In midnight commander the internal editor's copy function doesn't put text into clipit's copy buffer, so you can't paste it elsewhere.

You can change MC's configuration to not use the internal editor. Don't forget to save the configuration.

Then run"select-edit" and you get a list of external editors to choose from.

If you want to add an editor to the list run update-alternatives. The program e3ne has nice keyboard mapping and works with clipit's copy buffer, and its installed in antix16 by default, but not on the list of editors to select from

select-editor really is just running update-alternatives, see:
update-alternatives --list editor

To add e3ne to that list:
update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/editor editor /usr/bin/e3ne 90

Now run select-editor again and e3ne will be on the list, and you can select it, and midnight commander will use it.

I found that Roxterm won't let e3's help screen work on Alt-h so I changed to using urxvt as the terminal to run mc under since e3 is written in assembler, so probably something I can't change.

thriftee wrote:I found that Roxterm won't let e3's help screen work on Alt-h...probably something I can't change.

Being unable to to display the help screen on demand is probably due to ROXTerm's menu bar being visible. Switching it off is done via right-click in the terminal CLI area or View in menu bar.

Try something along these lines

• Launch mc
• Switch off the ROXTerm menu bar in which mc is displayed
• Set e3ne to be mc's default editor
• Test e3ne in mc to verify the Alt-h command works

Speculation
If the above idea works, you might explore whether a launcher for mc might be created which uses the --hide-menubar or --profile options of ROXTerm. The personal menu might help there.


Off Topic
I suggested antiX include e3 some years ago because of its tiny size (13K) and particularly because of its ease of use in e3ne mode. Since then e3em (emacs mode) has been included in the update-alternatives system within the shipped ISO. Emacs is a specialized editor with a steep learning curve. In my opinion antiX should also offer e3ne as a standard option within update-alternatives system as it is far easier to use from the get-go for most users. For me e3ne is considerably easier to use than even nano for simple text editing duties.

Another advantage comes when using antiX in CLI mode (possibly in rescue situations). In such a case having an easy-to-use text editor is a boon. Many of the most often used keystrokes in e3ne mode are in wide-spread use. You don't want to have to learn obscure keystroke combinations while trying to rescue something.

Request
antiX ISO ships with e3ne as a standard option within update-alternatives

I tried to use urxvt, but even with clipit running, couldn't get copy/paste to work. I can't figure out how its supposed to work. I don't understand why user interfaces can't be consistent on keystrokes for commonly used actions.

Running mc from roxterm with the --hide-menubar option works pretty well, the copy/paste isn't good, but roxterm's copy paste works on a right click.

thriftee wrote:...the copy/paste isn't good, but roxterm's copy paste works on a right click.

Try something like this that does not use ROXTerm's right-click copy/paste and also does not need Clipit. It will give you a way to copy/paste in both directions between mc and a GUI text editor.

Using mc as outlined in your post dated Nov 03, together with e3ne as the selected text editor...

• Start leafpad
• Start mc
• In mc open a text file to edit
• In e3ne enter some text, then highlight it using the mouse
• Switch to the leafpad window and put the cursor in it
• Press the middle mouse button to paste the highlighted text from e3ne

To do it in the reverse direction

• Enter some different text in leafpad
• Highlight it
• Switch to the e3ne window and put the cursor in it
• Press the middle mouse button to paste the highlighted text from leafpad

Sam, that works real well. On laptops you have to click both buttons at once, but it does work, and doesn't need clipit.

thanks very much

One last thing to throw into the mix is an app name autocutsel. I am not at all sure it will offer much extra, but when I last used it some years ago, it filled the need just fine. It might give you another alternative to explore.

It is in the repo, here are a couple of links for info.

========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"http://www.nongnu.org/autocutsel/"
linktext was:"http://www.nongnu.org/autocutsel/"
====================================


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"https://github.com/sigmike/autocutsel"
linktext was:"https://github.com/sigmike/autocutsel"
====================================

Yes, I saw that out there, but wasn't sure what it does. I'll put it on my list to investigate and try, but for now I think I'm doing ok.