Re: Windows Telnet
on Thu, Jan 02, 2003 at 05:48:01PM -0500, Gregory Seidman (gss+debian@cs.brown.edu) wrote:
> Alan Shutko sez:
> } Ron Johnson <ron.l.johnson@cox.net> writes:
> } > Fonts in xterms are just plain hard to read.
> }
> } Not if you have the right font. xterm has even had Xft support
> } longer than KDE or GNOME's terminals.
ObDisclaimer: I run rxvt, rather than the "modern" terminals.
> There are a few "features" that various other terminal programs (GNOME,
> KDE, rxvt, Eterm, etc.) have that xterm does not:
<...>
> Of these, only tabbed terminals (which is only in KDE's terminal, I
> think) is even vaguely useful/desirable.
Screen offers the same functionality...and more. Such as being able to
attach to and move sessions between windows, sessions, and even
local/remote access.
> Transparency and background images decrease text readability, multiple
> windows in the same process means that you can't xkill one window
> without kill all of them, and a menubar is just a waste of screen real
> estate (in a program as single-purpose as a terminal emulator, at
> least).
Largely agreed. Though being able to configure font and fg/bg colors on
the fly is somewhat convenient.
> } Of course, configuring xterms can be annoying....
>
> ...unless you bother to learn about Xt resources. Xterm is nearly
> infinitely configurable.
...though not with the convenience of KTerm/Gnome Terminal.
> Its menus are configurable. Its fonts and colors are configurable.
> With a teeny bit of playing you can even use Xaw3D to get nicer
> scrollbars/menus (without recompiling). You can configure keys and/or
> mouse clicks to do almost anything. Want to use the CLIPBOARD buffer
> instead of CUT_BUFFER0? Easily done. Want to have PageUp and PageDown
> go a different number of lines, perhaps based on modifier keys? No
> problem. Want Home and End to go to the top and bottom of the scroll
> buffer? Easy as pie. Want to change things on the fly? Harder, but
> editres is your friend.
>
> Yes, there's a learning curve, but it's incredibly flexible. I can
> tolerate the other terminals, but xterm is still the best.
Fair enough. xterm does have some baggage to go with all of that
though. Most noteably, it's actually two terminals in one, and unless
you really *need* Tektronix 4014 emulation. The advantage offered by
xterm clones such as xvt and rxvt is that they drop this (almost always)
useless baggage, while retaining most of the useful aspects. On a
less-capable or heavily loaded system, the decreased memory and swap
load can be significant.
Peace.
--
Karsten M. Self <kmself@ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
Geek for hire: http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html
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