tmux alternative shpool challenges terminal multiplexers for a simpler, modern workflow
Update: 2025-08-02
Description
You Might Not Need tmux
- After 7+ years using tmux daily, erock critiques tmux’s complexity, overhead, and compatibility issues with modern terminal features like graphics protocols.
- Terminal multiplexer developer kovid argues multiplexers add complexity by translating escape codes in hackish ways, limiting ecosystem progress.
- Common tmux issues: color rendering errors if
TERM
is misconfigured, confusing scrollback buffers, buggy mouse selection in splits, and no support for experimental protocols (e.g., kitty graphics). - Explores simpler Unix-style session managers (dtach, abduco, shpool) that do one thing well: session persistence without virtual multiplexing.
- Using shpool with tailored SSH and Neovim Lua scripts, combined with native window managers (sway, foot), delivers a minimal workflow with native scrollback and notifications, though with bugs like broken terminal state on reattach and lack of multiplayer support.
- The article challenges traditional reliance on tmux, promoting Unix philosophy-driven tools that better integrate with modern terminal capabilities.
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Hannah Cairo’s Disproof of Mizohata-Takeuchi Conjecture
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- Self-taught through accelerated learning and pandemic-era math circles, Cairo turned a course warm-up problem into a full research breakthrough by demonstrating counterexamples where wave energy concentrates in fractal patterns forbidden by the conjecture.
- The math community reacted with astonishment, recognizing the significance of this elegant, counterintuitive result that reshapes future research directions.
- Despite academic hurdles from unconventional credentials, Cairo starts her PhD at U Maryland, evidencing both profound talent and systemic challenges for young gifted mathematicians.
- The story bridges deep technical content with reflections on educational isolation, perseverance, and the nature of mathematical discovery.
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