[feature] support RQT like UI inline

[wbadry]

Hello, I created a launcher file for turtlesim_node , velocity_publisher and pose_subscriber

<launch>
    <node pkg="turtlesim" type="turtlesim_node" name="turtlesim" respawn="true" />
    <node pkg="wbadry" type="pubvel_node" name="publish_velocity" required="true" output="screen" />
    <node pkg="wbadry" type="subvel_node" name="pose_subscriber" output="screen" launch-prefix="gnome-terminal --command" />
</launch>

My problem is that I had to create an external terminal using launch-prefix="gnome-terminal --command" to monitor both 'publisher' and 'subscriber` messages.

Is there any way to use multiple integrated terminals within vscode like running multiple rosrun nodes? In other words, can I use the launch-prefix attribute to instantiate the integrated terminal instance inside vscode?

[ooeygui]

The VSCode ROS node extension exposes many commands through the VSCode command Pallet. You can access that using 'ctrl-shift-P'. The command you want is 'ROS: Create Terminal'. Looking at the VSCode extension API, I don't see a way to enable this external launch back to the originating window.

One thought, you can have a single launch file which includes your sub-launch files, and load them all at once.

[wbadry]

The VSCode ROS node extension exposes many commands through the VSCode command Pallet. You can access that using 'ctrl-shift-P'. The command you want is 'ROS: Create Terminal'. Looking at the VSCode extension API, I don't see a way to enable this external launch back to the originating window.

One thought, you can have a single launch file that includes your sub-launch files, and load them all at once.

Thanks, @ooeygui for your response. Unfortunately, this would be equivalent to calling rosrun multiple time 😄

Thanks again for being dedicated to work on this

[ooeygui]

Hi @wbadry, I think I see what you are trying to do. Unfortunately, vscode doesn't have this model. I am planning on adding rqt like functionality, which allows you to monitor specific topics; would that be useful?

[wbadry]

@ooeygui it would be very indeed

[ooeygui]

I changed title based on the chat inline