[gentoo-user] tmux first impression

["Walter Dnes" <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>]

On Wed, Mar 02, 2011 at 06:48:47PM -0600, Dale wrote

> I read that but still would love to here of someone else's experience.  
>  From that link tho, it sounds . . . interesting.

  I emerged tmux a couple of hours ago and have been playing around with
it.  It looks like fun.  I have a 24" LCD monitor.  I prefer console text
mode for non-graphic stuff (e.g. email).  Here's what I've done so
far...
1) grep 1280 /var/log/Xorg.0.log
   This gives me a list of 1280xwhatever modes that my monitor supports.
In my case, it's 1280x720 and 1280x960 and 1280x1024. 

2) I entered the line

CONSOLEFONT="lat1-14"

in /etc/conf.d/consolefont

3) and also "video=1280x720" in the "append" line of /etc/lilo.conf

4) I entered the line

set -g prefix C-a

in ~/.tmux.conf because every site on the web that reviewed it said that
was the way to go.  Apparently, the developer uses {CONTROL-B} as the
default hotkey to avoid colliding with {CONTROL-A} which screen uses.
But everyone agrees that {CONTROL-B} is badly placed on the keyboard.

5) Then I rebooted

  The text console mode is now 1280 pixels x 720 pixels as per the
"video=" parameter.  The consolefont sets 8x14 (EGA) font.  A bit of
division gives...
1280 / 8 = 160
720 / 14 = 51 plus a bit.
  So I have a 160 x 51 text console.  I fired up tmux, and split the
screen vertically.  I now have 2 panes.  The first one is 80 x 50 and
the second is 79 x 50.  This is after allowing for the vertical dividing
line (one column) and the status bar at the bottom.  The 14-pixel high
font is quite nice.  And on a 24" monitor it's very readable.  If you
prefer, you could go with the 16-pixel high (VGA) font.  That gives 720
/ 16 = 45 rows, or 44 working rows plus the status line.  Both text
pages are in "portrait mode", i.e. they're higher than they are wide.
Sort of like 2 facing pages of a book.  This could be useful for
editing a program in one pane, and then compile and execute in another.

  If your eyesight is better than mine, you could try "video=1280x960"
and 16-pixel high font, which will give a 160 x 60 text console.

  I like it.  One of these days, when desktop monitors hit 30", I'll set
the video to 1920x1080 and have 3 pages across. <G>

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@waltdnes.org>