Best way to have interactive shells along VIM without having to hide the editor is using screen (a sort-of virtual terminal within the terminal).
BUT!, it seems you can't launch X forwarded applications from screen
This is the best reference I've found: http://aperiodic.net/screen/quick_reference
Using it:
screen -S MyTerminal #launch
screen -dm -S MyProcess process_launcher #start in detached mode
screen -ls # list current sessions
screen -r # recover a running session
In a running session:
Ctrl+a d # detach
Ctrl+a D D # detach and logout
Ctrl+a c # create new "window"
Ctrl+a SPACE # jump to next window
Ctrl+a TAB # jump to next split
Ctrl+a A # rename window
Ctrl+a k # kill window
Ctrl+a w # show window bar
The easiest way to display the sessionname is
C-a :
sessionname
Splits:
Ctrl+a S # split horizontally
Ctrl+a | # split vertically
Ctrl+a X # close current split
Ctrl+a Q # close all splits but current
Ctrl+a :only # the same using verbose commands
Ctrl+a :resize 10 # vertical resize
Ctrl+a :resize -h 40 #horizontal resize
Scrolling and/or copying:
Ctrl+a ESC # enter copy mode
<enter> ... <enter> # select text
Ctrl+a ] # paste text
Ctrl+u # scroll up in copy mode
Ctrl+d # scroll down in copy mode
