Re: viewing random list of files in dired

[Andreas Politz]

Rupert Swarbrick wrote:
> Andreas Politz <politza@fh-trier.de> writes:
>
> > Hi,
> >
> > is it possible to view a random list of files with dired ?
> >
> > What I really want is to examine a couple 100 of images from
> > different directories as thumbnails with associated filename.
> > The names come from the command line. None of the programs I
> > have tried (gthumb,gqview,xzgv,feh) can do it.
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > -ap
>
> I don't know whether dired will do this directly, but for a similar
> problem in the past I used the following approach: create a temporary
> directory and make symbolic links to each of the files in the list (if
> you really mean random, you can pipe your command through eg shuf),
> naming them 00001 00002 etc.

By random I ment that the files have no particular common property
(like coming from the same directory).
Creating links in a new directory seems to be the best bet. After
the frustration from trying 5 different programs settled down, I
modified dired-image to accept a list of files. While the results
are pleasing, it just takes to long for > 1000 files.

-ap

> The result will be ordered however you choose (based on the ordering you
> fed to your "counter") and you can just wipe the temporary directory
> when done.
>
> Rupert