Re: Just got mc-4.6.0-pre1

[Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>]

Hello!

> 'make install' didn't do vfs directory.  I had to cd into it and do 
> 'make' manually.  Just
> missing from the Makefile.

I tried and could not reproduce this problem.  Please give more details
about the commands you ran (which arguments to configure, make etc).  
Describe the errors actually reported on the screen, not your
interpretation.

> When mc first starts, I always get the user menu (?).  Extra keystrokes
> from somewhere? Anyone else get this?

I think you have "Auto menus" enabled in Options->Configuration.  This
option is disabled by default, but maybe you enabled this option in an 
older version with broken "Auto menus" support.

> I have to TAB at least once before the PWD shows in the command line.

I saw this on GNU Hurd.  The code that loads the prompt is known to be
problematic, but I didn't know that it's broken on Mandrake.  I really 
don't know how it works - it's a brilliant piece of prima donna coding 
without any comments or documentation.

Fixing this code is in my TODO list already.  You report adds some urgency
to this item.

> I don't know why but shift-F5 is working again in the editor, but it
> didn't in 4.5.55 from the gnome-terminal.

I'm not interested in problems in older versions.

> I have a bunch of hacks for 4.5.55 that I wondered if anyone was
> interested in.  I could diff them up and post them:
> 
> Scrolling in panel tries to keep panel->selected in the middle of the
> panel, scrolling by one line instead of a half panel.  Its a great hack
> and simple too.  The only time panel->selected hits the top or bottom is
> when you are on the first or last item.  I like it.

No.  We need a more planned approach here, not a bunch of hacks.  There
are several settings that are not available from the user interface.  
Most users don't use them.  Adding more code of this kind will put more
strain on the maintainders (this code still needs to be kept alive)
without giving a real benefit to the users.

Just today I was fixing the code that is invoked by Ctrl-x Ctrl-l.  This
code is completely undocumented, and I didn't know about it.  I found that
code because I was looking for the translatable string " to:", which could
not be translated to some languages without context.

I think mc has more than enough hacks, thank you very much!

> I use Control-F for paste to file and control-G for paste from file.  
> Shift-F unction keys don't seem to get through in some situations.  
> (fixed in 4.6 maybe?  It seems to work now.)

There is a problem with Linux console, where e.g. Shift-F5 can be F15 or 
F17 is different keyboard maps.  The solution is to use "Learn keys".

I have noticed that many users cannot find that dialog or cannot use it.  
It should be made more visible.  Perhaps we need an command line option to
start mc with the "Learn Keys" dialog.  This way, everybody who runs "mc
--help" will know about this facility, unless, of course, dozens of
"developer-only" options obscure the user's view, which we really should
avoid.

> I did Alt-R for rename.  This one is a bit more hackish, but essentially
> does a move with out prefixing the other panels dirname in the inputbox.  
> Much easier to rename many files.  That one bugged me for a while,
> fixing my mp3 filenames.

You will enjoy reading the "NEWS" file :-)

> Fixed up some of the menus and wouldn't mind tweaking them up a bit
> more. They seem to use the wrong color for the menubar and box outlines
> (the panel selected color I think).

I wish I had time to fix all those colors.  We essentially support color
only on terminals with ANSI color sequences, i.e. without unreasonable
restrictions on the number of color pairs.  Reusing the color pairs is
hardly a good idea.  We need more flexibility here.

If you have any details, please post them.  Maybe what you mean is a
simple bug that doesn't require rewriting the whole color support :-)

> Fixed the thing with edit using ~/.cedit/cooledit.clip.  I see this 
> already is fixed.

I don't know what you mean.  I'm not interested in already fixed bugs.

> Isn't there a way to grab the mousewheel?  I ended up hacking my 
> .sawfishrc.   

I just checked it (and you could have done it as yourself).  Button 4
(scroll up) emits the same event as releasing any button in rxvt 2.7.8.  
xterm from XFree86 4.2.0 emits different sequences.

That's the forth character in the sequences (in hex).  It encodes the
button.

             xterm    rxvt

release       0x23    0x23
button 1      0x20    0x20
button 2      0x21    0x21
button 3      0x22    0x22
button 4      0x60    0x23
button 5      0x61    0x25

Tracking the state of the buttons is hard and unreliable, so the wheel 
can only be supported on xterm.  Good luck!

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin