Re: dired should clear marks after most operations [SUGGESTION]

[Ehud Karni]

On 14 May 2001 17:05:30 -0400, Jonathan LF King <squash@math.ufl.edu> wrote:
> 
> As a non-cognoscento, I am going to add my voice in agreement with Michael
> Downes.  Many in times in dired-mode, I marked a LOT a files for "A"
> [dired-do-search], which then found the file I wanted.  At this point I
> wanted to decompress it to work on it a bit, hitting "Z", only to discover
> a massive (de)compression taking place.

I know this is just an example, but this one has a specific answer:
Add the next 2 lines to your .emacs
    (require 'jka-compr)           ;;load jka-(de)compression
    (toggle-auto-compression t)    ;;set auto (de)compression
This will do automatic de-compression/re-compression (for many types
of compression like zip, gzip, bzip2 beside compress).

> At least from this faux pas I can recover.  From   !rm -rf<RET>
> I cannot.  Perhaps Eli is right, perhaps Michael is right, about what is
> theoretically "right" in terms of the semiotics of the situation; but I, as
> a longtime (but naive) user, have blundered into this time and time again.

I tend to agree with Eli because it is easy to unmark all marked file.
See the help for `dired-unmark-all-files' and `dired-unmark-all-marks'
which are bound to "*?" and "*!" by default in dired mode.

As for the operation on "marked files" (instead of file under cursor) -
just pay attention to the list of files before hasting to operate.

Ehud.

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