Review: dvtm
At the Utah Open Source Conference I heard Jared
Bernards presentation on using the command line to do anything that you could
want to do. I found this intriguing and he showed how to even watch movies
using just a commandline system. Very cool.
One of the systems that he said to use was dvtm. dvtm is a ‘window
manager’ that allows you to view multiple ‘windows’ at once. It also gives you
a ‘maximize’ and ‘minimize’ ability.
The good:
* Gives you verticle and horizantol split unlike screen
* Captures mouse inputs to change ‘windows’
The bummer:
* Caputers mouse inputs. If you have a ncurses program that can use the
mouse you are SOL because you can’t use it. dvtm catches the mouse prior
to the underlying program. Got really agrivating when I couldn’t scroll.
* No easy way to kill a ‘window’ once you have made it.
So far dvtm doesn’t annoy me to the point that I stop using it. I don’t think
it is in my arsinal of must have programs though.
Tags: Application Review, CLI, shell