How to Replicate "tmux-floax" behavior.

[Smithx10]

While doing work I've found it useful to have 1 persistent session that I can call on top of my current session in a floating window.

Is there a way to currently get this behavior with automation or how is this done in tuios?

I saw that Sessions are either tiled or not..... and popups are ephemeral.... so I guess this would be like a persistent popup that is backed buy a different session that you can call adhoc over top of your current layout / session.

I am still learning tuios so this might be obvious, and I just don't know lol.

Floax Repo:
https://github.com/omerxx/tmux-floax

Demo of Floax:
https://asciinema.org/a/b6a9puVBwJoQxvej

[Gaurav-Gosain]

Not obvious at all, you read it right: tiled and floating windows belong to one session, and popups end with their command. tuios has no floax-style toggle yet.

It is a great fit, so I am building it:

• A new action, toggle_scratch, opens a floating popup that shows a persistent session named scratch. tuios creates that session the first time.
• Press the key again and the popup goes away. The session keeps running, so the next press brings it back as you left it.
• A [scratch] table sets the session name and the popup size.

I will post here when it is on main.

[Gaurav-Gosain]

This is on main now (#254), and it will be in the next release.

• Press Ctrl+B g to show a floating popup with a persistent session named scratch. tuios creates it the first time.
• Press Ctrl+B g again, also from inside the popup, to hide it. The session keeps running, so the next press shows it as you left it.
• Inside the popup, Ctrl+B Ctrl+B sends the prefix to the scratch session.

Change the name or the size in your config:

[scratch]
session = "scratch"
width = "80%"
height = "80%"

Thanks for the idea, it is a nice one to have!

[Gaurav-Gosain]

Quick update: I reworked this after trying it (#264). The first version showed a whole second tuios inside the popup, which felt wrong. Now it is simpler:

• Ctrl+B g shows one plain terminal as a floating popup. Each session has its own, created the first time.
• Ctrl+B g again, or Esc, hides it. The shell keeps running with its scrollback, so the next press shows it as you left it.
• It is no longer a separate session, so it never changes which session tuios attach picks.
• [scratch] now only has width and height.

If you tried the first version, tuios kill-session scratch removes the old session.

[Gaurav-Gosain]

Incredible.... also better than tmux and floax... resizing the terminal emulator window the scratch adjusts perfectly no glitching.

Thank You!

Keep them coming! Thanks a lot for all the valuable suggestions I am discovering workflows thanks to these as well!! huge w for productivity (:

[Smithx10]

I did notice in the Scratch I wasn't unable to do any splits.

I'm not sure if this is an issue yet. I think it would probably be useful to be able to have splits in there tho... I don't think it needs to be a full blown session.

One of the workflows I typically have is to have logging output for multiple services and some terminal with env vars setup for interactive testing / commands .... and then context switch between my coding setup... which would be helix in one terminal and then typically some live reload daemons and sometimes the debugger etc.

[Gaurav-Gosain]

That makes a lot of sense, and your workflow is a great example. Right now the scratch terminal is one pane, so splits are not possible there.

I am turning it into a small layout of its own: split the scratch popup like a normal workspace (log tails, a shell with your env vars, a test runner), move and resize inside it, and show or hide the whole thing with one key. It stays in the same session and does not become a separate one. Each scratch entry from [[keybindings.command]] could get its own layout too, so you could have one for your service logs and another for a debugger.

I will post here when it is on main.

[Smithx10]

Yeah I like that it stays with the session. The floax plugin is global, and I think that's to its detriment. This will be way better. Thanks for the info.

[Gaurav-Gosain]

Splits in the scratch are on main now (#303), and they will be in the next release.

• Press Ctrl+B g to show the scratch, then split, move, resize and zoom inside it with the normal keys. Your log tails, env shell and test runner all live in one group.
• Ctrl+B g hides the whole group and brings it back as you left it. A click outside it also hides it.
• Each type = "scratch" command key has its own group and layout, so you can keep one for service logs and another for a debugger.
• tuios xpanes run from inside a scratch pane opens its panes in the group.
• After a daemon restart, every group comes back hidden, with each pane's history.

Thanks for describing your workflow, it shaped the whole design!