Feature suggestion: switch between console and shell (like radian/Julia)

[francisbarton]

Prompted to post this by learning that radian is no longer under development.

Ever since starting to use Positron I have been very happy with the integrated R console. I used to use radian in VSCode, and I am also a Julia user. One neat Julia console feature, which radian adopted, was the ability to switch from console/REPL mode to shell mode with ; (and backspace to return to the console).

The "option to use radian" issue is understandably closed as won't but there is an invitation there to post feature "gaps" as requests on here. So here I am 😃.

A "switch to shell" mode feature would be a wonderful asset to Positron as it develops further.

[seeM]

Thank you for the suggestion @francisbarton! Can you share more about when you find this feature useful, and what you like about it? Do you prefer this to, for example, switching between an integrated Terminal and a Console?

[francisbarton]

For me it has two main advantages. Firstly there's a nice ergonomics to it, being able to stay in the same area of the IDE in terms of your visual focus, but to switch mode with a simple keystroke*.

Secondly, as I get older and my eyes need text to be displayed at a larger size, I find that having an editor workspace, a primary sidebar, a terminal pane, and a second sidebar for my console makes the IDE too cluttered - there's no enough space for all the things I want to be able to see (given the size of my monitor)! Unless I shrink the font sizes, or repeatedly hide and show a sidebar, for example. I guess I could have the terminal and console in the same sidebar, but the radian/Julia way feels slicker somehow.

I'd be interested to know if others feel the same way.

* In Positron currently I have a keybinding to switch between terminal and console, so it's not just the simplicity of the keystroke, it's the "staying in the same place" as an aspect of my user experience.

[jmcphers]

Thanks for the feedback! I don't think you're alone in wanting this; curiously, we just also got this request on Bluesky (unless this is also you?):

https://bsky.app/profile/geoeconomica.bsky.social/post/3mixxh7xsnk2m

And arf (Radian's spiritual successor) has shell mode too. I've written up a feature request here, feel free to upvote or add color: #12944

[francisbarton]

Ha, interesting - no that's not me on bsky