[atomic-devel] Screen in Atomic

[James <purpleidea gmail com>]

RE: https://lists.projectatomic.io/projectatomic-archives/atomic-devel/2015-April/msg00036.html

There are two goals:

1) Having Atomic get used and have people get comfortable with it
2) Having it be extremely minimal

While I think #2 is a great goal, I think #1 is more important *now*,
as without any users it doesn't matter what size it is. At the moment,
it's very difficult to use and hack on things without spawning 100
terminals, which is why screen is a good addition.

Gnome continuous actually got this right because it had a "normal"
version, and a -devel version (which was bigger, but you got all the
tools).

The reasons you need a terminal multiplexer in base are well described here:

https://git.fedorahosted.org/cgit/fedora-atomic.git/commit/?id=268fabe30ae6640293bc0c1a57372e0c83f504c4

Now the question as to why tmux and not screen, or vice versa. Well,
we've agreed that one is necessary, the next issue is which one? Both
are significantly small and without any external dependencies. Screen
is quite popular and still the most common. Some users prefer tmux and
that is okay. So either include both, or include neither. Saying you
will only include one is a giant "f-off" to users who believe strongly
in one of them. It's the same thing as saying don't use vim, use
emacs.

I actually prefer screen, and there are a number of tools that don't
work with tmux yet. vscreen (vagrant screen) is one example, and
there's no tmux version yet! Also screen is my personal preference.
Let's not be dogmatic about 100k, there are bigger issues to worry
about.

TL;DR: +1 screen

Cheers,
James