Hi,
Thanks for sharing this!
Since I'm a die-hard Dired fan I wanted to see what's all the fuzz is about and tried this. I did not try it very much but I read most of the commentary and some of the comments in the source code.
A general comment is that, should we try to incorporate this into Emacs, I think it would be better to try to incorporate individual features such that they become part of Dired and Emacs in general. The way I see things, this package is... packaging together useful extensions to Dired. I think, by adding the various features, users could quite easily put together the same thing, more or less, without bringing in the whole package itself.
I can see how one can end up with a package like this since I did it myself with "Tumme" (now "Image Dired") many years ago (Any Day Now I will have a look at it again and see how it can be enhanced now that we have better/different image handling built-in).
And, by the way, I have not looked much at other packages that extend Dired, like dired+. I do use features from dired-x and perhaps dired-aux too.
With that said, I have some comments on a couple of the features that I tried. I did not think very long before writing this, so take it for what it is.
Tab-key switching
Navigating back and forth using the Tab key is convenient. For me, personally, since I already have a dedicated key (f2) for switching to the next window, it's only slightly better because the key is slightly easier to press. I will consider binding Tab in my own Dired setup :)
Shell integration
I like this idea and I remember having liked this feature when running Norton Commander hundreds of years ago. I like the idea to be able to access different file names from the two Dired buffers using those environment variables. It's a limitation however that the values are only set (right?) when you go from the diredc buffers to the shell again, using the special command. It would be super cool if the shell just "knew", without diredc needing to set those things explicitly. Could Emacs' different shells and terminals have this ability automatically by using some pre-processing of each command invocation, looking for open Dired windows in the same frame? I could see this being very useful as a normal part of Emacs/Dired/Shell/Terminal and even in Comint (different "REPLs" might benefit from being able to pull in file names from Dired buffers open in the same frame).
Multiple panel views
Did not try this much but is surely useful depending on what you want to see at any given moment. I often use the "s" binding to sort differently, for example, so I see that different viewing modes are nice to have.
File quick-preview mode
This was nice, especially the "quick view" following along when I change between files in the main diredc buffer. For sure something good to bring in if we wanted.
Directory history
I liked the parts of this that I tried. I especially liked the "fast" keys to go back and forth in the directory history. I can see that as very useful. Now, depending on what other buffer switching mechanism you are using, this might be very helpful or not more helpful than current setups.
Bookmarks
Did not try them but like others, I felt it might be better to integrate with the normal bookmark functionality in some way. A command that simply filters out the existing bookmarks that point to directories should not be hard to add to Dired, or simply make part of selecting a directory regardless of where you are in Emacs.
Resilient dedicated dual-pane frame
I liked this and I used the default keybinding (S-f11). I also felt we could make the same thing or something very similar using Winner, the new tab functionality, or some of the other ways we can work with window configurations. I get that a lot of work has been put into making this, as the author says, resilient, and I don't want to down-play that.
Navigate 'up' n parent directories
I have bound backspace to dired-up-directory so I have a quite convenient way to quickly step up N directories. Not the exact same thing of course and I can see how this is useful together with the directory history.
Things I did not try (much)
- Trash management. I feel that the standard behavior is enough for me, by changing a few settings. Some of the features sound like they could be good additions to Emacs in general.
- Edit dired buffers. Well, this is not anything new at all, just a useful thing available in diredc ad well as in normal Dired.
- Set both panels to same directory. Did not try this much or think about when it is useful but I guess quickly "syncing" the two panes, then being able to drill down, or go back in either of them would be the main use.
Yeah, so... In summary, I think it's a nice package with several useful features. I would personally like each feature brought in on its own merits, so to speak, and try to incorporate them into normal Dired and Emacs features, and try to make it as easy as possible to put together a similar package using standard configuration features.
Thanks!
/Mathias