Arch Linux

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 96

Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

I've pushed the first alpha of Terminix and created an Arch AUR package, terminix, for it as well.

Terminix is a tiling terminal emulator based on the gnome-terminal VTE widget that allows you to arbitrarily split terminals horizontally and vertically. From a feature perspective since it uses the gnome-terminal VTE it shares similar features with gnome-terminal however it does add support for transparency as well as a few other features, more information is available on the github page.

The UI was inspired by Gnome Builder in the way builder manages and displays different panes. As a result I've tried to follow Gnome Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) so if you don't like Gnome you probably won't like this either.

Feedback welcome, since I've been the only user (and developer) of this to date I'm sure there are more then a few bugs I've missed.

bsdson.tw

Member

From: Taiwan

Registered: 2005-05-06

Posts: 161

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

Hi, gnunn,
thanks for your work. This is far more better than gnome terminal...
But I have one question:

why differentiate "session" and the tiles in a session?
I mean,
this makes it too complex.
And I cannot change a tile to a session or vice versa.
(why cannot they be treated the same and be showed (placed) as a new tab or a new tile interchangeably?)

Thanks. BR, Henry

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 96

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

A session is the grouping of tiles/terminals and is essentially the equivalent of a Tab. Terminix supports having multiple sessions similar to tabs and you can switch between sessions using the button on the left in the header bar. Sessions are the container for terminals and thus sessions and terminals are not peers but maintain a parent-child relationship

To switch between sessions you need some way to identify them so for now I settled on using a name the user assigns. Individual terminals also have their own titles which are displayed above them and these can be changed as well.

When I built Terminix I was inspired by the Gnome Builder UI which doesn't use tabs for open files and I wanted to try the same pattern with a terminal emulator and see how it went. I'm pretty happy with the visual look but I can understand that the concept of sessions is not intuitive, maybe it needs a different name.

Having said that, I'm also open to alternative approaches. There is an issue, #12, open on github from a user requesting tabs, feel free to add any thoughts about the UI for sessions and what you would like to see there. While I'm not keen on tabs, I think they add too much vertical space and take away from the aesthetic look, I'd implement it if the demand was there.

Another option would be to remove sessions completely and have users open multiple windows when a new set of terminals is needed and let the DE do its job of managing the windows. I find with the ability to split terminals I rarely need to open a new session. I actually prefer this option over introducing tabs.

Last edited by gnunn (2016-01-20 03:18:08)

masolit

Member

Registered: 2013-12-24

Posts: 46

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

.

Last edited by masolit (2019-12-03 16:10:00)

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 96

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

add drop down please )

Add drop down for what, sessions? Sorry, no plans on doing that as I'm satisfied with the sidebar implementation.

masolit

Member

Registered: 2013-12-24

Posts: 46

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

.

Last edited by masolit (2019-12-03 16:09:48)

gnunn

Member

Registered: 2013-10-21

Posts: 96

Re: Terminix a tiling terminal emulator for GTK+ 3/Gnome

There is an open issue for that, see https://github.com/gnunn1/terminix/issues/10

As per that issue, you can achieve that functionality using a another app called tdrop in conjunction with terminix. No experience with it myself though.