Ubuntu :: Idea For A Useful Applet / Utility

i constantly find myself opening and closing terminals (which, in turn, i lose output on the terminal window and what not..). i use the terminal screenlet app and i really enjoy that, but sometimes find it cumbersome to have to constantly minimize the current window to go to my desktop with the built in terminal screenlet. i had an idea for a panel applet that will do the following: it will act like the drawer applet, but when you click the button, a terminal window will un-roll and pop up with the past output from previous commands/work. you then can click the button again and have it roll back into the panel to wait for the next use, etc. has anything like this been done already for terminals? also, if not for terminals, has anything like this been done for any application? i ask because if i can get the previous source code, it will be much easier to modify it for terminal usage. (im a grad student and don't have much time to devote to a completely new formulation of code haha).