mc

[Les Mikesell]

Tim wrote:

>> I can't think of anything on my computer other than the OS distribution 
>> where I did not have the choice of the directory where it was stored, 
>> but in those cases you probably also can't decide by seeing the name in 
>> a GUI view what the files do have in common or why you'd pick some of 
>> them for a certain operation.  You'd probably need to let grep or find 
>> generate a list for you based on something in the files contents or 
>> attributes.  And then xargs will run a command on each one in the list 
>> for you.
> 
> And doing all that paraphanalia is easier than opening a directory or
> three in a file manager and looking at what's there?

Yes, at least on my machine - typing a couple of commands is easier than 
visually scanning 3 million filenames and clicking/dragging a 
substantial subset of them.  Plus, the operations I want may involve 
rsync'ing to or from remote machines that a GUI would know nothing 
about.  Whether a command/tool approach is easier will depend on how 
well the tool handles the job you want, though.  If the task was to 
locate all pictures of Joe Smith, a GUI/visual approach is probably 
going to be your only option.  If you want to find all files that 
contain the text "Joe Smith", grep will do it a lot faster than I can. 
   If you want to find something based on file names, timestamps or 
other attributes, find will get the list quickly and can either execute

> Plugging two or three drives into a system, that have been ripped out of
> others, to get bits and pieces from all over them onto a new system is a
> right pain in the bum to do through the command line.  But very easy to
> do graphically.

Maybe, for some small number of files that have somewhat sensible names 
or iconic representations in your GUI viewer.  If you are doing this a 
lot I'd recommend a network share to organize things you want to keep 
before the machines are disassembled and a central backup system to fall 
back on.

>> "GUIs normally make it simple to accomplish simple actions and 
>> impossible to accomplish complex actions." --Doug Gwyn (22/Jun/91 in 
>> comp.unix.wizards)  This has not changed - and probably can't.
> 
> Have you tried DOpus 5 (or later) on a Windows environment?  If you have
> the opportunity, do so.  Then you'll see what can be done with a decent
> GUI file manager.

No, but I'll look at it. GUIs do only what the author(s) anticipate you 
might want to do though, where the tool/command approach lets you 
combine operations that you want whether their authors anticipated it or 
not.  If the GUI doesn't provide an easier way to rsync groups of files 
or directories across remote machines, it won't be better for me than 
commands.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com