Ask HN: Do you still use terminal mode in a desktop configuration? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Do you still use terminal mode in a desktop configuration?

10 pointsez777 comments

A comment made by elis in http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1335146 made me think, do you guys keep using terminal mode on a regular basis? If so, in what situations? (Headless servers and machines without any GUI set up don' apply.)

As much as I like the terminal, I haven't used a virtual terminal in Ubuntu in ages. I just launch xterm instead.

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I almost always use a terminal window in the GUI. The programs I am writing aren't graphical though, so they would work just as well in a terminal. The thing is, I write in emacs, and then save it, switch to a terminal window, and run the program. I could easily switch to another terminal in terminal mode, but I have heard that you can run your programs from inside emacs (I think I heard that anyways). I'd rather learn how to do that.

Anyways, I'm going to try this tonight, and see if I can avoid the distractions that my GUI presents me with.

To run a program from emacs, just start a shell in a buffer:

M-x shell

To run multiple programs in emacs, each in their own shell, just rename the shell buffer to something else and start another shell.

An added benefit to doing this is that you can use emacs' incremental search to search back through the program's output for errors or other interesting output.

Hey, thanks. Saved me a bit of reading :)

I used to, because the second or so pause it takes to switch back to X was a nice deterrent from leaving my vim window all the time to check the internet. These days I've switched back to using a full-screen xterm (well, rxvt-unicode), mainly because configuring a terminal emulator is easier than configuring the actual terminal (e.g. changing number of lines/cols in a real terminal is a driver-dependent hassle).

177 x 50 terminal window + ssh + GNU screen + side-by-side emacs (C-x 3, M-x ansi-term)

I use a MacBook Pro with a persistent screen session on my Linux desktop. I could use my Linux desktop, but I'm a bit of an OS X snob. When I context switch between projects, I simply change screen windows.

The benefits of this approach: 1. I remember exactly what I was doing the day before because my screen session is right where I left it. 2. I don't need a low-latency connection to do serious work. 3. Compilation offloaded to AC-powered server, improving battery life on my laptop.

I seem to fairly regularly get my X server locked up or otherwise unusable. In those circumstances, having the real terminal mode is a life-saver.

Also, when I was using a laptop to take class notes and such, I often booted into text mode because I didn't need the graphics, and they took longer to start than I wanted to wait.

I use tmux plus a full screen term(s) in stumpwm a lot but I can't use plain virtual terminals as I enjoy 256 colors with nice fonts.

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