It looks like it could be sweet, but on my iBook it unexpectedly quits when attempting to use any of the options...Since I basically live at the command line, it is rather important that it not quit on me (killing everything that I am working on, and causing me to lose work...)

Is it working for anyone else?

ChakaTodd: exactly! I've got a vi session that's been running since sometime in August and a BitchX irc session about as old.

Edited by author 12-16-2002 02:16 PM
I second the vote for screen! It buys you a lot more than tabbed terminals. If have editing and e-mail sessions that exist for months at a time.

Kisrael,

I've been missing tabbed terminals on OS X since I started using it. I got hooked on them with KDE's Konsole, and KDE doesn't run terribly well on OS X just yet.

A tabbed terminal is fantastic for programming work-- I always kept konsole going with at least four tabs (usually more like eight), opened to various test machines and the like. The keyboard shortcuts make switching (and opening, and closing, and renaming) tabs a quick and simple process, and I don't have to deal with managing a fat stack of windows on top of my already fat stack of windows.

The advantages to tabs are speed, reduced clutter (a huge deal when you've got overlapping terminals full of very similar text), and visibility (the tabs show you which panes are open, where each pane is in the rotation, etc).

Screen is nice, but I would give up a line or two of real estate on my monitor for a bit more context about where exactly I am. Yes, I know you can name windows and even keep the window name visible for the current screen, but I'd love to have tabs at the bottom, always visible (or toggle-able with a key-stroke) that shows all open sessions and where you are.

This should be possible without a gui, keeping things VT100.

I just don't get why people are so gaga for tabs. Maybe on pre-dock MacOS, but these days, with docks and task bars, what's the big deal, between that and opening two windows?

Edited by author 12-16-2002 06:19 AM
GLterm is also pretty sweet. It uses OpenGL graphics to make the terminal much more responsive. You wouldn't think that 3D acceleration would make that big a difference for a text parser, but, well... it does.

I wouldn't want to live without screen. Not only multiplexes terminal sessions, but also the ever-so-handy detach/re-attach feature that let's me keep remote sessions running even if my local machine gets disconnected or shutdown...