Which terminal?

28 respostas [Última entrada]
GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

Until now I never considered, that there are different terminals, and hence what could be one's advantage over the others. The reason this issue came to my mind is (probably) because I am running Cinnamon on Flidas which apparently does not automatic couple up with with Mate-terminal. I have done that automatically and the problem is probably solved.

Still, it made me think: Could there be any advantage in using a different terminal (emulator?), and if so, why?

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

For one thing, terminal emulators have different interfaces and functionalities and they emulate different hardware. Take XTerm -- it has no tabs by default (if there's a workaround, I'm not aware of it). If you need tabbed functionality, you'd choose something else. Also, I wouldn't install GNOME Terminal in another environment. I'd choose a terminal that has no gnome dependencies.

XTerm is a pretty safe choice anywhere if you need a no-nonsense X-compliant emulator. XTerm's fonts are not pretty, though. I guess it can be customized to one's liking.

http://invisible-island.net/xterm/

EDIT: XTerm has hidden menus. Press Ctrl+M1/M2/M3 (Mx= Mouse button 1-3)

xterm_xfceterm.png xterm_menu.png
GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

Thanks. I'll try xterm for a while

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

I already went back to Mate-terminal, since Xterm doesn't (seem to) allow copy and paste...

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

See the reply that was misplaced.

jacksadullboy.png
GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

Here is a guy with a looooot of time :-)

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

...

dullboy.jpg
Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010

The workaround is to do that inside the terminal, with a multiplexer such as GNU screen or tmux (although the main use of these programs is to be able to log out and still have your commands running).

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

GNU Screen seems interesting.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Screen

Gnuscreen.png
loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

"Xterm doesn't (seem to) allow copy and paste..."

Don't be silly. ;-) Of course it does.

shift+M2 or shift+insert

copypasteXTerm.png
GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

Of course - I should have known it isn't possible that 'they' would make that not possible!

Thanks

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

There's one inaccuracy in my message above. I cannot edit it any more, so I'll put my correction here.

Xterm copy paste:

1. highlight text somewhere and

2. middle click in Xterm window with your mouse OR

3. (with the keyboard) shift+insert. With the mouse, you don't have to use shift. Just the second mouse button (scroll wheel or middle button).

healinghawk
Desconectado
Joined: 02/15/2016

Hi,
I tried Trisquel three different times and it hasn't worked out for me,
for one reason or another. If I ever knew, I don't know now how to
unsubscribe. This is a very active listserve, and that's a good thing,
until it's no long applicable to my needs. Would someone help me out,
please? Thanks.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010
ADFENO
Desconectado
Joined: 12/31/2012

If I remember correctly, you must unsubscribe to the list by going to:
[[https://listas.trisquel.info/mailman/options/trisquel-users]] and
looking for the unsubscribe option.

After unsubscribing, you must also remove your account from the forum,
if you really want to completely leave the project:
[[https://trisquel.info/en/user/login]].

--
- [[https://libreplanet.org/wiki/User:Adfeno]]
- Palestrante e consultor sobre /software/ livre (não confundir com
gratis).
- "WhatsApp"? Ele não é livre, por isso não uso. Iguais a ele prefiro
GNU Ring, ou Tox. Quer outras formas de contato? Adicione o vCard
que está no endereço acima aos teus contatos.
- Pretende me enviar arquivos .doc, .ppt, .cdr, ou .mp3? OK, eu
aceito, mas não repasso. Entrego apenas em formatos favoráveis ao
/software/ livre. Favor entrar em contato em caso de dúvida.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010

You probably have more time to gain by learning Emacs' basic commands (those that in Bash, e.g., C-r, C-b, C-f, M-b, M-f, C-t, M-t, C-k, C-y, C-a, C-e, M-[backspace], etc.) than by choosing another terminal emulator. Notice that, depending on the terminal (it is in particular the case with GNOME Terminal), you may want to deactivate some keyboard shortcuts in the preferences because the conflict with those of the shell.

hack and hack
Desconectado
Joined: 04/02/2015
GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

Thanks. I just need a simple emulator for now. When/if I get more savvy, I'll go for the more advanced ones.

BenTheMoose
Desconectado
Joined: 01/24/2017

I'd actually recommend Terminator if you're looking for something that's easy to use but also functional. Terminals can be split vertically and horizontally either by key binding or from the right mouse click menu, there's tabs, you can zoom in, etc. You can also customize the appearance a bit from the preferences window. It's very mouse friendly, so you'd be able to ease into keybindings if you aren't used to them.

calher

I am a member!

Desconectado
Joined: 06/19/2015

Terminator is the wrong way to do it. If X crashes, your terminals and their positions get lost.

With tmux and Screen, terminals are preserved in their exact positions even if X is restarted, and you can access it without X if need be.

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

Here's a screenshot -- XTerm running in Trisquel 8. The fonts can be easily changed into something more eye-pleasing.

Screenshot at 2017-04-16 18:19:30.png
hack and hack
Desconectado
Joined: 04/02/2015

I always wondered why there was several terminals in any distro (2 versions of those xterms things, and another one like gnome-terminal for instance).

I guess some have more features while some might only work in specific cases.

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010

XTerm and UXTerm respectively are non-UTF-8 and UTF-8 basic terminal emulators... but they actually are one. UXTerm is a small Shell script (56 actual lines of code) calling 'xterm' after setting up the UTF-8 locale.

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

What are the consequences, i.e. what is the particular advantage of that?

Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010

UTF-8 allows to properly show any character: Arabic, Chinese, symbolic characters, etc. It is an implementation of Unicode, with 128,172 characters in its version 9.0: http://www.unicode.org/versions/Unicode9.0.0/

GNUbahn
Desconectado
Joined: 02/19/2016

So here I go revealing my limited knowledge again: What could you for instance use that for in the terminal?

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

See comparison between rxvt and XTerm running Elinks (Gnome Terminal and XTerm with true type fonts in the second screenshot). Sometimes it's useful to have unicode support for programs that expect it. Unicode support must be coupled with the right font for all characters to be displayed correctly.

http://czyborra.com/unicode/terminals.html

If we get our terminal to render and input Unicode, all the CUI applications can simply rely on that function provided by their operating environment (terminal) and will only need minor changes. We'd also get a consistent look (font) and feel (input method) imposed on all CUI applications.

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/unicode.html

With the UTF-8 encoding, Unicode can be used in a convenient and backwards compatible way in environments that were designed entirely around ASCII, like Unix. UTF-8 is the way in which Unicode is used under Unix, Linux, and similar systems. Make sure that you are well familiar with it and that your software supports UTF-8 smoothly.

According to Wikipedia, XTerm supports UTF-8.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_terminal_emulators

trisquel8_elinks_rxvt_xterm.png trisquel8_terminals_font.png comparison_terminals.PNG
Magic Banana

I am a member!

I am a translator!

Desconectado
Joined: 07/24/2010

If your files are named with Japanese characters (probably because you are Japanese), you are happy that ls' output is readable. Same thing if you browse the Web in Hebrew (probably because you are Israeli) with Lynx. Etc.

loldier
Desconectado
Joined: 02/17/2016

Much less exotic than Kanji characters -- something as mundane as umlauts can ruin your day if your tools are not up to the job.

rxvt.png