Editable annotations on terminal like sticky notes

Question

I use screen, which lets me use many terminals. However, because there are so many terminals sometimes I forget what I am doing. Is there any terminal application that can draw over a section of the terminal/take up some space, and show an editable notes section?

I don't want to run screen in screen :-p

Answer 1

Maybe not what you're looking for exactly, but I have a script to add a string to the beginning of the bash prompt. It's called shellname.sh and looks like this:

#!/bin/bash -x

if [[ -z "$ORIG_PS1" ]] ; then
  export ORIG_PS1="$PS1" ;
fi

export PS1="($1) $ORIG_PS1"

Then I can call source ~/testname.sh "Shell Name Here". Note that you have to use source instead of running it directly so it can effect the local environment. For example:

stokastic@home:~/test# 
stokastic@home:~/test# source ~/shellname.sh "build shell"
(build shell) stokastic@home:~/test# 
(build shell) stokastic@home:~/test# echo "now my shell name is on the left"
now my shell name is on the left
(build shell) stokastic@home:~/test# make

Answer 2

Another option is to set a custom title by adding this function to your .bashrc:

term_title() {
    unset PROMPT_COMMAND
    echo -ne "\033]0;${@}\007"
}

To set the terminal's title run this command in a new terminal:

term_title "New Terminal Name"

Answer 3

One solution I use now is to just add a bash comment

bash> # this tab is for doing xyz.

If you prefix the comment hash with a space ie. ' #', it won't even save it into your command line history.