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Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

aymericbeaumet.com

11–20 of 71 posts

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#11

This sounds just like autojump (typically run using `j`) to me: https://github.com/wting/autojump Agree that it's an invaluable piece of software!

Any idea what the differences are? Am I missing anything by keeping to use autojump?

No, it seems from the article it's a clone.

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#12
Is there some functionality that `z` offers that fzf doesn't? I have a keybinding that essentially does `open $(fd | fzf)`, and that is how I go _anywhere_ in my file system. Completely changed how I use the shell.

I personally find that fzf is better because I can see where I'm going to end up before I accept the operation.

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#14

Is there some functionality that `z` offers that fzf doesn't? I have a keybinding that essentially does `open $(fd | fzf)`, and that is how I go _anywhere_ in my file system. Completely changed how I use the shell. I personally find that fzf is better because I can see where I'm going to end up before I accept the operation.

Besides z being much faster (looking through a sorted list of directories visited instead of recursively walking from the current directory) your snippet looks from the cwd

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#15

Is there some functionality that `z` offers that fzf doesn't? I have a keybinding that essentially does `open $(fd | fzf)`, and that is how I go _anywhere_ in my file system. Completely changed how I use the shell. I personally find that fzf is better because I can see where I'm going to end up before I accept the operation.

Besides z being much faster (looking through a sorted list of directories visited instead of recursively walking from the current directory) your snippet looks from the cwd

This is a fair point. I usually only "jump" from directories that have at most 500k files, and the median is way closer to ~500 files.

Even in the worst cases, at least with my i7 NUC and using fd instead of find, it's less than 500ms to load the entire list into fzf.

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#17
I'm mildly skeptical of any shortcuts that are based on "learning habits". I've already gotten enough of user interfaces that move items based on use all the time (The spotify playlist list is the worst offender - playlists move up and down in rank after every use, so there is never any spatial memory, startled every time).

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#18
Tools like this always make me faintly uncomfortable. The idea is nice, but as a systems guy I would liken it to a mechanic’s toolbox that tries to predict what tool you want and puts it in your hand. Seems like it would be nice except you would need to carefully check what tool you were given to make sure the algo didn’t make a wrong decision and you’re using a wrong-sized wrench or something.

I’m not sure I want the fundamental building blocks of my field to be “helpful” like this. I’m much more a fan of naming it easier and faster for computers to do what I want, than I am of computers trying to divine what I want without my explicitly asking for it at this level.

Re: Behold z, the unsung jewel that rethinks shell navigation

#19
post #17

I'm mildly skeptical of any shortcuts that are based on "learning habits". I've already gotten enough of user interfaces that move items based on use all the time (The spotify playlist list is the worst offender - playlists move up and down in rank after every use, so there is never any spatial memory, startled every time).

It's very well hidden, but (at least on Android) there is an option to sort alphabetically. I was quite annoyed until I googled it and found out how to do it. I can't find it in the UI now despite having done it before... Anyway, I fully agree.
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