Exactly what I was thinking. As if Windows Explorer and Finder are so perfect themselves.

In this case Finder wins pretty easily IMHO. "Enter" to rename, edit in place, "Enter" to commit ("Esc" to cancel).

There's a whole lot of ??? in that edit in place.

For me, it usually goes like: <click> okay, check that I'm really editing. Crap, I'm not, I started a drag. <click> Okay, got lucky and it looks like I'm really in edit mode. Type a character. Oh crap, some of it I wanted to keep was selected, and now it's gone. Hit escape. Try again. <click> Crap, dragged it again. <click> Okay, editing. Carefully click again to clear the default selection. Carefully click again to put the cursor where I want to edit. Carefully type in the new name. Hit enter. Whew.

What could be easier?

I've never used a Mac but on both Windows and Linux all graphical file explorers I've used have used F2 for rename (I think it even means rename in some other programs that don't deal with files) and especially with the visual feedback there's never any confusion about whether you've started the rename operation. I also don't think I ever have a problem with accidentally starting a drag - again, perhaps a Mac problem, maybe with too small of a pixel count before starting a drag?

Realistically, some things are better done on the command line and some are better done in GUIs and this is just something much better done in a GUI. Of course if you are already in the command line then the overhead of switching to a totally different program is huge compared to the saving once you get there. But I find many sequences of simple file operations are easier in a GUI than the command line, and it's just as silly to religiously rule out GUIs as it is to never use the command line.

i agree with your rant. that is what makes guis inconvenient for that sort of task, but it's missplaced as the 'enter' should already put you into edit mode, so no messing with mouse clicks.

if you add the action of 'selecting the file name', the number of user specified operations is the same:

- <specify rename operation> : type mv or type enter

- <specify source file> : type file name or select file

- <specify destination file> : enter/edit new file name

- <commit> : enter to commit in finder, enter to run in shell

Where Finder/Explorer really fall flat is for commands on multiple files. Shift/Ctrl/Command clicking of files is painful with long lists. Especially when the list is longer than the UI window can display.