141–150 of 317 posts
I came from C64 where I had GEOS, that allowed me to do anything with a nice GUI, so it felt like quite the step back.
However, PCs were all the rage at that time, so I got one and thanks to Norton Commander, I was able to use it with a nice(+ish) GUI too.
I never understood the fervent love for midnight/norton commander. Its not like its a new phenomenon. I remember people raving about it in the late 90s too. is it nostalgia, or is it really that useful?
Personally I really want to like Midnight Commander, well I do like it, I just don't use it that much. As someone else pointed out, the keyboard shortcuts just doesn't work for me for some reason. I think if you grew up using the F-keys a lot, then it probably makes total sense.
dual-pane file manager For some reason, the technical term for these is Orthodox File Manager , which I've always thought was an obscure cultural in-joke from the countries where these were most popular --- Eastern Europe and the former USSR. This origin is elaborated at length here: https://softpanorama.org/Articles/introduction_to_orthodox_f...
The "orthodox" comes from a specific type of GUI, namely one that is driven by commands under the hood. UI elements are merely used to trigger commands that have the actual effect, and these commands could just as well be executed by hand, or automated into more complex commands. This is an excellent way to build powerful UIs. It is what drives things like Vim, and often why Lisp-based software is so hackable -- thin…
Midnight commander is a great tool, although I think most younger users do not realize that we lost something along the way. Norton Commander was fantastically fast for common file operations not just because of the dual-pane design, but because of several things working together. Thoughtful design of software while thinking of hardware. To get the most out of it, you were supposed to use the numpad on your keyboard.…
That was not true otherwise you wouldn't get stuck with the most unergonomic keys mandating moving your hands off their resting place.
> selecting all files ... : one flick of the right hand
The common Ctrl+A is better, no flick, just shifting a single thumb
> F6 with the left hand followed by another Enter immediately with the right hand
Or still same single hand Ctrl+Shift+X (or something even easier like maybe X, X)
xtgold?
Delighted to find there are some Linux versions!
I love Midnight Commander so much; I install it on every system I use. It's so much more efficient/pleasant when in comes to navigating the filesystem and doing basic operations, especially when you learn the shortcuts and learn how to use it along with other command-line tools (hint: if you press Ctrl+O in MC it will switch to a normal shell command prompt it the directory you're in, and you can press Ctrl+O again t…
Because that's what I miss most in my shell.
Somehow during my 30+ years *nix career I never truly and actually used mc. Seems like moving files around in shell is good enough.
I never understood the fervent love for midnight/norton commander. Its not like its a new phenomenon. I remember people raving about it in the late 90s too. is it nostalgia, or is it really that useful?
For some people it's just how they work. I did consulting for a company, and the developer I sat next to on my visits used Total Commander of all things. It was probably the first thing he'd install on any new Windows machine. He never open Explorer, everything related to files was done within the confines of Total Commander. For those who got started with Norton Commander and moved to Linux/Unix from there, Midnight…