[OS X] SIMBL hacks

[Andy Jacobson]

Howdy Folks,

I've just finally switched to Leopard and am loving the tabbed  
Terminal.app (and Spaces).  While it was very useful in its time, I'm  
very happy to leave behind iTerm with its longstanding bugs and  
eccentric configuration scheme.

I was disappointed to find that I couldn't type command-2 to switch to  
the second tab in Terminal.app, as I had become used to doing in  
iTerm.  After some poking around, I found a plugin to fix this and I  
thought I'd describe it for you.  There's a package called "SIMBL"  
which makes it possible for plugins to hook into other applications,  
using an interface called "InputManagers".

SIMBL had been brought to my attention before because one of the  
plugins that has been available is called "Visor".  Visor provides a  
drop-down terminal window accessed via a system-wide hotkey.  It means  
you don't have to switch to Terminal.app to do issue quick shell  
commands.  I was intrigued, but not enough to go through the business  
of installing SIMBL.

Now, however, I've discovered that someone has written a SIMBL plugin  
to allow numbered tab-switching in Leopard's Terminal.app.  Well, that  
was enough motivation for me.  I took the plunge, installed SIMBL,  
Visor and the tabbed-switching plugin, and I couldn't be happier with  
how they work.  That Visor is cool!

Here are the relevant links:

SIMBL
http://www.culater.net/software/SIMBL/SIMBL.php

Visor
http://code.google.com/p/blacktree-visor/

Terminal Tab Switching
http://ciaranwal.sh/files/TerminalTabSwitching.bundle.zip
http://ciaranwal.sh/2007/12/10/tab-switching-in-terminal


Cheers,

Andy
-- 
Andy Jacobson
andy.jacobson at noaa.gov

NOAA Earth System Research Lab
Global Monitoring Division
325 Broadway
Boulder, Colorado 80305

303/497-4916