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Honest question, as a heavy desktop TUI user who has had Termux installed for years. A terminal (emulator) is a keyboard-based environment. How on earth are all

Honest question, as a heavy desktop TUI user who has had Termux installed for years. A terminal (emulator) is a keyboard-based environment. How on earth are all you fans making it work with a tiny touchscreen?

ezequiel-garzon 9mo ago
Sessions tend to be way shorter for me, but it's great to have.
poolnoodle 9mo ago
Tiny fingers or bluetooth keyboards
ifelsewhy 9mo ago
This is why I'm looking forward to the new Android devices with keyboards. I can't do anything productive on a touchscreen.
- deleted 9mo ago
  [deleted]
- dotancohen 9mo ago
  You might want to look at the S-Pen. I can not stand the on-screen keyboards with my fingers, but they are not so bad with the S-Pen. That's the only reason I still buy Samsung devices.
genezeta 9mo ago
Portable Bluetooth keyboard.
dotancohen 9mo ago
I often use a Bluetooth keyboard with Termux. But as a mechanical keyboard affectionate with a veritable museum of ergonomic and mechanical keyboards, the Samsung S-Pen is good enough for terminal work. I use SSH, VIM, and lately Org mode in Termux. If I'm at a desk I still use a Bluetooth keyboard, but if I'm out then the S-Pen is a fine enough substitute. Right now I'm on an S24 Ultra, before that a Note 10 Lite, and before that another Note 10 Lite.
- darkstarsys 9mo ago
  I just got an S25 Ultra. How do you use the S-Pen with termux? I do have handwriting enabled in gboard and the S-Pen works for writing regular text. But can it write special characters, ctrl/alt, or something else to go beyond what regular gboard gives? (I also have Unexpected Keyboard for Emacs, but S-pen input seems like a cool idea if it can work around limitations of gboard)
  - dotancohen 9mo ago
    For bash commands I hunt and peck with it. I use glide typing for English and Hebrew text. For special keys Termux displays a bar just above the keyboard. I don't remember if that's something that I had to configure.
cess11 9mo ago
I use PentiKeyboard, it can send basically all the byte sequences I'm accustomed to having available plus it has a shortcut for sending ctrl+b to tmux. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.software_lab.pentikeyboard&hl=sv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.software_la... Either that or I connect a wireless physical keyboard. Edit: The killer feature of Penti is that it is transparent and allows you to put the 'buttons' where it is convenient to place the fingertips. Unlike regular software keyboards which hide half the screen and have 'buttons' that are pretty much thumbs-only. Since I code a lot I'm not particularly keen on mainstream next-word-guessing either.
mjmas 9mo ago
I have Unexpected Keyboard which gives me most keys including Alt, Ctrl and Esc as well as F-keys. https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard
jhbadger 9mo ago
There are better software keyboards than the default that you can install. I use Unexpected Keyboard, which supports ctrl, alt, tab, and other keys needed for Unix work.
jcynix 9mo ago
First of all, typing shell commands isn't that annoying on the tiny touchscreen. Caveat: heavy terminal users here ;-) Then you can attach a Bluetooth keyboard. And you can import scripts (Perl, Python, Shell, ...) via ssh from other devices. Last but not least, you can start an ssh server on the device and use Termux from your desktop or laptop. And you can start a web server, to access your device's media files, etc.
tossit444 9mo ago
Staring very close at the screen.
mklein994 9mo ago
For me, it was how I learned Vim. The awkward keyboard pushed me towards learning more efficient keystrokes, so now I'm very comfortable with Vim. I would learn it on the bus, and at the time I didn't have a data plan, so I could only access things I had already downloaded. The `:help` documentation is very thorough.
TapamN 9mo ago
What I use for my phone (Planet Computer Astro Slide) has a Psion 5-style physical keyboard built in.

ezequiel-garzon 9mo ago

Sessions tend to be way shorter for me, but it's great to have.

poolnoodle 9mo ago

Tiny fingers or bluetooth keyboards

ifelsewhy 9mo ago

This is why I'm looking forward to the new Android devices with keyboards. I can't do anything productive on a touchscreen.

deleted 9mo ago
[deleted]
dotancohen 9mo ago
You might want to look at the S-Pen. I can not stand the on-screen keyboards with my fingers, but they are not so bad with the S-Pen. That's the only reason I still buy Samsung devices.

genezeta 9mo ago

Portable Bluetooth keyboard.

dotancohen 9mo ago

I often use a Bluetooth keyboard with Termux. But as a mechanical keyboard affectionate with a veritable museum of ergonomic and mechanical keyboards, the Samsung S-Pen is good enough for terminal work. I use SSH, VIM, and lately Org mode in Termux. If I'm at a desk I still use a Bluetooth keyboard, but if I'm out then the S-Pen is a fine enough substitute. Right now I'm on an S24 Ultra, before that a Note 10 Lite, and before that another Note 10 Lite.

darkstarsys 9mo ago
I just got an S25 Ultra. How do you use the S-Pen with termux? I do have handwriting enabled in gboard and the S-Pen works for writing regular text. But can it write special characters, ctrl/alt, or something else to go beyond what regular gboard gives? (I also have Unexpected Keyboard for Emacs, but S-pen input seems like a cool idea if it can work around limitations of gboard)
- dotancohen 9mo ago
  For bash commands I hunt and peck with it. I use glide typing for English and Hebrew text. For special keys Termux displays a bar just above the keyboard. I don't remember if that's something that I had to configure.

cess11 9mo ago

I use PentiKeyboard, it can send basically all the byte sequences I'm accustomed to having available plus it has a shortcut for sending ctrl+b to tmux. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.software_lab.pentikeyboard&hl=sv https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=de.software_la... Either that or I connect a wireless physical keyboard. Edit: The killer feature of Penti is that it is transparent and allows you to put the 'buttons' where it is convenient to place the fingertips. Unlike regular software keyboards which hide half the screen and have 'buttons' that are pretty much thumbs-only. Since I code a lot I'm not particularly keen on mainstream next-word-guessing either.

mjmas 9mo ago

I have Unexpected Keyboard which gives me most keys including Alt, Ctrl and Esc as well as F-keys. https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard https://github.com/Julow/Unexpected-Keyboard

jhbadger 9mo ago

There are better software keyboards than the default that you can install. I use Unexpected Keyboard, which supports ctrl, alt, tab, and other keys needed for Unix work.

jcynix 9mo ago

First of all, typing shell commands isn't that annoying on the tiny touchscreen. Caveat: heavy terminal users here ;-) Then you can attach a Bluetooth keyboard. And you can import scripts (Perl, Python, Shell, ...) via ssh from other devices. Last but not least, you can start an ssh server on the device and use Termux from your desktop or laptop. And you can start a web server, to access your device's media files, etc.

tossit444 9mo ago

Staring very close at the screen.

mklein994 9mo ago

For me, it was how I learned Vim. The awkward keyboard pushed me towards learning more efficient keystrokes, so now I'm very comfortable with Vim. I would learn it on the bus, and at the time I didn't have a data plan, so I could only access things I had already downloaded. The `:help` documentation is very thorough.

TapamN 9mo ago

What I use for my phone (Planet Computer Astro Slide) has a Psion 5-style physical keyboard built in.