Workspaces and split view

Spectral supports two panes and up to two independent workspaces.

Open a second pane

Choose new, code, output, or syntax tree in the command picker with Alt+V:

• new starts another Macaulay2 process with its own state, transcript, draft, history, and committed syntax trees;
• the three previews remain linked to the focused workspace’s committed cells but have their own view and scroll position.

Ordinary Enter opens the chosen item in the focused pane. In a preview, Ctrl+Q or Ctrl+C returns to the shell; if the preview is the second pane, leaving it closes that pane.

Focus and resize

Use Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right to focus the left or right pane. On a wide terminal, drag the divider or use Ctrl+Shift+Left and Ctrl+Shift+Right to resize it one column at a time.

Each visible pane keeps at least 40 columns. Two side-by-side panes therefore require 81 columns including the divider. Below that width Spectral keeps both panes alive but displays only the focused one. Ctrl+Left and Ctrl+Right then toggle which workspace or view is visible.

Settings, keymaps, and style are application-wide: changing them in one workspace updates the other. Evaluation state and feed contents remain independent.

A practical split

One pane can develop an object while the other tests a separate idea:

R = QQ[a..d]
I = minors(2, genericMatrix(R, 2, 2))

Or keep the shell on the left and open its syntax tree or collected outputs on the right. Because preview navigation is independent, scrolling the preview never moves the shell feed.