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Comment by YeGoblynQueenne | Hacker News Reader

How is this better than Midnight Commander?

Author of `nnn` here. I'm not very familiar with MC (sorry about that) as I don't use it so can't provide a meaningful/unbiased feature comparison. However, you can find the list of features in `nnn` here: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#features

In addition, last night I added a vim plugin to use `nnn` as a file picker within vim.

Thank you for your reply, and no worries for not being familiar with mc. I addressed the question generally to HN, hoping for some feedaback from anyone who happens to have used both.

EDIT: One nice thing that mc has is that it lets you open a remote shell via ssh. I use that a lot (I find sc syntax a big pain) so I'd miss that a lot in nnn. Sorry if that feature is included and I failed to spot it.

> Sorry if that feature is included and I failed to spot it.

Don't be, it's not in yet. It's on the ToDo list. I would really appreciate a PR.

A PR? Well, I wouldn't completely write it out, but my C is really rusty and I am being buried under a ton of stuff I'm expected to do (I'm doing a PhD, so I basically have no free time).

Is it just you on this project?

It was for anyone who reads the comment.

I understand you haven't used it, but for many, mc is the gold standard when it comes to features and ease of use. I've been using mc/nc for 30+ years and have never found a file manager as good (although I'll admit I stopped looking at them a decade ago).

It is the file manager many will compare against. I would suggest you request volunteers to put a comparison page for it. That alone will give you ideas on features you may want to add.

I went through the homepage of mc to understand the features and it seems the features available in mc but no in `nnn` is - Remote protocols (like FTP or SSH) integrates and file+dir compare.

However, I do not see several `nnn` features in mc as well:

- left, right arrows don't work

- relies heavily on mouse (menu driven), `nnn` doesn't need the mouse

- couldn't open a text file without extension

- filter workflow needs more key/mouse presses

- no du mode,

- no navigate-as-you-type

- no terminal locker

- no vim plugin

- no shortcuts like `-`/`&`/`~`

- no pin and visit dir,

- no media info

- no cd on exit

I might have missed certain things due to my lack of familiarity with mc.

I think you can do most of those things in mc. The following is from my experience running mc 4.8.18 on Win 10, inside powershell (the executable is from cygwin).

-- Arrow keys work in the menus- press F9 to bring them down, then you can navigate around them with the arrow keys. In the main view, tab moves you from one pane ("window") to the other.

-- I don't think you can use the mouse in mc. It's text based. The menus are all operated by key presses.

-- I can open a text file without extension, on the setup above. I navigate to the file, then press F3 and it opens (in the mc file viewer which I don't generally use).

-- If I understand navigate-as-you-type correctly, yes, mc doesn't have that.

-- Yes, I don't think there's a vim plugin.

-- (No shortcuts) Well, the shortucts are all in the function keys. Also, after F9 each menu item has its own shortcut (its first letter, which is highlighted).

-- (No pin & visit dir) There's the possibility to bookmark paths. Is that what you mean?

-- (No media info) I think you're right about that.

-- cd on exit is configurable; e.g. instructions:

    https://ptspts.blogspot.com/2010/01/how-to-make-midnight-commander-exit-to.html

-- Sorry- I don't know what "filter workflow" and "du mode" are and I'm not sure what you mean by terminal locker.

mc's been around for a while. It's a good piece of software. I think I might have been a bit unfair asking for a comparison, after all nnn is not an Orthodox File Manager, so it occupies a completely different space than mc.

Apologies again. I didn't mean to make you defend your work, and I didn't mean to attack it.

There's one more thing. I was trying mc to find out more about the features. Unfortunately, I found the multi-level pop-up menus in several workflows counter-productive.

One of the important goals behind `nnn`: extremely smooth workflows that don't get in your way.

I remember using the mouse a lot in MC, for activating the Fx actions, the command history and some dialogs (...I think in the virtual consoles you needed something called gpm to make it work, uff. But in X works, too).

TFA has a benchmark comparing Midnight Commander to NNN.

I'm sorry, what is TFA? The internet is no help.

Alternatively, could you please link to details about the comparison?

"TFA" = "the <expletive deleted> article".

wenderen is indicating that the question you raise is addressed on the nnn Github page itself: https://github.com/jarun/nnn#performance

Performance alone doesn't really answer the question, or e.g. we'd all be using assembly for our programming.

As explained in another comment, I'm interested in the experience of users of both programs. It's clear that nnn is not offered up as a specific alternative to mc, of course, but I consider mc a staple for file management in the terminal and I think that's not unreasonable of me, or controversial.

The most used in Eastern Europe orthodox file manager [1] for DOS, Volkov Commander [2] is purely written in assembly language actually.

[1] http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkov_Commander

Urban Dictionary is generally pretty good when a word/term isn't defined in a more general dictionary, though in some cases what you're looking for might not be the first entry.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=tfa

Aside: a quick shortcut url for the free dictionary;

[F6]

tfd.com/word

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