Re: [Ranger-users] "ranger dir1 dir2" should open 2 tabs

[Roman Z.]

On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 01:44:41AM +0530, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 6:42 PM, Roman Z. <address@hidden> wrote:
> > On Fri, Jun 25, 2010 at 06:00:37PM +0530, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:
> >> On Thu, Jun 24, 2010 at 3:53 AM, Roman Z. <address@hidden> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, Jun 15, 2010 at 05:27:58AM +0530, Sitaram Chamarty wrote:
> >> >> Hi Roman,
> >> >>
> >> >> Ranger continues to be totally awesome, but I'm wondering how
> >> >> easy/difficult it would be to add functionality similar to "mc dir1
> >> >> dir2".  That is, to me, an extremely common situation (often even "mc
> >> >> . ~-").  And it's the one thing that in ranger is still a little more
> >> >> combersome than mc.
> >> >>
> >> >> Thanks again for a great little tool!
> >> >>
> >> >> --
> >> >> Sitaram
> >> >>
> >> >
> >> > Sounds like a sane behaviour, I added it.  Thanks for the idea.
> >>
> >> Thanks!  Works like a charm!  Now I'm many many times more productive,
> >> since this was really a frequent use for me!
> >>
> >> > Well, it isn't really your idea... Still, thanks for stealing the idea
> >> > from midnight commander and telling me.  *hopes its not patented*
> >>
> >> well mc is GPL and they're using it already so we ought to be safe :)
> >
> > Do you switch panes with TAB in mc too?  Then it's almost the same :)
> 
> Yes, and yes.
> 
> But it  goes beyond that.  One thing I thought I would not like too
> much in the beginning was the fact that in ranger I cannot "see" the
> other directory, because it's in a tab.  After a few days of use, I
> find it doesn't bother me at all; in fact I now like this way better
> -- you get to see the *content* of the current one, which is more
> useful.  Also, seeing the other one can't have been any real use
> because I haven't really missed it!
> 
> I'll tell you what is far and away the best feature of ranger for me
> (apart from all the vi-keys): the fact that each dir keeps a separate
> list of marked files.  It was **MADDENING** (sorry for the caps, thats
> how strongly I feel about it) to mark a set of files for deletion or
> other processing, and unthinkingly hit enter on a directory I am not
> sure of to see what it contains, and when you come back up you've lost
> all your marks.

I must admit that this feature was probably just an arbitrary choice.
At the bottom level, it's the question whether to save the list of marked
files in some unique object like "Environment" or in the Directory object
itself.  And I can't remember giving it much thought =P

I didn't notice (or forgot) this behaviour myself either since I use ranger
more like a tool to quickly move around and find things rather than
actually manage files.  But it's indeed quite useful and well worth the
extra memory consumption since it lets you explore and branch off your
work stream without loosing previous progress.

It's details like that which programmers should pay more attention at,
rather than stuffing programs with endless features, thanks for making
me more aware of that =p

> 
> > Btw. You replied to me, not the mailing list :P
> 
> oops -- must have hit the wrong key.  Added list to the CC this time.
> 
> -- 
> Sitaram