Re: [RP] frame navigation commands?

[Mike Meyer]

Doug Kearns <address@hidden> types:
> From: "Mike Meyer" <address@hidden>
> 
> > Frames are
> > relatively new, and the commands for manipulating them don't seem to
> > be nearly as well thought out.
> >
> > I'm proposing replacing the frame manipulation commands with a set
> > similar to the window manipulation commands.
> 
> Well, they're designed to mimic the screen 'focus' command - focus
> [up,down,top,bottom]

> So, really, I think the focus* commands should be merged into one that
> takes an argument. This would give you the best of both worlds,
> compatibility and an ability to extend the command.
> In general, I'd like compatibility with screen to be seen as a priority,
> although I do see the _obvious_ problem with this, and for rp to deviate
> only where necessary.

I can see that. The real problem is that screen only splits
horizontally, so the it's four - up, down, top, bottom - do a pretty
good job for all navigation. But my normal working environment is:


+--------+-----------+
| 0      |   3       |
|        |           |
+--------+           |
| 1      |           |
|        |           |
+--------+           |
| 2      |           |
|        |           |
|        |           |
|        |           |
+--------+-----------+

The screen focus commands don't do anything in window 3. Of the rp
focus commands, the only ones that work are left, which always takes
me to 0, and focus, which takes me who knows where.

> > ftitle -> give a user title to the frame
> > fnumber -> renumber the current frame
> > fselect -> select a frame by name or title
> >
> > and, for the people doing scripting:
> > frames -> print - or display - information about frames.
> 
> On the other hand, I certainly see no reason not to extend the command
> base where appropriate and think these commands would be useful.

I'd say that the screen commands simply don't map
properly. Left/right/up/down might be useful, but the ability to
manipulate frames like windows would be a lot more useful.

Martin Samuelsson <address@hidden> types:
> On Wed, Oct 17, 2001 at 07:25:36PM -0500, Mike Meyer wrote:
> > Does anyone think this is a really bad or good idea?
> I havn't decided my opinion yet. ;)
> 
> In the past it has been a design goal to keep rp close to screen in 
> behavior, look and feel. I don't know if that still is the case, but I 
> guess it still is.
> Have you looked anything at how frameing is in screen?

Not until you suggested it. I've always used either emacs or real
window systems, never screen. While I have no objections to looking at
screen, I'm always going to try and figure out what I'd like first, so
that I can decided which of the two would be better.

In this case, rp is sufficiently more flexible than screen that the
screen focus commands don't really make sense. See the example above.

> If it is as bad as in rp I see no obvious reason why not to implement 
> something better. As always, of course, I'm not going to implement it. I'm 
> just here to watch the show.

I have no problem implementing it. My problem is that I've had no real
feedback on my patches. They aren't in CVS, and nobody has said "they
aren't going to go in", either. My request for information about
submitting patches has gone unanswered as well. Since I don't want to
branch rp, I'm probably not going to work on this until I get some
feedback on the first couple of patches.

> I would like to say a couple of words about it though. The command names 
> seems a little difficult to understand for the novice rp user. Since no 
> sane person are going to use them typed a lot any ways, why not spell them 
> out? Something like focusnext, focusprev etc. Or is there any other ideas 
> on what to call the commands? Imo they should be named so it's easy to 
> understand what they do.

I don't have a problem with that at all. Actually, following screen,
the names would be "focus next", "focus prev", and so on. Personally,
I'd rather either imbed the space, or leave it out than implement yet
another command table.

        <mike
--
Mike Meyer <address@hidden>                     http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Q: How do you make the gods laugh?              A: Tell them your plans.