pointer vs TUIFIManager

Pointer is a free, open-source terminal file manager for Linux and macOS. It presents files in a two-pane layout with configurable width ratios and border styles, plus previews with syntax highlighting for more than 20 languages and inline image display through kitty, sixel, or w3m protocols. Archives including zip, tar, gz, bz2, xz, rar, and 7z can be browsed and edited as virtual directories. File operations include asynchronous copying and moving, undo for several actions, and deletion with a flag-then-purge process and default confirmation. Pointer supports SSH/SFTP remote browsing, filename and content search, extension or regex filters, bookmarks, tabs, and file-picker mode. JSON-manifest plugins bind external commands to keys. The README describes OpenAI integration and Claude-powered descriptions and sessions. Linux and macOS binaries are listed for x86_64 and aarch64.

TUIFIManager is a free, GPL-3.0 terminal file manager oriented toward Termux users, and it can also be imported as a component in a Uni-Curses project. Its listed keybindings cover copying, cutting, pasting, deleting, and renaming, as well as creating files and folders and toggling hidden files. Vim mode supports normal and vim shortcuts; the README also lists common mouse events and X11 drag-and-drop from terminals. The project supports Termux and includes several Termux-only keybindings. Installation instructions use pip, followed by running `tuifi` in a terminal. The README documents environment variables for settings such as vim mode, editor, configuration path, hidden files, and filename display lines. The project says it uses about 35 MB of RAM and requires Python 3.8 or newer. Synthetic XDND is experimental and requires requests, pynput, PySide6, and python-xlib. The README labels its documentation a work in progress and says changing default keys besides commands is not currently possible through configuration.