Genuine question, why would I need a terminal multiplexer when I am using a tiling window manager? I saw a lot of people using them in normal desktop environments which makes sense but why in a tiling window manager?
Universal (especially Tmux). It doesnt. Matter where you’re doing it. If it has Tmux, you’re in a familiar environment. Different wm/DE/emulator? No problem
multiplexers have additional capabilities. For example when you create a split or new tab, it’s in the same directory that you were already working in. This is super important. You can also have different sessions for different projects/tasks and switch between them. This is also super important (Wezterm has “workspaces”).
you can close the terminal emulator and your sessions will still be there.
so overall, a tiling wm isn’t really a replacement for multiplexers if you’re doing heavy tasks like programming
And the only reason I use wezterm is because it’s the only terminal that supports BiDi/RTL text somewhat. Otherwise, Tmux is the best
Sorry that I come off as argumentative, but I’ve went too deep thinking about this question, and I want to bounce my ideas off and possibly change my mind or confirm my position.
I agree with the concept of using cross-platform, environment-agnostic software. However, I would prefer to move this feature one level up: the terminal emulator itself. Imo, what tmux provides is in the territory of features that terminal emulators provide. In a way, it is making up for lack of features in typical terminal emulators. It supercharges your terminal!
But I think it is not an ideal solution. The ideal solution is a terminal emulator that has those features, which imo are Wezterm and kitty.
Some programs sometimes have weird issues with tmux. Things rendering incorrectly, colorschemes not showing right, etc. It also increases latency significantly, just because it is basically a terminal emulator inside a terminal emulator.
WezTerm and kitty are cross platform and environment agnostic, so they should give you the same benefits.
But I do agree that window managers don’t give the same benefits.
The tiling window manager should handle that too, right? I suppose you’d have to re-ssh, and you wouldn’t land in the same directory by default, which adds extra friction.
Genuine question, why would I need a terminal multiplexer when I am using a tiling window manager? I saw a lot of people using them in normal desktop environments which makes sense but why in a tiling window manager?
Multiplexers like tmux offer additional features beyond tiling, like the ability to reopen sessions after closing the original terminal window
It’s great if you switch systems or lose connection during your work. I also use it detached so I can run programs on headless systems.
I use i3 and still use Tmux and wezterm.
The benefits are:
so overall, a tiling wm isn’t really a replacement for multiplexers if you’re doing heavy tasks like programming
And the only reason I use wezterm is because it’s the only terminal that supports BiDi/RTL text somewhat. Otherwise, Tmux is the best
Sorry that I come off as argumentative, but I’ve went too deep thinking about this question, and I want to bounce my ideas off and possibly change my mind or confirm my position.
I agree with the concept of using cross-platform, environment-agnostic software. However, I would prefer to move this feature one level up: the terminal emulator itself. Imo, what tmux provides is in the territory of features that terminal emulators provide. In a way, it is making up for lack of features in typical terminal emulators. It supercharges your terminal!
But I think it is not an ideal solution. The ideal solution is a terminal emulator that has those features, which imo are Wezterm and kitty.
Some programs sometimes have weird issues with tmux. Things rendering incorrectly, colorschemes not showing right, etc. It also increases latency significantly, just because it is basically a terminal emulator inside a terminal emulator.
WezTerm and kitty are cross platform and environment agnostic, so they should give you the same benefits.
But I do agree that window managers don’t give the same benefits.
Because sometimes (or always) you’re using the terminal multiplexer on a remote machine over ssh with no graphical session
The tiling window manager should handle that too, right? I suppose you’d have to re-ssh, and you wouldn’t land in the same directory by default, which adds extra friction.