Blink: Way to see open terminals

[rekendahl]

When working with multiple terminals there need to be a way to get a list of what terminals are open.

My solution would perhaps be that perhaps swiping up with two fingers could raise a tab bar at the bottom (similar to how iTerm) looks. The name of each terminal should (at least) be the name of the machine it's been "moshed" into.

I kind of like the idea that swiping left/right switches tabs and swiping up shows tab list and tap creates new terminal. That still leaves swipe down as a future interaction mechanism

[carloscabanero]

I like the idea of swiping up to show the terminals. It also convenient because it would show the list at the bottom, and would be easier to control / closer to the keyboard.

My problem with tab bars or any text lists is that it is difficult to identify them, so you end up just going through all. Maybe a bar with the terminal screenshot could work in this case (or something like safari).

[rekendahl]

I think mimicing iOS large swipe-able cards could work. Might work better if touch is main way of changing tabs (doesn't work as well with cmd+tab). In the picture you show the screenshots for each term seem hard to tell apart. In a small snapshot I think current command, machine name and user is probably most important.

Hope that helps. Will be interesting to see what you pick.

[BinaryBen]

I obviously haven't seen the UI (yet), but as a potential user, I would appreciate a lean, minimal user interface with a focus on providing a full screen prompt where possible. Other apps often seem to have a bar or something in the way of the prompt interface.

[carloscabanero]

We already have a full screen interface, with no space for bars, and worked really hard to keep it like that ;)

I have seen this, that could actually work https://github.com/stefanceriu/SCSafariPageController. It is similar to what Safari does for the tabs, and I kinda like to have that "second" mode, where we could probably show other things like scp progress, notifications...

[BinaryBen]

That is good to hear! I can't wait to try it. Are there any screen shots or forums available to discuss design ideas?

Second mode – you could "flip" the display so the backend stuff is literally on the back of the terminal? That way any additional UI elements can be kept there and the terminal itself will be kept nice and clean.

Obviously, I have no idea if that would work or how it would look without seeing the app.. But it is an idea.

[carloscabanero]

Not sure I understand what you mean by keeping the backend stuff on the back? But I think we have a solution.

I tested the cards solution and didn't really like it because it requires you to change your mode everytime you want to switch windows. I didn't even use it much in Safari for navigation anyway. Finally I discovered the problem was location, you didn't really knew where you were after a while, so...

[BinaryBen]

I'm adding a request in terms of how the switching gestures are handled, which seems appropriate to this issue.

I like the way one finger left/right switches between open clients and up/down scrolls. When you use two fingers down to close though, it moves the modal HUD like this:

It looks very unnatural to me and I think it would be better if the modal HUD (let me know if you have a more official name for this, the grey box with blue dots in it) stayed in a consistent position, and if the terminal itself wasn't resized (and instead was just faded out). Ideally, the client terminal should remain full screen all the time - unless resizing for split screen in future versions of course!

In the above screenshots, where it displays:

     • • • • •
       blink
      X x 189

It could show this instead to let users know what the gesture is doing (in case the existing fade isn't obvious enough):

     • • • • •
     Closing..
       blink

Similarly, the movement of the modal HUD when the keyboard bar appears/disappears feels glitchy when you have a BT keyboard attached. It might be more appropriate to only move it when the entire onscreen keyboard is toggled on and off rather than just the function keys?

Forgive me if it seems picky, UX is my jam! It's the small things that make a (relatively) expensive app a must have for developers though.

[carloscabanero]

Man, you hit the spot with this! It was a pain even during SplitView. Here are the fixes I made:

• I have added some tolerance before changing the position of the HUD (the grey modal).
• The HUD will only appear when Blink is firstResponder, to avoid appearing again and again during SplitView.
• When dragging down with two fingers, the terminal won't change size anymore so the experience is smoother and we do not show any HUD.
• Moving the modal now happens animated, so the experience is a whole lot better when rotating the device or when connecting to a keyboard.

I love this UX suggestions, so keep them coming!

[BinaryBen]

Awesome. Keen to try them out and see how it works in practice