5 ms·

Can someone help me understand how this would be useful?

by nanook 11y ago

iamdanfox 11y ago
I usually want to keep an eye on my Selenium tests so I can debug them if they get stuck. When I don't have enough space to leave the selenium VNC window open, I put it underneath a semi-transparent terminal window which allows me to keep working.
- c22 11y ago
  I love semi-transparent terms when I'm copying information/commands from another window on a tiny netbook screen.
Ciantic 11y ago
Cause at certain age, all geeks go through their Window Blinds period, that's when they keep changing the windowing theme, maybe tweaking the shell. Many find it silly if not a buggy after a while, and years later wonder, why are people still doing this?
- spilk 11y ago
  I call this 'enlightenment', because I reached it after spending way too many hours in my teens tweaking my Enlightenment window manager config rather than doing something useful.
  - jfarmer 11y ago
    Never go full E17.
- mbrock 11y ago
  For editing code, I use a full-screen terminal with a wide left margin and transparency dimly showing a desktop picture. The large font I use is super awesome (Input Mono Narrow Thin) and it all looks gorgeous. It makes me happy every day, and it even inspires me to keep code clean. I may be shallow, but I don't enjoy working in drab environments like Eclipse with like Courier New and the default color theme. It makes me depressed.
hex13 11y ago
Imagine that you have to create website on your laptop. With semi-transparent editor window and with live reloading, you are able to modify website code and see instantly how website changes underneath. Without switching apps.
- mintplant 11y ago
  A second monitor works even better - one for code, one for the preview.
  - davidcelis 11y ago
    But it's also more expensive and less portable. The transparency makes it easy as someone who is out and about doing work at coffee shops.
- trabianmatt 11y ago
  My favorite variation of this is to have a special keystroke for saving a file and making the window transparent at the same time, then restoring the opacity on the next keystroke. I can see the effect of the live (or hot) reload and then either continue editing or cmd+tab to the browser if I need to interact with it.
kendallpark 11y ago
Because swag.
pacomerh 11y ago
Yes I can. My personal reasons are, when coding on a laptop with no secondary screen you can take advantage of transparency to see realtime updates (behind) without switching windows. Or at times to read some crazy long command from the docs and type it at the same time. I do this with VIM, though I can turn it on/off with iterm cmd-u
- petercooper 11y ago
  Thanks for making this point. It hadn't occurred to me before. I am a desktop junkie because I want to monitor things like Slack, Spotify, etc. on my secondary, and find it hard to cope on notebooks with a single screen. But, you're right, some transparency would really help.. now to figure out how to do it on OS X :-)
elcapitan 11y ago
On a small screen (MB Air 11") I use a little transparency in the editor to see what the log on the console is doing, for example. Just not enough screen estate to have them side by side.

Can someone help me understand how this would be useful?

by nanook 11y ago

Can someone help me understand how this would be useful?

I usually want to keep an eye on my Selenium tests so I can debug them if they get stuck. When I don't have enough space to leave the selenium VNC window open, I put it underneath a semi-transparent terminal window which allows me to keep working.

c22 11y ago
I love semi-transparent terms when I'm copying information/commands from another window on a tiny netbook screen.

Ciantic 11y ago

Cause at certain age, all geeks go through their Window Blinds period, that's when they keep changing the windowing theme, maybe tweaking the shell. Many find it silly if not a buggy after a while, and years later wonder, why are people still doing this?

spilk 11y ago
I call this 'enlightenment', because I reached it after spending way too many hours in my teens tweaking my Enlightenment window manager config rather than doing something useful.
- jfarmer 11y ago
  Never go full E17.
mbrock 11y ago
For editing code, I use a full-screen terminal with a wide left margin and transparency dimly showing a desktop picture. The large font I use is super awesome (Input Mono Narrow Thin) and it all looks gorgeous. It makes me happy every day, and it even inspires me to keep code clean. I may be shallow, but I don't enjoy working in drab environments like Eclipse with like Courier New and the default color theme. It makes me depressed.

hex13 11y ago

Imagine that you have to create website on your laptop. With semi-transparent editor window and with live reloading, you are able to modify website code and see instantly how website changes underneath. Without switching apps.

mintplant 11y ago
A second monitor works even better - one for code, one for the preview.
- davidcelis 11y ago
  But it's also more expensive and less portable. The transparency makes it easy as someone who is out and about doing work at coffee shops.
trabianmatt 11y ago
My favorite variation of this is to have a special keystroke for saving a file and making the window transparent at the same time, then restoring the opacity on the next keystroke. I can see the effect of the live (or hot) reload and then either continue editing or cmd+tab to the browser if I need to interact with it.

kendallpark 11y ago

Because swag.

pacomerh 11y ago

Yes I can. My personal reasons are, when coding on a laptop with no secondary screen you can take advantage of transparency to see realtime updates (behind) without switching windows. Or at times to read some crazy long command from the docs and type it at the same time. I do this with VIM, though I can turn it on/off with iterm cmd-u

petercooper 11y ago
Thanks for making this point. It hadn't occurred to me before. I am a desktop junkie because I want to monitor things like Slack, Spotify, etc. on my secondary, and find it hard to cope on notebooks with a single screen. But, you're right, some transparency would really help.. now to figure out how to do it on OS X :-)

elcapitan 11y ago

On a small screen (MB Air 11") I use a little transparency in the editor to see what the log on the console is doing, for example. Just not enough screen estate to have them side by side.