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Introducing tmux-rs

(richardscollin.github.io)
857 points Jtsummers | 10 comments | 03 Jul 25 15:03 UTC | HN request time: 0.413s | source | bottom
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mbreese ◴[03 Jul 25 15:19 UTC] No.44455951[source]▶
> You might be asking: why did you rewrite tmux in Rust? And yeah, I don’t really have a good reason. It’s a hobby project. Like gardening, but with more segfaults.

I love this attitude. We don’t necessarily need a reason to build new things. Who knows what will come out of a hobby project. Thanks to the author for the great write up!

Also, my gardening is full of segfaults, coding a new project is definitely safer to my yard.

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1vuio0pswjnm7 ◴[03 Jul 25 21:53 UTC] No.44459476[source]▶
"We don't necessarily need a reason to build new things."

But tmux isn't new

Is a reason necessarily needed to rewrite software in other languages

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1. fragmede ◴[03 Jul 25 21:54 UTC] No.44459486[source]▶
GNU screen would like a word.
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2. magarnicle ◴[03 Jul 25 23:25 UTC] No.44459946[source]▶
I really don't know how tmux got so much mindshare over screen. It just isn't obviously better in any way. Maybe screen is just poorly named?
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3. usef- ◴[04 Jul 25 01:29 UTC] No.44460431[source]▶
I think a lot of it is that tmux had friendler, sane defaults and clearer command design (eg. status bar out of the box). And, I suspect, people not already knowing screen.

The latter reason is why Helix is slow in doing similar to vim, I think, despite being far more consistently designed and saner defaults. Everyone knows vim exists.

I've still never switched from screen, personally, though I'm only a light user.

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4. quotemstr ◴[04 Jul 25 03:04 UTC] No.44460811{3}[source]▶
> status bar out of the box

Software packages win over other packages for the silliest reasons.

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5. telotortium ◴[04 Jul 25 04:11 UTC] No.44461072[source]▶
Screen couldn’t do vertical splits for the longest time. That started to be a bigger problem when screens got bigger and wider. I believe that’s why I started using tmux. Tmux also has more facilities for automation. Nowadays, screen is primarily in maintenance mode, and I’m used to tmux, so no reason to switch back.
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6. unixhero ◴[04 Jul 25 04:51 UTC] No.44461217{3}[source]▶
Tmux for a lot of things, including scripts

Screen for when I need things ti behave and work a certain way

7. vaylian ◴[04 Jul 25 06:42 UTC] No.44461752{4}[source]▶
Defaults matter. I've had my screenrc with a status line but I still ended up preferring tmux in the end, because not needing a config file was a small but pleasant advantage when working with different machines. I also didn't like ctrl+a as the leader combination, because it conflicts with "go to the beginning of the line" in bash. ctrl+b is a much nicer default.
8. Mawr ◴[04 Jul 25 08:45 UTC] No.44462538{4}[source]▶
The status bar displays key information to the user. Do you think people would prefer a video player with no play/pause, volume, seekbar or one with them? The interface is the most important part of any application.
9. lproven ◴[04 Jul 25 13:54 UTC] No.44464601[source]▶
> GNU screen would like a word.

Screen, tmux, byobu, dvtm, mtm, Twin, and most of all Zellij, which is basically "tmux but redone in Rust".

I tried to compare them all a month ago:

https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/24/tiling_multiplexers_s...

10. tremon ◴[09 Jul 25 17:53 UTC] No.44512955[source]▶
There's two things that made me switch from tmux to screen:

- persistence of layouts. Screen doesn't remember if you had a split view open, it always opens the current terminal in full screen.

- screen's default hotkey ^A clashes with ssh's escape key. Yes, these are configurable but having to re-populate the same config file is like a papercut every time to access a new system.

Defaults matter, especially if you work across many different systems (and from different customers). At some point, it just becomes easier to learn the defaults than to (over-)optimize to your ideal workflow.