In 1991 or 1992, I wrote a curses-based file manager for Unix, a clone of the DOS Norton Commander.
Unlike the Norton Commander, curses, xterms and Linux did not support the mouse. So I called my file manager "The MouseLess Commander".
Linux at that time was a cauldron of hot ideas. And Alessandro Rubini created a library for console applications to get mouse support on Linux. We worked to add mouse support to the MouseLess Commander and by the end of this exercise we renamed the file manager to "The MouseLess Commander With Mouse Support".
Somehow I was talked into changing the name of the Mouseless Commander with Mouse Support. Since I was pretty bad at naming, we organized a vote on the mailing list and eventually the current name "Midnight Commander" was picked.
I miss the previous name.
Posted on 06 Oct 2009