We should format our printed output to fit within the limits of an 80-character line for best effect. The 80-column default width has implications for the shell scripts and other text-based programs we write. Though this is too wide for comfortable reading of straight text (for example, a man page), it’s fine for other purposes, such as viewing log files. 80 columns is a good width for reading text, but having additional height provides us with more context when working at the command line.Īnother common width is 132 columns, derived from the width of wide fan-fold computer paper. Making the terminal larger, on the other hand, is preferable in most situations, particularly when it comes to terminal height. Some applications expect 80 by 24 to be the minimum size, and will not display properly when the size is smaller. These dimensions were inherited from the size of common hardware terminals, which, in turn, were influenced by the format of IBM punch cards (80 columns by 12 rows). The “normal” size for a terminal is 80 columns by 24 rows. Many terminals allow configuration of a default size. Terminal emulators display a window that can be adjusted to any size from the sublime to the ridiculous. Modern terminal emulators are quite flexible and can be configured in many ways: gnome-terminal preferences dialog Size We can think of this as a safety feature because, if the desktop environment suffers from some lack of functionality (and they all do), we can still access the shell and actually get stuff done.

all include terminal emulators as standard equipment. Graphical desktop environments like GNOME, KDE, LXDE, Unity, etc.

In this adventure, we are going to dig into these essential tools and look at a few of the different terminal programs and the many interesting things we can do with them. There is, however, one program we have overlooked, and it may be among the most important and most frequently used of them all– our terminal emulator. Over the course of our many lessons and adventures, we have learned a lot about the shell, and explored many of the common command line utilities found on Linux systems. Previous | Contents | Next Power Terminals

Xterm vs pterm