Why is Termlauncher

To understand what Termlauncher is for, you have to know about Leopard's Terminal.app. The new Terminal.app is arguably the most underrated new feature of Leopard. With tabs and window groups you can set up all sorts commonly used scenerios.

Unfortunately one thing that they seem to have messed up is the handling of .Term files. Used to be that a .Term would simply launch Terminal.app with the settings you want. It still does that, but also imports those settings into your profiles. The result is that every time you launch with one of those you'll end up with a duplicate entry. The old behavior was very handy for launching sessions using Spotlight or QuickSilver. Now you can't launch anything except the default with the keyboard. Lame.

In walks Termlauncher..

What is Termlauncher

Termlauncher is a quick and dirty AppleScript (my first) to control Leopard's new Terminal.app. It pops up a window in the upper-right hand corner and lets you type the name of a profile or window group. If a match is made a new window is opened with that window group or profile.

Bugs

Termlauncher is a quick and dirty script. It has bugs and needs work. Here's what's missing or broken...

• Does not check the size of the desktop. The location is hard set. You will probably have to edit that.
• Does not map to a hotkey. Needs to be launched from QuickSilver or the like. I use Option-T.
• Does not stay running. It exits after every launch. It should just hide itself.
• Does not start Terminal.app. It must already be running.
• Does not do anything if you mistype the name. Need a visual cue to tell you no match.
• Fancy stuff would include:
• Autocompletion
• Refocus already opened sessions
• Modifiers to open in tab rather than window
• A preferenes pane
• Generic SSH to hostname

Despite all that, I find it extremely useful. :)

Download Termlauncher

Termlauncher isn't bundled with any license. Consider it GPL. If you use it, drop me a line (reverse('vt.plib@nitsuj')). If you change it or fix something, definitely drop me a line. I'll set up a SourceForge or something.

• Termlauncher 0.1