Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!steinmetz!dawn!stpeters
From: stpeters@dawn.steinmetz
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: "screen" vs. "wm" - (nf)
Message-ID: <7259@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 8-Sep-87 14:07:38 EDT
Article-I.D.: steinmet.7259
Posted: Tue Sep  8 14:07:38 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Sep-87 07:16:11 EDT
Sender: root@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP
Reply-To: stpeters@dawn.UUCP ()
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 47

> While window managers like "wm" split the screen into multiple windows
> (vertically), "screen" manages a set of independent equally-sized "logical
> screens".
>
> In contrast to "wm", where all windows are visible at each point of time,
> "screen" always displays exactly one logical screen.

'wm' *can* split your screen into multiple windows, but don't misread
this capability as a requirement.  In fact, displaying a single full-
screen window, just as 'screen' does, is both the usual and the
default mode of 'wm' usage.

It takes just two keystrokes to switch to any other window, and
contrary to one claim, it takes exactly four strokes to make a new
(full-screen) window.

> Screen is also the only package that handles window logins correctly (as far
> as I know).

Whether 'screen' or 'wm' handle logins "correctly" depends on whether
you want such a program fiddling with /etc/utmp.  Personally, I would
choose not, so I consider 'wm' and not 'screen' to handle this
correctly.

This does cause 'getlogin()' to return an empty string, which is the
cause the of problem with 'talk'.  'wm' comes with an alternative to
'getlogin()' that does work within wm, which you can use to make a
working 'talk' if you have source.

> "window" and "wm" caused when resizing a window near the right edge of my
> VT220 compatible terminal. Just before the right edge of the window moved off
> the terminal screen, the terminal was "reset".

This is hardly an argument in favor of 'screen', which can't resize
its windows at all!  Anyway, it sounds like a termcap problem to me.
In nearly two years of daily use of 'wm' with a VT220, I never
encountered this reset problem.

> Anyone who has never tried an virtual window manager should.

Absolutely!  I've used 'wm' on ULTRIX VAXen, Sun's (1's, 2's, and
3's), and an Alliant, and I highly recommend it.

Dick St.Peters                        
GE Corporate R&D, Schenectady, NY
stpeters@ge-crd.arpa              
uunet!steinmetz!stpeters