tmux/TODO

NOTES
=====

This file describes rough notes regarding ideas for potential future tmux
development.  It's not necessarily guaranteed that items in this TODO file
will ever get implemented.

It is asked therefore, that anyone thinking of undertaking a task in this
TODO file, email tmux-users@lists.sf.net to discuss the feature.

In terms of submitting patches, see the PATCHES file.

Thie file is split up between tmux user interface (UI) issues, and terminal
compatibility issues.

TMUX UI ISSUES
==============

- implicitly add exec to the commands for new windows (switch to disable it)?
- bring back detach-session to detach all clients on a session?
- allow fnmatch for -c, so that you can, eg, detach all clients
- garbage collect window history (100 lines at a time?) if it hasn't been used
  in $x time
- flags to centre screen in window
- activity/bell should be per-window not per-link? what if it is cur win in
  session not being watched?
- should be able to move to a hidden pane and it would be moved into view. pane
  number in status line/top-right would be cool for this
- support other mouse modes (highlight etc) and use it in copy mode
- set-remain-on-exit is a bit of a hack, some way to do it generically?
- would be nice to be able to use "--" to mark start of command w/ neww etc
  to avoid quoting
- make command sequences more usable: don't require space after ;, handle
  errors better
- attach should have a flag to create session if it doesn't exist
- choice and more mode would be better per client than per window?
- hooks to which commands may be attached, for example: tmux add-hook
  "new-session" if-shell "[ -e $HOME/.tmux-session.conf ]" source-file
  $HOME/.tmux-session.conf
- way to set socket path from config file
- what about utmp etc? can tmux update it like screen? setgid?
- warts on current naming:
  	- display-time but message-fg/bg/attr
	- list-* vs show-*
	- server-info
	- up-pane/down-pane/swap-pane -U/swap-pane -D vs next-*/previous-*
	- split-window -> split-pane??
- a way for force-width/height to apply to only one pane (how?)
- command to list what is actually running in each window with command line,
  pid (need some adaption of the osdep code)
- some way to force a screen to use the entire terminal even if it is forced
  to be smaller by other clients. pan smaller terminal? (like screen F)
	-- idea of a "view" onto a window, need base x/y offsets for redraw
- handle resize better in copy mode
- way to copy stuff that is off screen due to resize
- commands should be able to succeed or fail and have || or && for command
  lists
- some way to KEEP a command running continually and just use its LAST line of
  output
- UTF-8 to a non-UTF-8 terminal should not be able to balls up
  the terminal - www/ruby-addressable; make regress
- support esc-esc to quit in modes
- fix ctrl+F1-F4 output. to what?
- better utf8 support: window names, prompt input, message display
- session history for client and last-session command
- option to change status line colour when current window is in a mode?
- option to move copy mode indicator into status line
- list-buffer/show-buffer should display UTF-8
- selection behaviour closer to vi in vi mode
- live update: server started with -U connects to server, requests sessions and
  windows, receives fds
- sort out inheriting config from shell on new sessions/windows:
        should pick up default-path/termios/etc from client if possible,
	else leave empty/default
- link panes into multiple windows
- bells should be passed between sessions with visual-bell etc
  sequence until its shell exits, to allow them to be used from the config file
- better session sharing: create-socket command to create socket somewhere (-r
  flag for readonly)
- multiline status line (no?)
- flag for absolute pane size to resize-pane
- sanity check input to socket
- support title stack, both internally and externally
	http://docs.freebsd.org/cgi/getmsg.cgi?fetch=1149299+0+archive/2010/freebsd-questions/20100207.freebsd-questions
- command to show status line information briefly when it is off
- some way to pad # stuff with spaces, #!2T maybe
- a binding to "scroll down and exit at bottom" copy mode
- some way to pass keystrokes in copy mode through to underlying window
- last window update time and # replacement for it for display-message
- find-window across sessions - other ways to make session handling easier?
- ' and " should be parsed the same (eg "\e" vs '\e') in config and command
  prompt?
- command to toggle selection not to move it in copy-mode
- audit of escape sequence support vs xterm
- support binding keys to mouse (mouse-select-pane -> mouse-keys or something,
  mouse click == select-pane -t %%, mouse scroll up == copy-mode)
- something for -t "last window in session" so a session can be used as a stack
- synchronous commands - client sends cmd and blocks, neww/splitw saves client
  ptr then when program inside died, sends MSG_SOMETHING with wait status to
  client
- bind commands to key sequences? -- make it so ALL keys go through a table,
  first an implicit table in which C-b is the only default binding to a
  command that says "next key from $othertable" and so on. means -n can
  go away as well
- monitor, bell etc should monitor /all/ panes in the window not just one
- a history of commands that can be reversed (reverse member of each command,
  and a buffer) info() when changing to same window
- way to add dest for break-pane; maybe some easier way to unbreak-pane
- case insensitive searching
- configurable borders and empty space filler for when panes < window?
- mouse-select-pane will screw up with !MODE_MOUSE_STANDARD (it sets the
  flag on w/o checking the others before calling tty_update_mode)
- multiple keys could be done with tables, ie have prefixes go and instead
	bind -n ^A prefix-table "default"
  where prefix-table sets command lookup table and sets prefix flag, then next
  key is looked up in that table
- pass shell commands as argv rather than strings, allow them to be specified
  in commands without quotes
- numeric prefix in copy mode should be paste buffer for C-w
- named buffers and allow gaps in the stack
- get rid of separate UTF-8 cell stuff: add 1 byte to cell and store BMP as
  uint16_t+3 bits of flags. anything <=0xffff is Unicode, higher are used to
  build tree of combined characters/non-BMP (LRU dropped when full)
- entry in FAQ about what to do when someone does mkdir /tmp/tmux-1000
- monitor-activity is broken in several ways with multiple clients
- monitor-activity should be more powerful (eg set a region)
- maybe a way to put pane names instead of window names in status line
- support for borderless panes
- run-shell/if-shell should support status_replace stuff
- wait-pane command or another way to make it synchronous/wait for command to
  finish
- last-pane across sessions
- attach should take a pane and select it as well as attaching
- panes should have names like windows
- command-prompt doesn't work if made read-only. why?
- option to quote format eg #{session_name:quoted}
- formats need conditions for >0 (for #P)
- fetch full command line on !Linux, and add option to strip prefixes
  such as "sh " "/bin/sh " etc etc
- synchronize-windows option
- append to buffer in copy mode
- way to paste w/o trailing whitespace
- flag to switch-client to switch all clients
- history of layouts and undo/redo flags to selectl
- way to tag a layout as a number/name
- optimize pane redraws, 20120318184853.GK10965@yelena.nicm.ath.cx
- support multibyte key strings
- allow commands to be executed when certaing patterns in a screen
  are clicked on with the mouse
- flag to make next/previous commands skip a window
- way to do tmux command/run-shell from mode keys
- send command to all windows
- choose-pane command
	- Augment choose-tree to do this?  TA to investigate.
- choose-mode and copy-mode are very similar.  Perhaps make choose-mode a
  subset of copy-mode in that it inherits key-bindings and other traits but
  not all.

TERMINAL ISSUES
================

- use a better termcap internally instead of screen, perhaps xterm
- clear window title on exit (see using xterm title stack)
- get it passing all the vttest tests that don't require resizing the terminal
- support for bce
- use screen-256color when started on 256 colour terminal??
- if-shell/run-shell should block further command execution in the same command
- possibly support rxvt-unicode extended mouse input (1015)
- wrap/no wrap esc seq DEC CSI ? 7 h/l
* We need a tmux terminfo entry to document the extensions we are using in
  upstream terminfo. Must NOT change (only add or remove) anything from
  TERM=screen so we can fallback!