Re: xterm
Re: xterm
- Subject: Re: xterm
- From: Randy Ford <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 22 Jan 2003 04:56:36 -0600
On Wednesday, January 22, 2003, at 02:17 AM, Andrew Hartung wrote:
If you like Apple's Terminal.app, when would you need/want to use
xterm instead? I know that xterm has some nifty customization
features, but is there another system/x11 reason? If you are in full
screen with another widow manager, I see the need.
Some of the choice may come down to where you work mostly. I'm mostly
using X and command-line apps, so an X-based terminal behaves like the
apps will. If I were mostly using Apple native apps, I might have
stuck with Terminal.app. Xterm's copy and paste works by only using
the mouse. (Since copying and pasting with a mouse is an entirely
visual activity, why should you have to use keys? ) I will probably
configure xterm to use Apple keystrokes for copy and paste, just so I
won't have to shift gears when I'm working (thinking) in Apple-land.
There are two features in Terminal.app that I like. The transparency
slightly helps since quartz-wm forces raise on focus. I'd rather be
able to have the window not raised just because it has focus. The
other feature is that when an icon is dropped on a Terminal, the text
string of the path to the object the icon represents is inserted in the
Terminal. I can type 'cd ', then drop a folder icon from the finder
into the terminal and it will add the path.
There are many features of xterm that I use. Since an X app looks for
default configurations in the X resource database on the X server,
xterms will pick up my customizations even when they are running on
another server. I can have this overridden on individual terminals.
For instance, I have a different color background if I'm using an xterm
from a production box than from a development one. Instead of just
su-ing to root, I have a script that throws me an xterm as root with a
very different color scheme. I'm sure that has saved me from mistakes
when I've had tens of windows coming from several different boxes.
One major feature of xterms is that I can easily dynamically resize the
fonts. I like to have a small font so I can see many lines at once.
If someone needs to look over my shoulder, I can make it larger so they
can see. If I'm just monitoring something looking for a change, I can
make it very small. If it's something that will take a while, I can
have it raise on a BEL character and have the job send one when it is
done.
I like to use all of my screen space, so I have very small scroll bars
and borders. I like to be able to turn off autowrap when I'm looking
at something where I only care about the first part of each line.
Early in this thread somebody referred to xterm as primitive and didn't
think anybody in their right mind would use it. If you look at a
two-seater no-top sports car as refined, and a pickup truck as
primitive, then I guess I can see that. If I'm only going to use my
vehicle to cruise the strip on nice evenings, the sports car would be
fine. If I'm working a construction job, I'd take the primitive truck.
Besides, I may not be in my right mind: I'm sometimes in my left one.
Now, with all of that said, the choice terminal is probably not
important enough to most people to spend this much time on. We should
save some energy for religious wars over editors. Oh, sorry, wrong
list. <grin.>
randy
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