Name a better combination than tmux and vim.

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:21:09 GMT

tallsimon@mstdn.ca — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:21:09 GMT

@ParadeGrotesque @acdw

"Escape-Meta-Alt-Ctrl-Shift"

There... got that out of my system.

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:12:49 GMT

paradegrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 16:12:49 GMT

@acdw

Emacs is a fine operating system, it's a shame it does not have a good editor.

Like vim.

(I know, it's a classic, but, let's face it, you asked for it)

(Also: found the emacs user!)

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:37:25 GMT

acdw@tilde.zone — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 14:37:25 GMT

@ParadeGrotesque the wat you immediately disqualify emacs makes me feel that you know it'd easily best any other multiplexing system

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:24:46 GMT

tallsimon@mstdn.ca — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:24:46 GMT

@ParadeGrotesque It ain't the computer interaction designs that are stone age.

Last I checked, current science suggests humans may have been a bit smarter during the stone age. 🤨

(I actually like the old patterns: they don't try to cover up what you're dealing with. The user has to learn to speak a language that is computer friendly, rather than having a computer try to deal with whatever mess is between the ears of the random creature currently bashing on the inputs.)

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:09:49 GMT

paradegrotesque@mastodon.sdf.org — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 13:09:49 GMT

@TallSimon

I agree that a consistent approach to terminals, shell, editing and multiplexing would be great. The joys of a system designed in the stone age of computers...

Let's just say tmux+vim is the least bad solution for me right now.

Reply to Name a better combination than tmux and vim. on Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:50:19 GMT

tallsimon@mstdn.ca — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 12:50:19 GMT

@ParadeGrotesque

Since the days of twm I'll admit that I've struggled with (and largely given up on) getting a consistent, hot-key friendly way of navigating the layers of interaction. I've never been able to give up on my "card file"/"messy desk" approach to windows (I never minimize, keeping at least a corner visible to remind my brain they are there).

My aversion to tmux (well, TBH, screen, mostly) tended to be due to hot-keys getting trapped by something in the WM->Window->Tab->Sub-Win/tmux->Editor/whatever chain before getting to the Editor, and that trap annoying me. It was an extra layer in an already complicated interaction.

We never really got a rule, or a keyboard with Meta-type keys, explicitly for actions at (using KDE's Plasma model) Activity -> Virtual Desk -> Desktop -> Window -> Window Tab -> Application levels. Alt does tend to address the first couple of levels, Ctrl the last couple, but it's never consistent.

Not sure I want 5 levels of Meta key, either...