Nnn: recent file manager comparisons

[buffet]

There are these shiny, new file managers...

Could you add comparisons to them in your Comparisons section?

[jarun]

Yes, there are some very recent file managers (so I have updated the question to make it generic). However, you may have noticed the comparison table has a list of some popular FMs which existed even before nnn. I don't have any plans to add new ones.

[jarun]

In fact, even among the earlier utilities, I have removed ncdu from the list last month as it's not a file manager. I am also planning to drop ranger because it's in an interpreted language and is no match for the performance you get in native (benchmarks - https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/faster/python3-gcc.html). People who are on an i7 with SSD may want to ignore that but it becomes necessary when you run du on a nearly full 1TB external HDD or intend to get some speed on the Pi or the Termux environment in resource constrained Android devices. The other 2 would stay - they are both excellent file managers.

It's not really very difficult to write a FM, you see... an academic exercise would do. It's the choices you make makes your tool different from the others. At one end of those choices is maximum flexibility to do anything you wish with a FM and using a language that aids it. And the other end is doing just what you need a FM to do but keep it performant on anything on which it runs, independent of memory, OS, script, shell and so on... That's when you go native. nnn would smoothly run on devices with a few KBs of memory (say, IOT) and support for basic graphics (even without colors!) and a C library (like the trimmed musl). That's what I wanted to write and share with users and that's what the comparison says. Their preference remains their own.

[jarun]

It's a good question. Keeping the issue open.

[jarun]

Closing as there's no response. Thanks for bringing it up anyway.

[buffet]

Closing as there's no response. Thanks for bringing it up anyway.

Sorry, I thought you were just leaving a note to yourself.

If you would share the benchmarks, I could run them. I got cfiles, lf, filet, and of course nnn to compare, anything I'm missing you'd want me to benchmark as well?

[jarun]

No plans to add anything else as I mentioned. The ones mentioned are the ones which existed earlier. There can be newer FMs faster or slower than nnn, and if we continue to compare, the list would never end. As I explained - I set out to write nnn with a goal and that's met. That's reasonable enough for me.

[buffet]

Saying it's the fastest and most lightweight (probably) filemanager is a lie then though. I could state the same about literally everything.

It's just fast and lightweight then.

[jarun]

is a lie then though

How come? You are not quoting the full sentence there.

It says _probably_ and is meant for the user who is trying out nnn - _you have ever tried_. That doesn't mean it IS the fastest file manager ever written or would be written.

[buffet]

Why the benchmarks if you don't really care about stating facts?

[jarun]

Because I tried those popular FMs before I set to write a file manager.

[buffet]

So it's the fastest and most lightweight file manager you (not the user) have ever tried, and that's only because you don't care about trying any alternatives since?

[jarun]

You do have a point there. The advantage of being the author is I can always make things work in nnn and so I don't really look out for a new solution.

I updated the documentation. Thanks for being patient with me.