Originally published on the old depletionmode / 2of1 blog (archived copy).
Recently I’ve taken an interest in console-based utilities with the aim of seeing whether I can intact perhaps be even more productive than just using X-based solutions.
The best thing about this is that it would probably easily run under 100Mhz and can be accessed as-is over a terminal session.
I’m running everything under a screen 4.1 session with both horizontal and vertical splits.
I have a number of screen-related gripes; firstly it’s more buggy than it should be and I sometimes need to restart the entire session.
This brings me on to gripe no. 2: there is no good way to save a layout and have screen automatically launch the relevant execs in the splits. I’ve overcome this by using an Expect script that basically executes the initial sequence of keypresses for me.
The third annoyance is that switching between splits seems to require tabbing through until the desired split is reached. This is really annoying. Maybe I can use macros or something to do it.
Those points aside, I’m simply loving using the console. It’s a lot of fun and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to add a bit of geeky coolness (oxymoron?) to their desktop.
Check out the screenshot:
[image unavailable: image]