Updating file marking behavior

[dylanaraps]

The goal of this issue is to discuss the current file marking behavior and possibly update it to match the wanted and or expected behavior. I want to know what you like and don't like about this feature in other file managers and in fff.

In fff you mark files with an operation at the same time. This does save a key-press but it also means committing to an operation while marking. In ranger you mark files first and then pick an operation to use on said files.

What's the best way of implementing this behavior? What do you like best? And is there a third or fourth option which works better?

I've gotten ranger-like behavior working in #80 but I'd like to see if we can make it even better. I'd love to hear your thoughts. 👍

[xyproto]

The fastest way of marking files I can think of is if a special mode was launched first, that listed either only directories (launched by pressing md), only files (launched by pressing mf) or both (launched by pressing mm), then filled the screen with those options, in columns of a suitable width.

A curses box of some sort could then be moved around, highlighting filenames or directory names, and space could be used for marking, with return pressed when done.

Just one of many possible ideas!

Keep up the good work with fff! I enjoy maintaining the Arch Linux package (but I wouldn't mind if there were at least two weeks between releases, I get notifications about upgrading fff semi-daily. 😉 )

Also, neofetch is pretty sweet.

[dylanaraps]

fff isn't aware of key-presses that require a combination of keys to be pressed (it is aware of Ctrl+key and Shift+key) though this could most likely be done by adding adding a key timeout (or some bash trickery).

I'll slow down on the releases. I wanted to squeeze the 2.0 release to today since I have a rather chaotic few weeks coming up and I won't have enough time to work on anything.

Thanks for packaging fff, I appreciate it. :)

[dylanaraps]

I don't think this behavior will change. I quite like how it currently works and there hasn't been an active interest in changing it. I like the curses style box idea but it'll require too much work to implement in the existing code. It'd be nice to write something from scratch utilizing it.