[svlug] About mc

[J C Lawrence]

On Sun, 20 Jan 2002 23:42:53 -0800 
Marc MERLIN <marc_news at vasoftware.com> wrote:
> On Fri, Jan 18, 2002 at 11:23:13PM -0800, J C Lawrence wrote:

> I can do complex copies, moves and rename with mc faster than you
> can type them.

This I don't doubt.

>> I find myself having to read the function key labels near every
>> time.  I'd rather not, especially as they're abbreviated.
 
> Tss, tss...

Yeah, I don't tend to learn/remember tools I use that rarely.

> Different philosophy. With mc, alphanum keys go in the command
> line since you can build a command line at all times (equivalent
> of the select command line you were talking about), so obviously
> you can't use c for copy, you have to use some other key.

I'd be a lot happier with mc given two changes:

  1) You can bind alnum keys to functions.

  2) One of the functions which I can bind to a key invokes/toggles
  the internal command line mode. (C-ENTER comes to mind)

  3) Reverse the bloody source/target semantics (well, I'd like it
  even if it is more than 2)

> Anyone who sees me use mc usually can't follow what I do :-) It's
> all about knowing the tool.

Quite.  For what you do, especially as a SysAdm, mc is invaluable.
I, umm, don't tend to do that much SysAdm, especially not on a daily
basis.

> This is clearly incompatible with the command line feature in mc,
> which you may not use, but that's not the point.
 
Precisely.

> Well, then instead of complaining, you could go in the
> Options/Confirmation menu, and disable them.

I just checked, and perhaps I'm missing something in playing just
now, but I don't see anything in the options that disabled (for
instance) the dialog on a tagged copy which asks:

  Copy # files with source mask to:

  To: 

etc.

>> ObNote: I'd also much prefer it if mc left me in the directory it
>> was viewing when I exited, rather than the directory I started it
>> from.

> Then it wasn't installed properly.  

On a Debian system:

  $ type mc
  mc is /usr/bin/mc

mc is the from the standard .deb.  Cute/useful little function tho.

> Both are plenty fast, and quibbling about sub second launch time,
> coming from an emacs user is middly ironic I think...

Quite.  <ahem> Ahh!  But you see I don't launch XEmacs more than a
couple times a year and gnuclient will start a frame or session for
me faster than I can blink!

-- 
J C Lawrence                
---------(*)                Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas. 
claw at kanga.nu               He lived as a devil, eh?		  
http://www.kanga.nu/~claw/  Evil is a name of a foeman, as I live.