Surprisingly productive
When I start a process in emacs, I navigate to the (start-process
...) sexp and type c-x c-e. The process starts and dumps stdout to
a buffer of my choosing. I haven't had to leave my text editor
and I can navigate through the output with the full power of emacs
(copy/paste, searching, saving, etc...).
If I want to kill the process I navigate to the (delete-process
...) sexp and type c-x c-e. The process terminates.
I can save these sexp in a file that makes it easy for me to store
and retrieve my "control board".
All of this is accomplished without lifting my fingers off the
keyboard.