Feature Request: (Re-)Run a command in an existing pane with a keybind

[lysogeny]

Background

Hey folks, first of I am in love with this project, it is so easy to use, thank you so much for your effort <3

I am a lazy person and I wanted to have a single button I could push to start compilation (or something else) in some layouts I was making for myself. For example, when writing a LaTeX document, I would want to push <F9> to build my LaTeX document and have the build log displayed somewhere. Similar logic applies to other processes.

For now I have implemented this by creating the following keybind:

bind "F9" { 
    Run "make"; 
    TogglePaneEmbedOrFloating;
}

This is however a bit strange as focus doesn't reliably return to the same frame and some compilation processes need a long time and having a float block your view can be annoying for that time. I was wondering if some kind of feature could be implemented to make this a bit nicer.

Ideas

Idea 1: float Run

This could probably be solved by adding 'floating' as a direction option to Run. Unfortunately, this only solves the jankyness of my current solution.

Idea 2: GoToPane

Some kind of GoToPane action that allows you to change focus to a (named?) pane could also work. Then I would have a layout with a pane named build and one named main.tex and the keybind could look something like this:

bind "F9" { 
    GoToPane "build"; // or other identifier?
    InsertChars " "; 
    GoToPane "main.tex"; // or other identifier?
}

I thought that there is a reason you don't have a GoToPane and since it isn't clear how you identify an arbitrary pane to go to I don't know if that is something that can be implemented in this project.

Idea 3: RerunPane

Alternatively a command called something like RerunPane could perhaps be used to rerun a pane. Unfortunately, this comes with the problems from Idea 2.

It would potentially look like this:

bind "F9" { 
    RerunPane "build"; // or other identifier
}

Idea 4: RerunPaneOrRun

After chatting with @har7an, Idea 3 could go a step further and basically:

1. Check if a pane with a given command/argument combination exists.
2. If the pane exists, rerun the contents
3. If the pane doesn't exist, run the command/argument in a pane with a given direction (up/down/right/left/float).

I don't know if identifying a pane by the command/argument combination is a sane idea though.

This could look something like this:

bind "F9" { 
    RerunPaneOrRun "make" {
        direction "Floating"
    };
}

Summary

In a nutshell, I think I am just looking for some feature that will allow me to push a button that will (re)run my build commands in panes that I started for build commands.

Idk, what do you think? Are any of these feasible in some way?

[matthiasbeyer]

Hi.

I don't want to hijack this issue, but my idea is somewhat related, so I think adding it here would be a good idea.

My workflow is almost the same, except that my build runs automatically. So I have a "watch" tool, that watches my project files. If they change, the "watch" tool re-runs the build. I can have that running in a seperate terminal (either a split or a floating terminal).

Problem is: It's in my way most of the time. I only want to see it if there's some progress in the output (plus some timeout).

So my wish would be to have something like this:

• Open <command> in a floating terminal
• Hide that terminal by default
• If there's output/progress in that terminal, show it. If the progress stops, hide it again (plus some configurable timeout)

I think this beats into the same direction as the idea from @lysogeny here.

[nlowe]

I'd love to be able to float the Run action. I have an idea I mentioned in #3106 but after doing some more reading I think the only way to implement it is to make a plugin so I can LaunchOrFocusPlugin with float.

Unfortunately this means I need to find time to teach myself rust or figure out how to get WASM working with one of the languages I do know.