fullscreen terminal
 

i know there are a number of alternatives to the Terminal app that ships with OS X, but do you know of one that has built-in fullscreen support? ie. having the terminal window and no menubar whatsoever. *some* linux terminals have it, so i assume there has to be one in macland.
i know i could run os x in console mode, but for my project i need acqua at a hand, plus i preffer the sharper look of an acqua-based terminal.
Thanks a lot

I don't know an any, but why not just zoom the window?

Chris

hmm never tried that. how accurate can the zooming be?
is it scriptable (so that it doesnt have to be done by hand everytime you start up the machine?)
thankee

Accurate?? What do you mean?

Just click on the green ball at the top left of the terminal window.

>> Just click on the green ball at the top left of the terminal window.

well, i asked for a fullscreen alternative. and maximizing the window is not exactly the same thing, is it? ;-)
i need to have the terminal window on the screen and no window margins, no menubars, nothing but the terminal space. that's why i was asking for a terminal application capable of fullscreen other than logging in console mode.
if zooming can solve the problem, that could be it, but i need to know if zooming can be applescripted so that it resizes the display zoom automatically just by clicking on a scriptfile or something.
best

The person who suggested "zoom" was using that as a synonym for maximizing the window. This is a common usage in the Mac world. Hence the confusion about "accuracy" etc.

Using the display zoom capability (see the Universal Access preferences for the keyboard shortcuts) would indeed seem to provide a way to get rid of that nasty menubar etc from Terminal. But it would of course affect all of your other apps as well and in those you might want to be able to see the menubar. You might be able to script the zooming via AppleScript (using SystemEvents) - you'd have to experiment.

I don't know if there is any solution for you. Most people don't have such an aversion to the menubar and even use it occasionally while in Terminal. Maybe you'd like to tell us why this is such a big issue for you. It doesn't take up that much screen space.

That *is* zooming.

I can't answer the other question, don't know if such a thing exists.

i know this will not have the 'aqua' look, but there is always logging in at the console.

if you do not know how to all you have to do is when it asks you for the username and password to log in type in ">console" and no password. this will quit the gui and give you fullscreen command line.

I don't know what your specific requirements are, but perhaps using an xterm in Apple X11 fullscreen mode would be an option?

If you don't use a window manager and set the geometry of your xterm to e.g. 170x60 for a 1024x768 display, then you can switch between your full-screen xterm and the Aqua GUI with opt-cmd-A.
Ciao,
Roeland.

I misunderstood. You also said you wanted the Aqua goodness, which threw me off. It really does sound like you want console mode.

Chris

ok no worries
i **dont want** the menubar cos i need this for a piece in an exhibition, and wanted to keep the screen as slick and minimal as possible. so it seems like console mode will be the best option. i have used many times in the past and it works perfectly for this. i'll have to deal with the less sharp fonts etc ;-] (because the font size in console mode IS unnegotiable, right?)
thanks to everyone.

The font size is fully adjustable...Window Settings > Display.

If you're just doing an exhibition, and you happen to be using a CRT, you could also adjust the CRT so that the area outside the terminal window is off screen.

Chris

no crt. it'll be in a (hopefully) large monitor.
i dont understand about resizing font in console mode... how do i do that?
thanks!

In the terminal menu, just under Preferences, is Window Settings. Open that. From the popup menu, select Display. Then click on the Set Font button.

Chris

I dont think this would affect the console fonts. I think that when you log in at the console it changes the monitor to either 640x480 or maybe 600x800. there has to be a way to change that, but i dont know it.

no, it most definitely doesn't affect console mode aspect. anybody has a clue on how to do that (in case that is doable).
thank you

Have you tried darelon's solution yet? You can change the font and size for xterms as well, so you should easily be able to get what you want there.

well, i went through x11 xterm's man page and i didn't find anything about fullscreen, getting rid of menubar or similar. maybe i missed it, of course. any clues? (Darelon or whoever knows more than me about x11)
thanks

You get to full-screen by using X11.app's preferences and the key combination darelon mentioned.

By not using a window manager you get no other window decorations.

The geometry option changes the size of the xterm window as you won't be able to resize it later (since that's the job of a window manager).

Copy any .xinitrc file you have to some other location and do

and rerun X11.app. You'll probably need to adjust the 170x60 until it fits your screen appropriately.

You can add the -fs and -fa to change font size and font name as well if you like.

right, i tried the echo 'exec xterm -geometry 170x60' > .xinitrc
it works, except the top menubar is still there
any chance of losing that too?
thanks

As a few people have mentioned now, you need to set the X11 application preference to full-screen mode. It's in the 'Output' tab in the X11 preferences. You can type 'man xterm' until you're blue in the face and it won't talk about the X11.app preferences.

What version of OS X are you running and what program do you use to launch X11 sessions; Apple's or XDarwin?

i tried enabling fullscreen mode in the output tab in x11 preferences, but then xterm just disappears
thanks for your help

ok it works fullscreen now
just needed to quit
duh
cheers everyone!