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Comment by kzrdude | Hacker News Reader

I'm looking to skip tmux and migrate straight from screen to zellij instead, since it's also modern. I don't have many problems with screen, but lack of full color support (for vim) and wanting more terminal control codes (hyperlinks, text underlines, sixel, etc) speak in favour of using a more modern solution.

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I want to love zellij but can't get over how it binds its own actions to practically every key (vs screen/tmux which take just one, the prefix). Do people who use it not use any programs that use control or alt keys?

This can be changed: I use zellij and just rewrote its config file to place almost all the keys in a single mode, basically 1-1 with tmux.

That said, I must admit that zellij doesn't add a whole lot to my workflow relative to tmux. I think I'm just easily distracted by the new-and-shiny.

I also trying to come to terms with this, mostly need to design new custom key settings.

Zellij has Lock interface, default Ctrl+G, which you can use and in that mode it only takes that one key, but it's a bit different from how screen works.

Yeah, but that's more than twice as many keypresses now.

I recommend using tmux mode and adding its keybind to locked mode, that way you get the same key interactions as tmux itself. Sadly, zellij doesn't offer the same options for which key that will be (in screen and tmux I like using C-] cause it's usually unused, but you can't use that one in zellij)

Thanks for pointing out zellij [0]. I wasn't aware of it and am really glad to have read about it.

It's odd. A couple of days ago I watched Tristam Oaten's No Boilerplate video "Oxidise Your Life" [1] and it left me thinking about how Rust is moving some programmers to rewrite tools in Rust and, while at it, adding modern features. It's nice to see that.

[0] https://zellij.dev/screencasts/

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dFkGNe4oaKk

I was quite satisfied with tmux but this issue (and one other) really drove me to seek an alternative like zellij so bad, but just couldn't settle on it for one reason or another. Instead I ultimately found refuge in kitty term which as a whole emulator is an overkill, but it's a great replacement and mostly as customizable. It does a good job with windowing - I particularly like the xmonad style window size switching. But there are still some parts of the tmux ecosystem I miss, like tmuxinator and the extracto plugin but otherwise most of my needs have been met, and the speed is a welcome bonus. So, can definitely recommend kitty as a good tmux alternative.

> screen to zellij instead

FFS. Can't we, at some point, be done with wheel re-invention?

Wait until you find out how many people in the 21st century are still iterating on the idea of the wheel itself. Imagine if nobody tried reinventing wheels since they were first introduced and you have your answer.

> Can't we, at some point, be done with wheel re-invention?

You do realize how much of technology and coding is literally re-writing things constantly until they work for [insert stakeholder here]. Right?

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