New "layout" question.

[Oswald Buddenhagen]

On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 11:06:38AM +0300, Andrew Borodin wrote:
> On Tue, 5 Jan 2010 06:29:04 +0100 Janek Kozicki wrote:
> > The git HEAD mc has a little different layout:
> > 
> >   Left     File     Command     Options     Right
> > +<- ~ ----------------------------.[^]>++<- ~ ----------------------------.[^]>+
> > |'n     Name      | Size  |Modify time ||'n     Name      | Size  |Modify time |
> > 
> > Can you tell me what is the meaning of:
> > 
> > 'n  (on left of the Name)
> 
> , or ' is the sort order indicator:  ' means direct order, , means
> reverse order. Mouse click on it inverts the sort order.
> 
more common symbols would be ^ and v (and proper arrows for charsets
which support them). anyway, see below.

> n is a sort mode indicator: n means Name. Mouse click on columt title
> (Name, Size, Modify time) changes the sort mode.
> 
> > <   (on left of the top bar)
> 
> Go to previous directory in panel history using mouse.
> 
> > >   (on right of the top bar)
> 
> Go to next directory in panel history using mouse.
> 
proper arrows (filled triangles like in scroll bars, i think) would be
*probably* better here, too.

> > .[^]     (on right of the top bar)
> 
> . -- show/hide hidden files and directories using mouse (the same as Alt-.).
> [^] -- show panel history using mouse (the same as Alt-H).
> 
the visual inconsistency between [^] being a "pseudo-button" and "."
just a "free-hanging" symbol both looks bad and is confusing (thus bad
usability).

anyway, i find the added visual noise annoying and in no way justified
in the first place:
- easy access with the mouse is utterly irrelevant. one might think
  about it once drag&drop, context menus and other "mousy" stuff would
  be implemented, but i don't see much point in mouse support *at all* -
  in mc, it just doesn't help a lot for other things than marking and
  pasting text, which are functions better done by the terminal emulator
  (i.e., pressing shift in addition to buttons) (unless proper
  integration with the x clipboard is finally implemented).
- assuming mouse interaction is removed, just displaying the current
  state is relatively useless as well, as one can easily see the effects
  in the first place.