@jaustin, @Groxx: DTerm isn't really meant to be a full-on TTY or a transparent wrapper for a shell. It's more of a shell substitute (which allows it to do things like splitting out the results from the different commands that something not managing its own jobs couldn't do), and can kick over to a full Terminal anytime you need. Think of the analogy DTerm:Terminal::Spotlight:Finder.
While we're not likely to change its "shell substitute" nature, we are indeed interested in making it formally set up a TTY (though it already handles stuff like ANSI color/formatting codes and whatnot), we just haven't gotten around to it yet. Once you understand where the line is drawn it doesn't really impede functionality as you can go to a Terminal anytime. But if you're a TTY guru and would like to help with us getting that into a future guru, drop us a line.
@Groxx: The action menu contains a number of nifty commands. Try playing with modifier keys, too!