20240624-vifm_vs_ranger.txt
I like doing file management through the TUI. I've tried a few, but
the ones that I've really given any sort of look at are vifm and
ranger. (And I won't be including internet browsers like Lynx or w3m
that technically can do file management).

I see ranger keep popping up in discussions about TUI/CLI file
managers, but my experience with it has just been lackluster. It
works, but it's still pretty slow as a "single"-pane browser. I know
it has 3 panes by default, but you can't really navigate between
folders like two-pane browsers. It's just not ideal.

It's like half of vifm with the ability to show inline images. That's
it. That's the only thing ranger does that I haven't replicated with
vifm. Ranger also has better default actions out of the box than vifm,
which will simply attempt to open everything in vim. Ranger also has
four (!!!) rc files. Why? Why do you need four? I can understand two,
but not four.

Vifm only has one rc file, two if you count the color scheme file.
It's simple. It's powerful. It works. It's customizable, and it makes
inter-directory actions much, much, much easier. I mean that's kind of
what a file manager should excel at, right? Ranger doesn't.

I'm also giving midnight commander (mc) a try. It seems far less
elegant and the TUI is really weird. But it does have both a TUI and
CLI working simultaneously, which is really interesting.

Yay: vifm
Nay: ranger
Huh?: mc