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

[Pavel Roskin <proski gnu org>]

Hello, Peter!

On Tue, 22 Oct 2002, Peter Masiar wrote:

> 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've seen many DOS boxes with VC in AUTOEXEC.BAT, I even had one :-)

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

Please note that the Windows port lacks many features and is based on an
old version.  Somebody need to port the current code, but I'm too busy
pushing mc to the version 4.6.0, which really should have been released
long ago.

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

I actually learned C developing mc.  Just try to imitate the existing code
for the beginning and limit yourself to fixes.

> 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 ...

It's not convenient.  Some mail software adds Re: in front of it, some
after it, and the subject looks ugly, like this:

Re: [lwlan-devel] Re: SMP crashes

There are enough other ways to filter messages.  You can use List-Post: 
header.

> (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-(

MC is not part of GNOME.  GNOME hosts our mailing lists and CVS
repository.  Google and Freshmeat can help you find homepages of projects.
If you think that the site where you downloaded MC mislead you, report it
to them.

> (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-(

I agree, the homepage needs more work.

> (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... ;-)

FAQ doesn't represent the questions that are often asked now.  The problem
with excessive documentation is that we put too much strain on people
changing the code - they have to update too much documentation.

The documentation should be more consolidated and less overlapping.  FAQ
in HTML would be good - most developers know HTML.  More exotic formats
will lead to obsolete documentation.  We used to have the manual sources
in SGML, and some developers were updating the manual, not the source.  
Finally the SGML file was removed because resynchronizing it with the
changes manual would be too much work.

> (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 agree.  It's is TODO already.

> (6) About forgetting F-keys:
>
> 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.

Also in TODO.

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

We have one single "Auto save setup" option.  Splitting it means remaking 
the dialog and changing the documentation.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin