Baslinux mailing list

[Lee Forrest <lforrestster AT gmail.com>]

On Thu, Feb 01, 2007 at 01:43:45PM +1000, Ron Clarke wrote:

[delete]
> I think I have been a bit misinterpretted here. I suggested
> using mc in order to have a look round, get the hang of the way
> linux arranges its directories and so on.
>
> Never, and I am sure Greg would confirm this, have a ever
> even hinted that a convenient tool like mc be used INSTEAD
> of learning Linux commands. MC is not a "crutch" but a way
> for someone used to DOS file managers, but new to Linux file
> systems, just to get a feel for the way things look.

The basics of mc operation, which you are referring to, are
simply the equivalent of (they actually call these functions)
running cd and ls on the commandline, in the case of cd with a
path added (usually) as an argument.

It's so very simple to do these things directly on the
commandline. I don't see anything to be gained by adding the
libncurses interface to select a file with the arrow keys by name and
cd to it,  or run ls on it, if it is a directory.

One of the things anyone aspiring to real command of the computer
_must_ learn is typing. Touch-typing. May as well start now.

The next most-basic mc operations are opening a file in a browser or
pager or editor. Or copying them to another directory, or renaming (mv)  
them, or deleting them.

So you move the cursor-bar to the file and hit a Function (F1,
etc.) to do the above operations. _Or_ you can just do the
following on the commandline:

cp file /dir  #copy the file to another directory
rm file       #delete the file
mv file file2 #rename the file

Either way you are doing the same thing, but the commandline way is direct and
the mc (etc.) way isn't.

The commandline way gives you more control and understanding and a vocabulary 
to
communicate with all other linux runners with.

With mc you learn how to use mc. 

It's not that I don't see your point. I just think you are mistaken. Though
not by much.

You are preparing the newbie for the next step in the same direction: Maybe
gnome (is like KDE), which I believe mc is the original version of.

Not for mastery of the OS, but for mastery of a limited and overly-complex 
interface
to the OS.

You can learn bash/sh in the time it takes to learn mc well. In the time it 
takes to
learn gnome/KDE well, you can become a master shell-scripter.

And be at home on _any_ linux/unix box in the world.

And be able to make it do what _you_ want it to do, not what the geeks at 
gnome or
KDE or mc think you should do or might want to do.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am working on a very simple bash file browser/manager as you
read this (I'm off work until Monday). With it one will be able
to easily explore the filesystem and easily copy file names into
a buffer for commandline operations with them, in the current
directory or another one.

Should be about 10K. I'm halfway there. If anyone wants to help, I could use 
it.

Why? Because the most basic file operations _do_ get tedious when
done manually, and a _simple_ file manager/browser would be a
real help.

[delete]

Lee

-- 
BasicLinux: Small is Beautiful
http://www.basiclinux.com.ru