Re: Elisp newbie trying a derived mode (clarifying intent)

["davex" <dmagill@attglobal.net>]

Kevin Rodgers wrote:
> davex wrote:
> > Hello all, my first post here, and I've recently started coding elisp.
> > I want a simple method of interactively selecting multiple files or
> > directories, and passing the selection list to an external program.
> > My first thought was to tweak dired mode, so that I could just navigate
--- tweak = make a derived mode based on dired, with added functions
--(davex)
> > around dirs, marking files and dirs that I want (with 'm') and then
> > have a special key call dired-do-shell-command with something to
> > append each marked entry to a text file.
--- let me clarify the above--I'd like to make this simple to use
regularly, hence have a single keystroke call dired-do-shell-command,
with the correct shell command (to write out the filename) hard-coded--
i suppose i could do this as a keyboard macro, but if I can do a
derived mode in a clean concise way, I could apply this skill
elsewhere.
Am I on the right track? Is a derived mode a common useful solution?
---(davex)
> >
> > Question: is there something simpler than dired to tweak? All I really
> > need is the directory navigation and marking capability.
>
> Why do you need to tweak anything at all, since dired already provides
> all that?
> 
> -- 
> Kevin