screen

Andrew Schulman andrex@alumni.utexas.net
Thu Apr 21 02:50:00 GMT 2005


> > I'm going to try to build and package screen for Cygwin.  
> > It's such a useful program, I just have to try.
> 
> Could somebody *please* explain to me why screen is in any way useful on a
> system with even a semblance of a window manager?  I can see the point of
> screen on a stripped-down text-only system, but when you can open up any
> number of rxvt+bash's and ALT-TAB between them...

A few things come to mind.  One is that I'm used to using it with ssh, so I 
have it configured for my greatest efficiency.  For example, I have a 
standard set of windows that starts automatically, with the same names, so I 
know where things are right away.

Navigation is more efficient because I use the same set of navigation commands 
in multiple environments.  I spend a fair amount of effort to standardize my 
environment in this way wherever I can.

Another reason is that multiple rxvt windows adds up to a crowded task bar, 
which crowds my mental space.  Maybe it's just me...

There are some fairly esoteric features that I never use, such as splitting 
each screen into arbitrary regions, and sending data back and forth between 
windows.  Some people may like screen for these features.

Maybe the best answer is that there's really not much difference at all.
Both methods do the same thing, but either all in one window, or in multiple 
windows.  I like the former, you like the latter.

> ...what am I missing?  And I'm not picking on you Andy, I keep hearing how
> wonderful this screen progam is, and I have yet to meet anybody who can tell
> me why.

No problem.  You have my permission never to use it, even after all the work I 
put into making it run on Cygwin :)

A.



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