know that Windows terminal applications have changed over time when looking at how they allow users to make the terminal pause accepting output.
Ctrl+S (XOFF) and Ctrl+Q (XON) used to work, then didn't work, and now in Windows Terminal Ctrl+S has reappeared, but instead of Ctrl+Q you can resume with any key.
The Pause key seems to have the same effect, but according to some sources it shouldn't work, and other sources say there's a difference (where Ctrl+S stops accepting output, Pause supposedly actually suspends the process).
I've found it difficult to find reliable documentation, and from my own experience, Pause and Ctrl+S seem to have the same effect on console applications. They will continue to run for a small amount of time and then drop to 0% CPU, resuming when another key is pressed, which usually results in a small amount of output immediately appearing, and the console application resuming its normal function.
Does anyone know with some certainty:
- whether Pause and Ctrl+S are the same or different in Windows Terminal? (in Windows 11)
- whether Pause in Windows Terminal is the same as Pause in Windows Console Host? (it does not support Ctrl+S in current Windows versions, not by default anyway)
- whether both or either actually do something to the runnning process, or whether it's just a matter of writing to standard out becomes blocking due to the terminal window no longer accepting the output?