No capability to restore or redisplay a hidden terminal

[aPlatypus]

I recently found that I had accidentally "hideden" two terminal panels in terminator. I did this by dragging the dividing frame on a vertical split too-far to the right and the two horizonatlly split panels on the right were hidden. I found a partial fix but I still have a hidden terminal/panel.

diagram -- Four terminals on the same TAB, each in a terminal/panel -- A, B, C and F:

+=================================+
| title-A |
+=================================+
| | |
| | |
| | |
| <A> | C |
| | |
| | |
| +------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | B |
| | |
| | |
+=================================+
               o--> drag right

to give one panel:

+=================================+
| title-A |
+=================================+
| |
| |
| <A> |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
| |
+=================================+

However there are still processes running in panels F, B and C. I can see them in HTop and the ps command.

+=================================+
| title-C |
+=================================+
| | |
| | |
| | |
| A | <C> |
| | |
| | |
| +------------------+
| | |
| | |
| | B |
| | |
| | |
+=================================+
                 <-- drag right

Can eventually find C and B but F still eludes me. It is possible to CTRL/TAB and see F title displayes but not the terminal/panel. In this case F is between panel-A and the panel-B/C.

+=================================+
| title-F |
+=================================+
| || |
| <F> |
| || |
| A || <C> |
| || |
| || |
| |+------------------+
| || |
| || |
| || B |
| || |
| || |
+=================================+
      CTRL/TAB to 'F'

Eventually control drag did 'restore' the F window ... But there is still another panel hidden on that tab and I have no method available ot know where it is because I didn't know it was there until I started writing this bug.

I eventually found it with a lot of painstaking hunt-n-peck mousing. The upshot of having (accidentally) shrunk these panels is that the shells running and other programs are "told" the terminal size is 0 width (or height as appropriate). In contrast something like TMux lets the process be like a background -- I presume there's a virtual terminal or minimised viewport behind that.

The thing about these zero size panels is that the output is all wrapped-up, e.g.

     <W> fish: Current terminal parameters set terminal size to unreasonable value.
<W> fish: Defaulting terminal size to 80x24.

Bash too but less friendly about it.

To date I have been unable to redisplay the B and C panels. If I try the mouse on the right of the screen all I see is a scroll bar.

The CTRL-SHIFT/Right-Mouse/Ctrl-UP drag command has no effect on this panelling layout. I attempted most things that seemed appropriate without success.

I used the get_terminals command in an attempt to bring the back programatically -- However the results are dissappointing because all I have is a list of 32 x terminals with NOTHING to distinguish one UUID for another. I am sure my terminal/panel is there bu there is no way to determine which one it is.

As I see it there are 4 x problems that require attention.

 1. If a user drags a vertical or horizontal divider far enough access to the panel that shrinks is lost.
      * The method to restore hidden panel contents is Not Documented (or is difficult to find).
      * I eventually found that CTRL/Mouse-drag on the scroll bar retrieved my display (phew)
      * I do feel that some visual clue is needed -- some kind of hover effect perhaps??
      * and there is NO control to widen a penel shrunk in the centre (vertical or horizontal)
      * There needs to be a way to indicate or highlight a panel shrunk-down that doesn't show except in the title bar when you use Ctrl-Tab

  2. The remotinator commands need to present results in a context that can be used to identify and control terminals, tabs, panels, windows and other entities.

  3. The remotinator commands like:
       * get_terminal (not get_terminals), get_tab, get_window etc.
       * need to give the relevant ID for the current terminal, panel window, tab. Unless a specific id is supplied.
       * the commands like 'get_terminals' should be renamed to 'list_terminals', 'list_tabs', etc.

 4. I discovered that during Ctrl/Shift-P and Ctrl-TAB cycling through panels within a Tab that this gives focus to the tab and anything I type or input in that focused panel is fed to the running program. While that may be desirable -- I cannot see what is happening in Tab F currently -- So all manner of mischeif could be manifest by me typing when I thought keyoard focus was on A and instead the input went to the F panel -- May be input should be blocked or at least some kind of pop-up comes up on hidden panels to alert 'me' that input is going to the F panel and not one of the visible panels.

In summary the 'bug' here is about usability and friendly access to the challenge of hidding panels and little need for documentation on these 'extra' gestures, etc.

[aPlatypus (william-full-moon)]

sorry the diagram should have been done with some no-format -- But launch pad doesn't suppor it.