Eliminate vertical whitespace to better utilize available area

[jmccorm]

Introduction: The following are some suggestions concerning the on-screen presentation that I'd like for you to consider. I respect the fact that you are the author of this application, and that you'll make the decisions you deem best.

1] Remove / re-purpose lines which are almost entirely blank.

I currently have an 80x26 window open and it is showing my Utilization by process name. Below the line that says: "Process [ ... ] Connections [ ... ] Rate Up / Down" is a blank line. You've already done a great job of using colors to differentiate the column headers from the data. Considering removing the blank line by moving the lines of data up by one row. This will allow an additional row to be displayed on-screen.

2] Consolidate multiple lines where possible.

At the top of the screen I see "Total Rate Up / Down: 25.93MBps / 329.44KBps". At the bottom of the screen I see "Press <SPACE> to pause." I'd like to suggest that these two elements could be combined into a single line either at the top of the screen or the bottom (no preference here).

3] Connect the boxes when all three windows are displayed

I don't know if this will have a negative impact on the visual aesthetics and clarity (or if it will be neutral) but it seems that when you have three windows on screen (top left, top right, bottom), you could actually merge/connect the windows at the middle of the screen and free up another vertical line of real-estate to be repurposed.

Closing: Let me know if I should attach pictures to better illustrate this request. (I believe you, as the author, are probably familiar with what I'm saying here, but it may not be obvious to others who browse upon this issue. Again, please do what works best for you. This is distinct from the topic we discussed a few days ago, and I will be submitting a well-defined Issue which best proposes the enhancement.

PS: Very nice utility! I think your clever use of wide & tall terminal windows really sets you apart from so many other termimal-based applications.

[imsnif]

Hey, thanks for all the detailed suggestions. I'm happy you like our tool :)

All of these suggested changes have trade-offs (like most things, I'd guess). It's important to me to illustrate those trade-offs here, and maybe hear your thoughts about them (or of course let anyone else chime in).

1] Remove / re-purpose lines which are almost entirely blank.

Below the line that says: "Process [ ... ] Connections [ ... ] Rate Up / Down" is a blank line. You've already done a great job of using colors to differentiate the column headers from the data. Considering removing the blank line by moving the lines of data up by one row. This will allow an additional row to be displayed on-screen.

I will admit that I'm also not 100% fond of this line of space. This is the default for the terminal-ui library we're using, but I don't mind seeing it changed. The trade-off here is that if we get rid of it: for terminals without colors, the tables headers might seem a little unclear at first glance.

2] Consolidate multiple lines where possible.

At the top of the screen I see "Total Rate Up / Down: 25.93MBps / 329.44KBps". At the bottom of the screen I see "Press to pause." I'd like to suggest that these two elements could be combined into a single line either at the top of the screen or the bottom (no preference here).

The reason we decided to put these in two separate lines is that currently the "Total Rate" display has no fixed width. Eg. Total Rate Up / Down: 25.93MBps / 329.44KBps would be wider than: Total Rate Up / Down: 2.93MBps / 3.44KBps. If we put the Press <space> to pause after it, it will keep "jumping" around as the rate changes. IMO that would be a little bit annoying. :) Putting it to the left of the total might be a little confusing. We could put it on the other side of the screen (align to the right side of the line), but then we would still have the above problem when the displays are less wide. In general, I felt putting them on separate lines was one of those "avoid possible issues" sort of decisions. But I'm not terribly attached to that call.

3] Connect the boxes when all three windows are displayed

I don't know if this will have a negative impact on the visual aesthetics and clarity (or if it will be neutral) but it seems that when you have three windows on screen (top left, top right, bottom), you could actually merge/connect the windows at the middle of the screen and free up another vertical line of real-estate to be repurposed.

Wouldn't the separation become much less clear though? If we have full lines on all tables, it will be hard to tell where one ends and one begins? Or did I misunderstand?

Aside from these issues: Are you encountering issues where you could use these space optimizations? Are you seeing a lot of traffic that gets cut off, or do you have a use-case where you need to analyze traffic using small terminal windows? If that is the case, maybe you can tell us a bit more about that issue and we might find specific additional suggestions. Of course, if this is just a healthy wish for real-estate optimization, I'm happy to keep talking about the specific points you raised. :)

[cyqsimon]

Ah sorry I thought this is an issue #305 fixes as well. My bad.