bug#25076: 24.5; Enhancement request: Make `archive-mode' more Dired like (sorting etc.)

[Michael Albinus]

Alan Third <alan@idiocy.org> writes:

> On Wed, Nov 30, 2016 at 10:36:08AM -0800, Drew Adams wrote:
>> Subject line says it all.  `archive-mode' still seems pretty
>> rudimentary.  It would be good to at least be able to sort the lines by
>> file name etc.
>
> I’m wondering if it wouldn’t be smarter to actually use dired to
> access archives, like how we can use dired to access remote
> directories through tramp.
>
> I expect this is probably a much bigger/harder job than I imagine, but
> what would be required? Just a function that could produce ls style
> output for archives?

The clean solution would be to add a file name handler for
archives. Several primitive functions need to be implemented; one of
them would be `insert-directory’.

See (info "(elisp) Magic File Names") for the complete list of
functions. Not all of them would require an own implementation, 'tho.

My (always erroneous) memories tell me, that Stefan did propose
something like this years ago. Nobody took the ball.

Best regards, Michael.