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Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

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Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#191

Post by apitman »

wpm wrote: post #177
apitman wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is there any technical reason the font can't be shipped in the binary and installed automatically?

Which font? What license? Which one does the user want? Where does it get installed? Will the user consent? I did not use a Nerd Font until I tried superfile out today. It was not hard to build my own nerd font version of Berkeley Mono with font forge.

I very well might be in the minority of Linux users, but I don't particularly care about the answers to most of these questions. I just want it to work. Give me solid defaults[0]. I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to override those defaults. That's an important feature of Linux.

My first experience running a cool-looking TUI file manager yesterday (I actually ended up trying yazi first) was that I got a lot of blank squares in place of missing icons and emojis due to missing fonts. I had to spend 20 minutes figuring that out before I got a good experience.

Interestingly, I also tried wezterm[1] in the process. It actually ships with the required fonts as fallback, but the version from my distro's package manager didn't work (the AppImage did). I'm guessing my distro removed them, maybe for some of the reasons you cited. I started installing the nerd-fonts group for my distro. 6.5GB... no thanks. After manually poking through them and some googling I finally installed a couple and it's working now.

My overall point is that it's possible for app developers to provide good defaults like wezterm does. It's also possible for distro's to break those defaults. Also, if size is a concern then at least detect that I don't have a working font and offer to download one for me.

[0]: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-power-of-defaults/

[1]: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#192

Post by apitman »

qwery wrote: post #182
apitman wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are there any terminals that ship with nerd fonts, or is it always something that has to be at the OS level? Is there any technical reason the font can't be shipped in the binary and installed automatically?

There's no technical reason the font couldn't be shipped in/with the binary. The main reasons this doesn't happen are probably: - this is what a package manager is for - installing the font/s (from the application?) would be a bit of a dick move and also presents a technical challenge (in other words: that's what a package manager is for) - concerns about the efficiency of many applications all shipping duplicate ass…

> this is what a package manager is for

My first experience running a cool-looking TUI file manager yesterday (I actually ended up trying yazi first) was that I got a lot of blank squares in place of missing icons and emojis due to missing fonts. I had to spend 20 minutes figuring that out before I got a good experience.

Interestingly, I also tried wezterm[1] in the process. It actually ships with the required fonts as fallback, but the version from my distro's package manager didn't work (the AppImage did). I'm guessing my distro removed them, maybe for some of the reasons you cited. I started installing the nerd-fonts group for my distro. 6.5GB... no thanks. After manually poking through them and some googling I finally installed a couple and it's working now.

My overall point is that it's possible for app developers to provide good defaults like wezterm does. It's also possible for distro's to break those defaults.

> not all users will want to use the same font and this is an unsolvable problem -- do you ship: no fonts | one unwanted font | the user's preferred font that they already have installed plus all the other user's fonts

For me, I would absolutely prefer one unwanted font instead of losing those 20 minutes. If I don't like the font it ships with I should be able to override it. If size is a concern then don't ship the font, but detect that I don't have a working one and offer to download a default for me.

[0]: https://blog.codinghorror.com/the-power-of-defaults/

[1]: https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#193

Post by gray_-_wolf »

2024throwaway wrote: post #108
ghostly_s wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use a number of apps where ctrl-d is a common non-destructive shortcut, and can't recall ever encountering one where it was used for delete.

k9s does a delete for ctrl+d

With a prompt, asking for confirmation if I recall correctly...

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#194

Post by wonger_ »

bregma wrote: post #188
wonger_ wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Three advantages I realized, having done a lot of cd/ls/cp/mv/rm and also having used a file manager: - power user workflows may differ from typical dev workflows. Imagine things that a point-and-click file manager solves quicker than the command-line. Example: manually organizing a bunch of .mp3s, or cleaning out misc downloads. A TUI file manager makes these tasks quicker too. - quick directory navigation. cd is sl…

Hardly speed or UX. Type a quick command on the CLI yo do any of that stuff and it's finished before you can even use you arrow keys to move between various regions of the screen and move your eyes around the work area to confirm everything and select your actions and move your gaze again to confirm the result is what you expect. It's all about what you're used to and what you know. If you grew up in the age of the p…

I agree that looking around multiple panes is slow and arrow keys are slow, and that typical UI ceremony is unnecessary. But there's a benefit to seeing state changes and holding less state in your head. Kinda like `ed` versus `vim`. Someone comfortable with both editors would acknowledge vim makes some edits easier.

Of course, issuing orders still has its advantages. And yes, growing up with GUIs makes a big difference.

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#195

Post by likeclockwork »

jez wrote: post #94
godelski wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really weirds me out how many people use a sprinkling of vim keybindings but don't use more. Like how many vim users don't know (esc) or contextual completion like (:help ins-completion). I see so many people use plugins for things that already exist in vim but people never discuss. One that bites me a lot is when a vim keybinding is implemented, has insert mode, and they don't also rebind . Go from trying to dele…

This is my biggest complaint with keybindings on Linux/Windows, that Ctrl means “escape codes” in terminal emulator applications and “window/UI operations” in every other application. By contrast, in macOS all the window/UI keybindings are typically Cmd (Cmd-W) which means that GUI applications attempting to layer on vi keybindings don’t have to also audit all the Ctrl keybindings that might be doing something wildly…

This isn't true though. Control + arrow keys for example navigate desktops on MacOS. On Linux I can at least restrict my desktop environment's shortcuts to super, leaving the other mods open for applications. MacOS uses every single modifier, sometimes together.

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#196

Post by snapplebobapple »

schindlabua wrote: post #13

Love all the terminal tooling that's come out in recent years. I'm this close to chrome and rofi being the only gui I'm using on my work machine. This looks great!

For me its rofi and a tiny bar on top of (ne of my hyprland windows for basic information (clock,calendar,widgets for network/volume/screenbrightness) its awesome

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#198

Post by pinusc »

apitman wrote: post #191
wpm wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which font? What license? Which one does the user want? Where does it get installed? Will the user consent? I did not use a Nerd Font until I tried superfile out today. It was not hard to build my own nerd font version of Berkeley Mono with font forge.

I very well might be in the minority of Linux users, but I don't particularly care about the answers to most of these questions. I just want it to work. Give me solid defaults[0]. I'm not saying you shouldn't be able to override those defaults. That's an important feature of Linux. My first experience running a cool-looking TUI file manager yesterday (I actually ended up trying yazi first) was that I got a lot of bla…

Regardless of wanting sane defaults, this is not something superfile can do on itself: it runs in a terminal, and normally terminal programs do not get to choose what font is used.

So the "best" it could do is bundle the font file, but then you would still have to configure your terminal to use it. At that point, it's easier to just tell you you need a nerd font and link to their repo.

That being said, I kind of agree that, since NerdFonts are pretty good and by now quite widespread, it wouldn't be a bad idea for major distros to patch their default monospace fonts so that you get NerdFonts out of the box in the default terminal.

But, in general, if you go out of your way to install a different terminal emulator, it's unlikely you'd have much trouble changing its font anyway; still, getting everything to look nice and pretty is sometimes harder, so I suppose wezterm is commendable for including fonts and colorschemes.

(The above really mostly applies to fonts as they are an additional dependency and also highly dependent on user preference. For pretty much everything else I agree that good defaults are under-emphasized in CLI/TUI utilities. Probably because options usually get added incrementally and breaking historical defaults is not a good idea.)

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#199

Post by sooheon »

insane_dreamer wrote: post #61
insane_dreamer wrote: post #60

Looks nice! Not sure if it's enough to pry me away from MC, but worth a look.

very first impression after <30 sec: having to press ^F or any key to enable filename/folder search in a folder creates friction vs. MC's approach where typing automatically starts search of current folder so you can hit a couple of keys, press enter, etc. Would be nice if that were a mode here too.

This type-to-search-immediately functionality is why I still have Launchbar installed on all my Macs -- there's nothing faster for navigation/moving/operations, even in the terminal.

Re: Superfile – A fancy, pretty terminal file manager

#200

Post by massysett »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #99

so I don't understand what the usecase for a terminal file manager is. I've always felt comfortable using cp/mv/mkdir/etc. but I feel like I'm missing out. Can someone explain how and why you'd use this ?

With long filenames with characters like spaces, it can be easier to see them in a list, pick the ones you want, and operate on them in a GUI or TUI (same principle applies to Emacs Dired) than in a CLI. I can use the CLI and stumble around running ls multiple times and using tab completion, but the GUI or TUI can just be easier.
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