Live data from Hacker News

Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

hamvocke.com

111–120 of 285 posts

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#111
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a totally different thing. Native macOS app vs portable terminal multiplexer. My main use case for tmux is detaching and re-attaching to a session on a remote server, for which it's extremely useful.

what does it add over screen which i don't even need to install?

cmux? I don't know and it's not even a good comparison.

tmux? https://www.google.com/search?q=tmux+vs+screen

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#113
One nice thing about tmux is it also supports include files in its config.

This lets you put your theme colors in a different file, such as `source-file "~/.config/tmux/theme.conf"` and then your theme switching external script or tool can symlink a specific theme's tmux file to that path.

That's what I do in my dotfiles:

    # Main tmux config
    https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/master/.config/tmux/tmux.conf

    # One of the theme files
    https://github.com/nickjj/dotfiles/blob/master/themes/tokyonight-moon/tmux.conf
It allows for hot-reloading different themes as well.

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#114

I left tmux for zellij after several unsuccessful attempts to get Shift+Enter working. Was quite impressed initially and invested weeks in building new muscle memory, but somehow Zellij crashed with panic more than once, leaving all my processes orphaned. Decided to go back to tmux, and found a simple fix for my Shift+Enter issue. In case anyone is looking for it, the fix is "bind-key -T root S-Enter send-keys C-j" b…

Interesting, for me `shift+enter` hasnt worked, but `option+enter` does give me new lines in Claude Code's promptbox inside tmux on MacOS.

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#115
Big fan of all of the items mentioned here. I love the "intuitive split commands" -- I'll add that.

For the vim/nvim fans out there, I try my best to add "vim-style" key bindings for navigating between panes, so that e.g. ctrl-h, ctrl-j, ctrl-k, and ctrl-l can be used to move around qukcly. My dotfiles are here:

https://github.com/jay-khatri/dotfiles/blob/main/.tmux.conf

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#116

Could never get mouse copy to work well (using mac at moment). When I make text selection, selects yellow and upon release goes to terminal prompt. I had one config work at one point and it kept selecting from all panes, not just one the one I'm in. Any ideas?

Try iterm2 which has mouse reporting

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#117

I used tmux for quite some time, and just stopped using it one day. I realized that whatever tmux brings can be done better by a good terminal. I also hated dealing with all the wrong colors, escape character support, missing chars and messed up terminal buffers

Wezterm for examples has panes in addition of tabs and scriptable enough (lua) that you can session management:

https://fredrikaverpil.github.io/blog/2024/10/20/session-man...

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#118
post #17

I had my tmux customized to the point I forgot how to use it on a clean install which is a problem when I'm sshing into a server. I wish it had better defaults but now I run it as is. After a while you get used to it. The only thing I always have to change is the mouse scroll and my brain cannot retain the exact command.

I've hit this problem multiple times. The approach which finally eased this pain point for me was to take care to not overwrite any tmux defaults with my config, and only add non-conflicting configs (new shortcuts, styling changes, etc.) That way, if I need to use tmux on a new or unfamiliar machine, the core functionality is still present, and I just miss the candy that comes with customization.

For example, leave the existing prefix binding (ctrl-b), but also add something nicer for day-to-day use (ctrl-space or similar).

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#119
post #17

I had my tmux customized to the point I forgot how to use it on a clean install which is a problem when I'm sshing into a server. I wish it had better defaults but now I run it as is. After a while you get used to it. The only thing I always have to change is the mouse scroll and my brain cannot retain the exact command.

"Claude, scp my tmux config over to that box"

Re: Make tmux pretty and usable (2024)

#120
post #3

I gave up on it once I discovered https://zellij.dev/ Just even for how tab and panes are setup, and how it's good for scrolling and text selection with your mouse for copy pasting.

I have been using zmx for the last 2 weeks. It's still a bit buggy (screen repainting) but quite pleasant to use with ghostty.

https://github.com/neurosnap/zmx

Post reply on HN