4 ms·

Wow, an average of 30 terminals at all times? Just out of curiosity... what for exactly? Real-time monitoring?

mkl 12y ago
I always have at least that many too. Not for real-time monitoring, just a large number of projects and threads of thought, many of which last for weeks or months. I do this for everything: I just totalled up all my currently open terminals, browser tabs, documents, etc., and got to over 700, and it's only that low because I've restarted a couple of times recently....
- mattdeboard 12y ago
  If I had that many I'd never actually finish anything.
- meowface 12y ago
  I suffer from the same problem of too many terminal windows and browser tabs, and honestly it doesn't seem to help me much. It just dilutes my attention. I always do a logoff or restart at the end of every day now, and that seems to help a fair bit. To keep track of what I need to do in the short term, I have a simple TODO text file.
  - datashaman 12y ago
    Unrelated, but if you're using plain old text files for todo lists, you should look at this: http://todotxt.com/ http://todotxt.com/
    - arvin 12y ago
      Or the Org Mode of Emacs
  - jebblue 12y ago
    Me too! I've been using a plain TODO.txt for years, it's amazingly efficient.
nkozyra 12y ago
Yeah I start to have a panic attack when I see 5 or more shells open.
alekratz 12y ago
I mean, why do you have 30 tabs open at all times? You move on to something else, forget your tab was open, and go through at the end of the week and clean them all out.
- forgottenpass 12y ago
  You move on to something else, forget your tab was open, and go through at the end of the week and clean them all out. No, that's what you do, and have extrapolated it to be what everyone does. I use tree style tabs and mtputty, I leave open the things I use a lot and/or am focused on today. I find that I return to already open things enough that it's works for me. Re-opening programs and re-navigating to the same things I always use them for isn't a grand inconvenience or anything, but I do it for our software that uses floating licenses and it is annoying in my workflow.
gitaarik 12y ago
When you're using tmux or screen this isn't uncommon. I have a screen for each project, in a project I usually have around 5 to 10 tabs, and I have about 5 projects I'm currently working on.
zorbo 12y ago
I use a lot of terminal applications for mail, irc, music player, chat. Then there are always about 9 permanent terminals for generic local stuff such as setting up tunnels, man pages, socks proxy, a calculator, etc. Then I've got 9 terminals per remote location / project I'm working on. These are shells for file system navigation, grepping, reference, editor, a few database sessions, log file tailing. Then there are the random terminals opened for who knows what. I generally keep the terminals for projects I work on the most open all the time. 30 sounds like a lot, but really it's a very easy workflow process to follow if you've got virtual desktops. For instance, all persistent stuff (irc, music player, chat) lives on desktop 1. Mail, password manager, todo list on desktop 2. Browser on 3. Local terminals on 4. Remote terminals in tabs on 5, etc. I've been using the same workflow for years (going on decades). I can switch to nearly every window in two keystrokes, which never change.
tizzdogg 12y ago
I also usually have dozens of terminals open, though my workflow is probably different than most people on HN. I do 3d graphics on linux, so I have a separate desktop for each session of Nuke, Maya, houdini etc that I'm working on, each with a few associated terminals. I very much dislike using things like tmux or even tabs in terminals, since I find it much easier for processes to get buried and to forget where everything is. It's much easier for me to have separate windows open so I can see everything that's going on at once.

mkl 12y ago

I always have at least that many too. Not for real-time monitoring, just a large number of projects and threads of thought, many of which last for weeks or months. I do this for everything: I just totalled up all my currently open terminals, browser tabs, documents, etc., and got to over 700, and it's only that low because I've restarted a couple of times recently....

mattdeboard 12y ago
If I had that many I'd never actually finish anything.
meowface 12y ago
I suffer from the same problem of too many terminal windows and browser tabs, and honestly it doesn't seem to help me much. It just dilutes my attention. I always do a logoff or restart at the end of every day now, and that seems to help a fair bit. To keep track of what I need to do in the short term, I have a simple TODO text file.
- datashaman 12y ago
  Unrelated, but if you're using plain old text files for todo lists, you should look at this: http://todotxt.com/ http://todotxt.com/
  - arvin 12y ago
    Or the Org Mode of Emacs
- jebblue 12y ago
  Me too! I've been using a plain TODO.txt for years, it's amazingly efficient.

nkozyra 12y ago

Yeah I start to have a panic attack when I see 5 or more shells open.

alekratz 12y ago

I mean, why do you have 30 tabs open at all times? You move on to something else, forget your tab was open, and go through at the end of the week and clean them all out.

forgottenpass 12y ago
You move on to something else, forget your tab was open, and go through at the end of the week and clean them all out. No, that's what you do, and have extrapolated it to be what everyone does. I use tree style tabs and mtputty, I leave open the things I use a lot and/or am focused on today. I find that I return to already open things enough that it's works for me. Re-opening programs and re-navigating to the same things I always use them for isn't a grand inconvenience or anything, but I do it for our software that uses floating licenses and it is annoying in my workflow.

gitaarik 12y ago

When you're using tmux or screen this isn't uncommon. I have a screen for each project, in a project I usually have around 5 to 10 tabs, and I have about 5 projects I'm currently working on.

zorbo 12y ago

I use a lot of terminal applications for mail, irc, music player, chat. Then there are always about 9 permanent terminals for generic local stuff such as setting up tunnels, man pages, socks proxy, a calculator, etc. Then I've got 9 terminals per remote location / project I'm working on. These are shells for file system navigation, grepping, reference, editor, a few database sessions, log file tailing. Then there are the random terminals opened for who knows what. I generally keep the terminals for projects I work on the most open all the time. 30 sounds like a lot, but really it's a very easy workflow process to follow if you've got virtual desktops. For instance, all persistent stuff (irc, music player, chat) lives on desktop 1. Mail, password manager, todo list on desktop 2. Browser on 3. Local terminals on 4. Remote terminals in tabs on 5, etc. I've been using the same workflow for years (going on decades). I can switch to nearly every window in two keystrokes, which never change.

tizzdogg 12y ago

I also usually have dozens of terminals open, though my workflow is probably different than most people on HN. I do 3d graphics on linux, so I have a separate desktop for each session of Nuke, Maya, houdini etc that I'm working on, each with a few associated terminals. I very much dislike using things like tmux or even tabs in terminals, since I find it much easier for processes to get buried and to forget where everything is. It's much easier for me to have separate windows open so I can see everything that's going on at once.