Tmux, dotfiles, and the joy of text

wamberg 14 years ago |

My workflow with GNU Screen is something like the following:

  * start my computer
  * fire up a terminal
  * run `screen`
  * ssh into another machine
  * run `screen -e^vv` on the remote machine

At this point I can control my local Screen with ctrl+a and my remote Screen with ctrl+v. Is there an equivalent workflow with tmux? Is there an alternative? The podcast hints at "tmux inception" and everyone hints that they avoid tmux within tmux.

kuebelreiter 14 years ago |

Interesting Episode. But I really don't get it why I should trade the benefits of a real GUI-Editor like MacVIM with crippling myself in the terminal. What's the gain in switching editor- and shell-windows with tmux-Shortcut against using Command-Tab and the (customizable) shortcut for switching tabs in iterm?

Feels a little bit like nerdery for the reason of nerdery.

bphogan 14 years ago | |

Because command-tab takes away your focus. There are other things in that menu as well that you might switch to. With tmux, I can split my windows into regions and turn the terminal into an IDE.

And then I can detach from it and leave it running as I switch to another configuration.

And I can invite you in to pair program with me over a low-bandwith solution.

Finally, when I switch from OSX to Linux I can have the exact same environment. For example, I use this on servers.

So it's the same reason you'd use vim over Eclipse. Sounds like nerdery for the sake of nerdery, until it works for you.

kuebelreiter 14 years ago | | |

That's a valid point. But a lot can be done with conditional configurations om vimrc and gvimrc, my vim runs fine and nearly identical on OSX, Linux-Fluxbox-Sessions and on servers. IMHO we must stay flexible enough to use "the best" of the platform we currently working on, otherwise we are left with the lowest common denominator of a tmux in a terminal and must do some strange things to even use the clipboard in the right way(as heard in the podcast).

For example, I have Command-T opening FuzzyFinder in ssh-Sessions and in Gvim, but use the lovely Peepopen in Macvim.

joshclayton 14 years ago | | |

At the end of the day, it's whatever works best for you. I've been using tmux for a year and a half and it's just as important to my workflow as vim. I've had people complain to me that I'm too fast with vim + tmux (either people I'm pairing with, giving a workshop to, or just demoing some code). It works for me. Vim looks great for me. I'm able to think less about what program I'm working in and more about how I get things done faster and with less context-switching.

If you're using GVim or MacVim or some other GUI and it works, wonderful! If you're content with the speed that you're able to code, that's awesome. That said, back when I was using TextMate and Terminal, I thought I was really fast; and I'm probably 30-40% faster in vim than I ever was (or could be) in TextMate.

Clipboard usage is a bit odd; that said, how often do you spend using the clipboard every day? If the time spent mucking with clipboard is less than the time you save doing everything else... then you have your answer as to whether switching will be worth it to you. It absolutely, positively, with out a shred of doubt, is worth it to me.

kuebelreiter 14 years ago | | |

Of course it's always whatever works best for you. But it's interesting to see what you win and what you lose before adopting cool things you hear from hero programmers in a podcast. ;-)

Although I don't see me using nothing more than a tmux session exclusively in the future, I already adopted some things for my server work and I'm looking forward to the pragprog tmux book.

closedbracket 14 years ago |

Great podcast. I made a short screencast on Pair Programming with Tmux the same day. I'd love to know what you think: http://readncode.com/blog/pair-programming-with-tmux-screenc...

netherland 14 years ago |

On sharing dotfiles, Josh around the 29:55 mark: "If you don’t think your dotfiles are the best out there, you’re doing it wrong."

aysar 14 years ago |

I hate to say this but... is there a tmux for Windows :0