4 ms·

At what point do we just say why not 'install a modern GUI'?

Jtsummers 8y ago
I use TMUX to essentially create what this person has made. It's much more versatile than a GUI for me because I can kill any "widget" and reopen it with altered command line parameters. It's an incredibly useful and productive way to work. And if I realize that I want data that isn't present, I can just split a TMUX pane (or start a new TMUX window) and display it there.
- JdeBP 8y ago
  There was a point where it was that simple to run GUI widgets on a desktop, too. The likes of xman and xclock were just that, programs that one could just run and stop.
  - earenndil 8y ago
    Such things are not dead! I still use one for my clock (buici-clock) and another to show battery life (xbattbar).
- theshrike79 8y ago
  Can you share how you create a certain window/buffer setup on tmux automatically?
  - Jtsummers 8y ago
    tmuxinator Someone mentioned it a few months back and it greatly simplified my life. You specify your layouts (and tmux will give you the information to copy a current layout). You can then tell it what programs to run in each window of the layout. So I have a window broken into 5 panes (as an example). The top left runs emacs (via emacsclient) and opens my ledger.org file. The other 4 show various reports I want to see: Current cleared balance, current uncleared balance, current uncleared transactions, future transactions (out to a month), and a running balance sheet across the past several months. In another two windows I just have a shell and an emacsclient instance (because I live in emacs). Then as I come up with other things I want to see (weather information, summaries of my todos, email inbox (tally at least) I can add new window and pane configurations to my tmuxinator configuration. When I restart it, everything is back as I had it (if I put them in the config). I haven't done as much coding at home as I'd like lately (and it's all Windows at the office). But I have a couple other tmuxinator configs that will layout several windows and panes for development. Like launch an editor, and have spaces laid out like I want for debuggers and test monitoring scripts. As appropriate to the language and task. https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator For the constantly refreshed display, it's mostly `watch -t <some commands>` (modifying the refresh rate if necessary. `-t` removes the title text from the top of watch so it only shows the command outputs. Which is something it took me way too many years to realize.
inetknght 8y ago
I have yet to see a modern GUI that didn't put pretty little animations a higher priority than being modular and configurable and having as much or as little data density as I desire. Command lines, on the other hand, do it natively if not intuitively.
- organsnyder 8y ago
  Have you seen GKrellM? http://gkrellm.srcbox.net/ http://gkrellm.srcbox.net/
  - MisterTea 8y ago
    Their example demonstrates how cluttered the GUI is. I suppose you could change skins to something less gaudy but I bet that winds up looking like a terminal application.
    - oever 8y ago
      You can set the width to be larger. I have it at 1000px. That makes a for a nice, light and informative status window.
- monkeynotes 8y ago
  My point was that at some point adding more desktop-like functionality to Terminal you essentially create a GUI. I could argue that OSX / Ubuntu are modular and configurable and easily allow you to control data density too. Ultimately it's obviously whatever tool makes you most productive. My comment was more of a flippant observation of the nature of human endeavour.
  - inetknght 8y ago
    In my experience, OSX is not modular and configurable out-of-the-box. You need to install plugins. Ubuntu is the red-headed stepchild of Linux which wants to be Windows. I use it at work. I hate it. I'd rather use Fedora.
walrus01 8y ago
or you can compromise with an ultra minimalist GUI that runs on top of xorg, such as openbox/fluxbox and similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox Archbang , which uses openbox, is a good example of a distribution to try in a VM if anyone wants to see an example in action.
- indigodaddy 8y ago
  Archbang is still around??
  - walrus01 8y ago
    It is , to the best of my knowledge, though I am not a big fan of arch. Excellent wiki however. If I were going to run openbox I would install Debian to server like setup and then manually replicate the general idea of crunchbang.
    - tkjef 8y ago
      +1 #!
cryptonector 8y ago
The mouse. It sucks. The latency too (over long thin pipes). I prefer to live in a textual universe anyways. I can't not use a GUI browser for a lot of things, sadly, and occasionally I end up using an IDE, but as much as possible I use tmux/screen + $EDITOR + cscope + scripts + ... as my UI/IDE. It's just better. It works great over mosh, over SSH, over long thin pipes, over short wide pipes -- it just works. Latency is low, and mouse use nil -- win-win. EDIT: Also, it's a lot easier to organize and find my way around nested tmuxes than it is to organize tons of windows. Yes: I nest tmuxes.

I use TMUX to essentially create what this person has made. It's much more versatile than a GUI for me because I can kill any "widget" and reopen it with altered command line parameters. It's an incredibly useful and productive way to work. And if I realize that I want data that isn't present, I can just split a TMUX pane (or start a new TMUX window) and display it there.

JdeBP 8y ago
There was a point where it was that simple to run GUI widgets on a desktop, too. The likes of xman and xclock were just that, programs that one could just run and stop.
- earenndil 8y ago
  Such things are not dead! I still use one for my clock (buici-clock) and another to show battery life (xbattbar).
theshrike79 8y ago
Can you share how you create a certain window/buffer setup on tmux automatically?
- Jtsummers 8y ago
  tmuxinator Someone mentioned it a few months back and it greatly simplified my life. You specify your layouts (and tmux will give you the information to copy a current layout). You can then tell it what programs to run in each window of the layout. So I have a window broken into 5 panes (as an example). The top left runs emacs (via emacsclient) and opens my ledger.org file. The other 4 show various reports I want to see: Current cleared balance, current uncleared balance, current uncleared transactions, future transactions (out to a month), and a running balance sheet across the past several months. In another two windows I just have a shell and an emacsclient instance (because I live in emacs). Then as I come up with other things I want to see (weather information, summaries of my todos, email inbox (tally at least) I can add new window and pane configurations to my tmuxinator configuration. When I restart it, everything is back as I had it (if I put them in the config). I haven't done as much coding at home as I'd like lately (and it's all Windows at the office). But I have a couple other tmuxinator configs that will layout several windows and panes for development. Like launch an editor, and have spaces laid out like I want for debuggers and test monitoring scripts. As appropriate to the language and task. https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator https://github.com/tmuxinator/tmuxinator For the constantly refreshed display, it's mostly `watch -t <some commands>` (modifying the refresh rate if necessary. `-t` removes the title text from the top of watch so it only shows the command outputs. Which is something it took me way too many years to realize.

inetknght 8y ago

I have yet to see a modern GUI that didn't put pretty little animations a higher priority than being modular and configurable and having as much or as little data density as I desire. Command lines, on the other hand, do it natively if not intuitively.

organsnyder 8y ago
Have you seen GKrellM? http://gkrellm.srcbox.net/ http://gkrellm.srcbox.net/
- MisterTea 8y ago
  Their example demonstrates how cluttered the GUI is. I suppose you could change skins to something less gaudy but I bet that winds up looking like a terminal application.
  - oever 8y ago
    You can set the width to be larger. I have it at 1000px. That makes a for a nice, light and informative status window.
monkeynotes 8y ago
My point was that at some point adding more desktop-like functionality to Terminal you essentially create a GUI. I could argue that OSX / Ubuntu are modular and configurable and easily allow you to control data density too. Ultimately it's obviously whatever tool makes you most productive. My comment was more of a flippant observation of the nature of human endeavour.
- inetknght 8y ago
  In my experience, OSX is not modular and configurable out-of-the-box. You need to install plugins. Ubuntu is the red-headed stepchild of Linux which wants to be Windows. I use it at work. I hate it. I'd rather use Fedora.

walrus01 8y ago

or you can compromise with an ultra minimalist GUI that runs on top of xorg, such as openbox/fluxbox and similar. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openbox Archbang , which uses openbox, is a good example of a distribution to try in a VM if anyone wants to see an example in action.

indigodaddy 8y ago
Archbang is still around??
- walrus01 8y ago
  It is , to the best of my knowledge, though I am not a big fan of arch. Excellent wiki however. If I were going to run openbox I would install Debian to server like setup and then manually replicate the general idea of crunchbang.
  - tkjef 8y ago
    +1 #!

cryptonector 8y ago

The mouse. It sucks. The latency too (over long thin pipes). I prefer to live in a textual universe anyways. I can't not use a GUI browser for a lot of things, sadly, and occasionally I end up using an IDE, but as much as possible I use tmux/screen + $EDITOR + cscope + scripts + ... as my UI/IDE. It's just better. It works great over mosh, over SSH, over long thin pipes, over short wide pipes -- it just works. Latency is low, and mouse use nil -- win-win. EDIT: Also, it's a lot easier to organize and find my way around nested tmuxes than it is to organize tons of windows. Yes: I nest tmuxes.