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Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

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Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#21

The AGENTS.md is hilarious! I like the caveman mode and classical mode seems.. interesting!

Just saying, I simply copied from https://github.com/JuliusBrussee/caveman

Beyond the cost of tokens, I found it's very good at doing more with a limited context window before OpenCode hits context compaction.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#23
post #18

> : opens a command prompt for power-user actions Vibe coded or not, that's what puts me off from most nc/dn/mc reimplementations. If you can't reach the command line by just typing the command, what's the point? At least on this one you don't have to mouse click somewhere...

Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to? Common things should be shortcutted, some accessible from menus for discoverability.

Command entering is just one if the "modes", and not necessarily the default one.

If shortcuts are limited to special keys and combos, this frees plane input for commands, but I personally prefer list filtering by default.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#25
post #18

> : opens a command prompt for power-user actions Vibe coded or not, that's what puts me off from most nc/dn/mc reimplementations. If you can't reach the command line by just typing the command, what's the point? At least on this one you don't have to mouse click somewhere...

Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to? Common things should be shortcutted, some accessible from menus for discoverability. Command entering is just one if the "modes", and not necessarily the default one. If shortcuts are limited to special keys and combos, this frees plane input for commands, but I personally prefer list filtering by default.

> Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to?

No TUI/GUI can do everything a unix command prompt can do, can they?

I don't know what your usage pattern is, but I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time, and just run commands in mc's shell when I need them. I suppose that if you only run the file manager when you need to manage files, your point of view makes sense.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#26
post #10

If you're shopping for a file manager, I'd recommend "yazi", which was a new, yet practical experience for me.

Tried yazi this week and it indeed feels nice, currently trying to maybe move over from Total Commander to yet to have same file manager across OSes.

Some aspects are still not completely ironed out, though. For example, today I discovered that there's no reliable exit hook and plugins have to override hotkeys and resort to various hacks. I had to patch a session saving extension so it kills mpv-based music preview plugin after yazi quits with "q". Kinda rough experience, but at least manageable with plugins in Lua.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#27
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to? Common things should be shortcutted, some accessible from menus for discoverability. Command entering is just one if the "modes", and not necessarily the default one. If shortcuts are limited to special keys and combos, this frees plane input for commands, but I personally prefer list filtering by default.

> Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to? No TUI/GUI can do everything a unix command prompt can do, can they? I don't know what your usage pattern is, but I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time, and just run commands in mc's shell when I need them. I suppose that if you only run the file manager when you need to manage files, your point of view makes sense.

Yeah, I don't generally live in MC to the same extent I do in DC when I'm on Windows.

I rarely do anything besides the basics (F5/F6) when managing files in MC, and for advanced stuff, like using rsync/rclone for moving files, I mostly use the usermenu.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#28
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't this the point if TUI/GUI that you don't have to? No TUI/GUI can do everything a unix command prompt can do, can they? I don't know what your usage pattern is, but I keep mc open in a few terminals all the time, and just run commands in mc's shell when I need them. I suppose that if you only run the file manager when you need to manage files, your point of view makes sense.

Yeah, I don't generally live in MC to the same extent I do in DC when I'm on Windows. I rarely do anything besides the basics (F5/F6) when managing files in MC, and for advanced stuff, like using rsync/rclone for moving files, I mostly use the usermenu.

I am aware of the usermenu's existence, but it feels faster to just type. Most of my use cases are just one file though.

Re: Midnight Captain – A midnight commander inspired file manager

#30
post #14

I think it is interesting that these pieces of software are now being inspired by Midnight Commander and are being built by people who never worked with or experiences the original, Norton Commander.

I have never known this part of the history while using Midnight Commander for so many years.
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