Iterm2, Growl, and tmux

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chiggsy

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Dec 27, 2011, 10:14:32 PM12/27/11
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First, I love iterm2. Love it.

I don't love Growl though, and it's not on my system:

The logs:

11-12-27 8:04:22.630 AM [0x0-0xd00d].com.googlecode.iterm2: objc[284]: Class GrowlDelegate is implemented in both /Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/MacOS/../Frameworks/Growl.framework/Versions/A/Growl and /Applications/iTerm.app/Contents/Frameworks/Growl.framework/Growl. One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

Tmux:
For what it's worth ( nothing) I don't see the need for tmux integration with my terminal.  I actually think Iterm2 is done, almost time to get a version for iPad, hmmm?  ( just a thought)

Summary: Iterm2 is a fantastic project, but please don't add cruft.  

Yi Wen

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Dec 27, 2011, 10:29:24 PM12/27/11
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According to what I read, tmux integration will be tremendous useful
when you ssh to a remote machine doing stuff. It (again, according to
what I have read) will make you feel like you work in a local iterm2
without losing the functionality's that tmux provides.

Growl so far is not super useful with iterm2 for me, but if you start
programming it, it has endless potentials.

George Nachman

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Dec 28, 2011, 10:36:40 PM12/28/11
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I'll look into the growl message. Thanks for letting me know.

The long-term plan for iTerm2 was formed about a year ago, but never
written down. It is subject to change without notice. In no particular
order (and annotated with how far done things are):
1. Fix all iTerm bugs and any bugs I introduce (?%)
2. Make the UI sane (70%)
3. Add a bunch of small-to-medium-size features that have been added
to my personal terminal wishlist over the last 15 years (90%)
4. Split panes (95%)
5. Tmux integration (50%)
6. Embed a scripting language (0%)
7. Flawless unicode support (70%)
8. Great performance (50%)
9. Implement anything I missed that 80% of the users would like to
have even if I personally wouldn't. (80%)

As Yi said, tmux integration will be a big deal for people who use
ssh. If you just hang out on localhost, you'll never know it's there.
I want to use tmux but don't because the UI drives me crazy, so this
falls squarely in the "things I need for my day to day work" category
:).

I anticipate that 2.0 will close objectives 1, 4, and 5. Then 3.0 will
finish off the rest. After that, new features will be focused on
scripts and support for scripts.

Steve King

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Dec 29, 2011, 9:47:56 AM12/29/11
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Personally, I love the idea of tmux integration.  I'm someone else who spends their day ssh'd into various systems, and this looks like it could be as revolutionary to the way I work as the day I discovered ssh-agent.  :-)


6. Embed a scripting language (0%)

You have no idea how much it pains me to say this, but...  AppleScript.  Yeah, it's the worst scripting language known to man, but it's the native tongue on the Mac.  Fortunately there are bindings that allow controlling AppleScriptable apps from decent languages.  I don't think you need to embed a language so much as you need to embed a way for an arbitrary external language to control iTerm.  (Another way to do this would be a simple textual API accessible via a socket.)

--
Steve King
Sr. Software Engineer
Arbor Networks
+1 734 821 1461
www.arbornetworks.com

George Nachman

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Dec 30, 2011, 2:33:37 AM12/30/11
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I want to evaluate the script inside iTerm2--is it even possible to
execute applescript in your own process? Wait, don't answer: I hate
applescript so much I would go back to using DOS before writing a
single line of that execrable garbage. I really think that having a
good scripting language is more important than having a standard
scripting language. Otherwise we'd all still be using PERL for web
development :)

Chas. Owens

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Dec 30, 2011, 9:21:08 AM12/30/11
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On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 02:33, George Nachman <gnac...@llamas.org> wrote:
> I want to evaluate the script inside iTerm2--is it even possible to
> execute applescript in your own process? Wait, don't answer: I hate
> applescript so much I would go back to using DOS before writing a
> single line of that execrable garbage. I really think that having a
> good scripting language is more important than having a standard
> scripting language. Otherwise we'd all still be using PERL for web
> development :)
snip

I do use Perl (not PERL) for web development, intentionally. If you
are looking for a good and standard application scripting language,
check out Lua (http://www.lua.org/about.html). Barring that, I would
love for the embedded language to be Perl :)


--
Chas. Owens
wonkden.net
The most important skill a programmer can have is the ability to read.

George Nachman

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Dec 30, 2011, 6:24:47 PM12/30/11
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PERL was my first love, so it's all good :). But I am leaning towards
Lua, mostly because I've tried to embed Python in the past and I still
have nightmares about it. Also, if people are going to be expected to
embed code in applescript then not being whitespace sensitive is nice.
But I'm open to ideas on this. Lua is a bit obscure--I've never used
it--so that'll be a barrier for lots of people.

Tom Feist

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Dec 30, 2011, 6:45:06 PM12/30/11
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<pedantry-mode level="extreme">
http://perldoc.perl.org/perlfaq1.html#What%27s-the-difference-between-%22perl%22-and-%22Perl%22%3f
</pedantry-mode>

:)

On the actual subject in question, lua is incredibly easy to embed - it was designed
that way. I dunno about python, but I've poked around a bit in the internals of Irssi, which
embeds a Perl interpreter, and that's pretty gruesome IMO.

A better solution might be to use the applescript-y API, and then use a scripting bridge
to avoid having to actually use applescript to talk to it. Something like
http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2011/09/tutorial-os-x-automation-with-macruby-and-the-scripting-bridge.ars
perhaps.

I think there are bridges for all the major scripting languages, so people can take their
pick. Ruby is just an example here.

--T

George Nachman

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Dec 30, 2011, 7:39:21 PM12/30/11
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I swear it used to be an acronym, but all the facts seem to point the
other way. Anyway, the scripting bridge thingy looks pretty cool. It
nicely solves the problem of wrapping your native objects in the
scripting language's objects. Will keep this in mind!

Marko Milivojevic

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Dec 30, 2011, 8:09:58 PM12/30/11
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Yes, I remember it stood for "Practical Extraction and Report Language".

-Marko.

Chas. Owens

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Dec 31, 2011, 8:01:05 AM12/31/11
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On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 20:09, Marko Milivojevic <mar...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 16:39, George Nachman <gnac...@llamas.org> wrote:
>> I swear it used to be an acronym, but all the facts seem to point the
>> other way. Anyway, the scripting bridge thingy looks pretty cool. It
>> nicely solves the problem of wrapping your native objects in the
>> scripting language's objects. Will keep this in mind!
>
> Yes, I remember it stood for "Practical Extraction and Report Language".
>
> -Marko.
>
snip

Nope, it was never an acronym. It has had many backronyms created for
it (such as the one you cite). Larry Wall's favorite is Pathetically
Eclectic Rubbish Lister.

Chas. Owens

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Dec 31, 2011, 8:04:52 AM12/31/11
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On Fri, Dec 30, 2011 at 18:24, George Nachman <gnac...@llamas.org> wrote:
> PERL was my first love, so it's all good :). But I am leaning towards
> Lua, mostly because I've tried to embed Python in the past and I still
> have nightmares about it. Also, if people are going to be expected to
> embed code in applescript then not being whitespace sensitive is nice.
> But I'm open to ideas on this. Lua is a bit obscure--I've never used
> it--so that'll be a barrier for lots of people.
snip

I have never used it either, but then again I don't tend to use
embedded languages. This list from Wikipedia seems to indicate that
it is fairly widely used:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lua_(programming_language)#Other

George Nachman

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Dec 31, 2011, 5:16:34 PM12/31/11
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I like what I see so far. I'll write some code in Lua just to be sure.
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