Re: [MC]: zip issues, ftp wants, and others (was: Re: Norton Commander?)

[Peter Masiar <peter masiar yale edu>]

First think after de-lurking, let me thank all MC developers
(is Pavel the only one?) for making MC possible.

I was big fan of Norton Commander at DOS many winters ago, 
(and I've seen many DOS boxes with NC in AUTOEXEC.BAT).
I was postponing my move to Win as long as I could.
IMHO, MC =~ NC  is *much* superior over M$ Window's filemanager (=FM), 
but unfortunatelly FM does 80% of work of NC/MC, and was free, 
so NC was quished and "taken out" by "innovating" monopoly.

Now, when I found MC, I plan to use MC as my interface
for both Win and Linux.

I am really thrilled to have NC again - do you know the feeling
when you need to copy files, and your fingers will hit F5
without you thinking about it - like you do not think 
about clutch and gas pedal when shifting in car - you just do it.

Unfortunatelly my C is rusty now, so I cannot help with development.
But I still would like to contribute to MC community.

First, simple suggestions:
(1) Is it possible to configure mail list server to add "[MC]" to subject,
if not there? Other lists have that, it's convenient ...

(2) can we display URL of MC homepage, *and* URL of MC FAQ,
in many places, like:
   * email footer in this list
   * first help page (at least as text)
I downloaded MC for Win from some freeware site, and was not aware
it is part of GNOME and has homepage. 
I might be dumb, but it was not obvious to me...
So, I may be right person to write dumbed-down manuals.... 8-(

(3) At MC homepage, can we place link to FAQs into more prominent place?
As I read on useit.com site (about program usability), people
do not *read* on internet - they just *scan* the page. 
I was scanning and missed link to FAQ on my first reading 8-(

(4) FAQ is huge plain text file. 
At least table of contens should be clickable.
I propose to convert text to POD (perl docs) format, and then to HTML.
I can do it. And add more HOW-TOs... ;-)

(5) I am playing with colors. Looking into archives, it is FAQ.
(and it helped me - thank you guys.)
I may add some questions/answers as I learn something.
Currently I am trying to set a "white theme" - with white background,
for ssh terminal.
Having every color option at new line would help a lot... 8-(

I'll ask more later...

(6) About forgetting F-keys:

Quoting Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>:

> >  > 1) Forgetting keys.  There are two known cases when it can happen.
...
> > Currently my sollution is to have mc alias that first 
> > overwrites /.mc/ with contents from /.mc.good/ so that it never looses 
> > my key settings.

Smart. I like it. 

> Well, I think I was wrong that it was fixed.  I checked src/profile.c, and
> it overwrites the existing profile without making backups.  So if you
> close xterm by Alt-F4 at the wrong time, you lose your configuration.  
> Only the hotlist is backed up, but not anything else.  So typical for mc -
> lots of good intentions and no consistency :-(

This bug bite me, too, before I realized what is going on.
Bad news, this bug will bite a novice when just experimenting with MC 
- and might scare her away from MC forever.

Maybe keys/colors should be in another .ini file, saved only by request?

I am not complaining: I like to MC be better - realise full potential!

Thank you again for keeping MC alive!

Peter