In the Dark with Midnight Commander

[Peter L. Peres]

On Wed, 24 Dec 2003, Geoffrey Hunter wrote:

> Echoing Peter Peres' concern about the inadequacy of Linux documentation:
> I switched to Linux in the summer of 2002 to regain control of how I compute;
> as a former DOS user I used to use Norton Commander as my window into my
> computer: it displayed the contents of two directories side by side, and the
> bottom box had a command-line prompt - commands typed there automatically
> looked for files in the selected left or right directory.
>       With Norton I was in command: I could easily display any directory,
> and once selected easily (one-keystroke commands) select files and then copy,
> move, edit, and process them and see what you were doing the whole time -
> so I was induced to switch to Linux because it had "midnight commander"
> supposedly modeled after Norton Commander.
>     Midnight commander (and linux generally) has been a big disappointment:
> I have yet to find any documentation (man pages or anything else), and
> unlike Norton Commander the command-line (bottom) box doesn't automatically
> look for files in the selected directory - I have to issue a cd command.
> Each box has round and square buttons at the bottom (turn green when clicked)
> but what they do/mean remains a mystery.

Well, this post was probably answered already, but I'll do it anyway: mc
has a manual page, I just double checked it. It is long. So is the Norton
Commander documentation afair. I do not entirely understand what function
does not work in your mc. mc is not a Norton Commander clone, it is a
complete rewrite, and some things are different. I did not have any system
shock when switching to MC from NC, the slash/backslash thing got me much
harder than that. I just wrote up a cheat sheet and used it for a week,
then I no longer needed it.

As to documentation, the Linux user documents supplied with every
installation (I mean the Linux User Guide) should get you started, and
there are howtos for everything.  The problem is you have to read them. If
program P resembles some old favorite it does not mean that it works like
it. It might ressemble it. If you read the docs you might find out ...

The normal starting point is "Linux Installation and Getting Started"
(one of the authors of this document is on this list), followed by faqs
and howtos. There is no 'ONE' way to do things, each user has his or her
own. Purchasing a book about basic Unix (Like 'Unix Primer' by Michael Joy
I think - I had this book but I can't find it now) experienced as a user
might be helpful if you intend to leave the well-oiled path of the gui.

Peter
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