RE: Dired patch for `i' - bounce between subdir line and its inserted listing

[Drew Adams]

> [With the proposed patch] sometimes when inserting a dir you end up on
> another dir and sometimes a normal file. This means that double tapping
> `i' would not always take me back to where I came from because some of
> the times it would insert a sub dir instead.

It's not about double-tapping. That was never described as the purpose of the
patch. Similarly, always taking you back where you came from was never described
as the purpose of the patch.

With or without the patch, `i' always inserts a directory when used on a
directory line. That's a feature (the original behavior of `i'), not a bug.

The question is what `i' should do when it is _not_ on a directory line. In
vanilla Emacs without the proposed patch it just raises an error: "Attempt to
insert a non-directory: c:/foo/bar/toto.el". With the patch, it goes to the
parent directory line, if there is one, in the same Dired buffer. Which of these
behaviors is more useful? That's the only question, because that's the only
change the patch makes.

`^' always goes up. If you are on a file or directory line in the top-level
Dired listing (that is, not within an inserted subdir listing), then `^' leaves
the current directory listing altogether. (It is true that you can always get
back by hitting `RET' in that parent directory listing.) With the patch, `i' in
that same context leaves you where you are. The behaviors are intentionally
different in that context. `i' (with the patch) is for moving around within a
given Dired buffer, among its subdir listings.