[no subject]

[Richard Huveneers <huveneer@math.ruu.nl>]

>
> What are the advantages of screen?  Why should I use it?   I know its
> a matter of personal preference, but so far I've found myself using most
> of Unix stuff that the list has found useful.   Never thought I'd
> admit it, but Unix utils are useful :-)
>

I think the manual of screen will answer this question quite satisfactorily,

Richard.

     Screen is a full-screen window manager  that  multiplexes  a
     physical   terminal  between  several  processes  (typically
     interactive shells).  Each  virtual  terminal  provides  the
     functions  of a DEC VT100 terminal and, in addition, several
     control functions from the ANSI X3.64  (ISO  6429)  and  ISO
     2022 standards (e.g. insert/delete line and support for mul-
     tiple character sets).  There is a scrollback history buffer
     for  each  virtual  terminal  and a copy-and-paste mechanism
     that allows moving text regions between windows.

     When screen is called, it creates a  single  window  with  a
     shell  in it (or the specified command) and then gets out of
     your way so that you can use the  program  as  you  normally
     would.   Then, at any time, you can create new (full-screen)
     windows with other programs in them (including more shells),
     kill  existing  windows, view a list of windows, turn output
     logging on and off,  copy-and-paste  text  between  windows,
     view the scrollback history, switch between windows in what-
     ever manner you  wish,  etc.   When  a  program  terminates,
     screen (per default) kills the window that contained it.  If
     this window was in the foreground, the display  switches  to
     the previous window; if none are left, screen exits.

     Everything you type is sent to the program  running  in  the
     current window.  The only exception to this is the one keys-
     troke that is used to  initiate  a  command  to  the  window
     manager.   By  default, each command begins with a control-a
     (abbreviated C-a from now on), and is followed by one  other
     keystroke.   The  command character and all the key bindings
     can be fully customized to be anything you like, though they
     are always two characters in length.