Re: Dired patch for `i' - bounce between subdir line and its inserted listing

[Juri Linkov]

>>  It have advantage of being
>>  context-independent: it works everywhere in any part of the subdirectory
>>  listing.  OTOH, overloading a clear meaning of `i' ("insert a subdir")
>>  with more meanings will add inconsistencies.
>
> I just found a problem with this, maybe that is what you find
> inconsistent: sometimes when inserting a dir you end up on another dir
> and sometimes a normal file. This means that double tapping `i' would
> not always take me back to where I came from because some of the times
> it would insert a sub dir instead. We should not mess up the user's
> ability to get a muscle memory of an operation like this (i.e. he
> cannot rely on double tapping `i' doing the same thing each time, he
> needs to know the content of the dir to insert to know what is going
> to happen).

Yes, this is what I meant.

>>  It seems what you are trying to do here is to insert a group of
>>  subdirectories.  Maybe, it would be much easier just to mark them
>>  with e.g. `* /' (`dired-mark-directories') and type `i' to insert
>>  them all at once into the same dired buffer.
>
> Yes, if `i' could do that I would probably use that, but it does not
> work that way now.

But maybe you can just use the option `-lR' described in
(info "(emacs) Subdirectories in Dired")?

Oh, and I noticed that this node suggests using only `C-u C-SPC'
to go back, but not `^'.  Maybe we should mention `^' as well?

-- 
Juri Linkov
http://www.jurta.org/emacs/