splitvt: Under the most dire of circumstances

Between tmux and screen, there’s really not much space for upstart splitscreen console tools, unless they can do things really, really well.

splitvt is really, really not that tool.

That’s the prettiest, cleanest results I could get from splitvt, although I admit I hardly tried beyond the first few console tools that came to mind.

Yes, splitvt can run two console apps in the same frame. And yes, you can spin it up with two very different applications, and get both of them going with reasonable fidelity.

But anything outside of the simplest, most basic output gets sickeningly mangled, like a ten-car horrorcrash, or a drunken prom queen turned loose on a makeup counter in an abandoned department store.

htop came out looking like Van Gogh’s The Starry Night. Midnight Commander was a gob of scrambled eggs sliding off a plate. Don’t even ask me about elinks. I don’t like to think about it. 😯 😥

And splitvt is clearly intended for non-interactive programs. I find splitvt traps you in the upper bracket, meaning any input intended for the lower half is effectively ignored.

There’s some sort of “command mode” for splitvt, which I found by accident. If you hit CTRL+O and then enter a question mark, you’ll get a brief list of commands. From there you can adjust the property boundary, copy and paste (supposedly) or lock the screen. Other tips are listed.

But I’ve seen enough. I know it’s not fair to pick on a program that’s beyond its freshness date, and it may be that when splitvt was in its prime, it was neck-and-neck with the best that screen or tmux could offer.

But these days, with tmux leading the pack featurewise, and screen coming out of retirement to do battle with the usurper … splitvt is easy to dismiss. Try it, but only under the most dire of circumstances. 😐