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OFM Bulletin 2000

• [Dec 26, 2000] Chapter 2 was updated. Material about Alex FTP VFS, Plan 9,  Oleg Kiselyov HTTP VFS, etc. was included.
• [Dec 25, 2000] HTTP VFS Server and Client for MC by Oleg Kiselyov

  HTTP VFS client was implemented by Oleg Kiselyov for MC  on several OSes (Linux 2.0.27, HP-UX 9000/7xx, Sun Ultra-2/Solaris 2.6) and  WinNT/Win95. This is an open source implementation http://pobox.com/~oleg/ftp/packages/http-vfs.tar.gz [86,492 bytes] 

  • Note the package includes an implementation of TCP streams, and C++ code to parse (multi-part) MIME entities, HTTP headers and configuration files of several flavors. The latter are built on an efficient implementation of dictionaries and collections of strings (also included, along with the validation code).

  The main drawback is that the client requires a separate VFS server. Bourne sh, Perl 5 on UNIX/WinNT/Win95
   http://pobox.com/~oleg/ftp/packages/VFS-server-pl.tar.gz [8532 bytes]

  • http://pobox.com/~oleg/ftp/packages/http-vfs.tar.gz 

  For comments, questions, trouble reports oleg@pobox.com or oleg@acm.org or oleg@computer.org

• [Dec 15, 2000] Advanced Midnight Commander -- suggested by Michael Smirnov  <smb@mh.vstu.edu.ru>.

  This is a bugfixed and enhanced version of the Midnight Commander 4.1.35. FTP is nearly rewritten, many small bugs are fixed, and some interesting features added, for example:
  - Better syntax highlighting in editor
  - Allow file/dirsize to be > 2GB
  - FTP supports FXP (direct server-to-server connection)
  - FTP transfers without copying to TEMP
  - Fixed ZIPfs, added ESP support.
  

  • Download
  • About:
    The goal of this project is creating a stable, well-working, usefull version of well-known Midnight Commander, without bugs. I'm bored waiting for bugfixes, so I did it. I'm fixing all bugs reported by my friends, or by YOU!
    
    Why is it an alternate version of mc, instead applying patches to main mc project? The original mc is now about v4.5.49, with more and more bugs, and some very bad structure changes. I like mc 4.1.x series much better, it has well-designed
    structures, easy to add new features. Maybe I'll port these changes to 4.5.x series, when it gets stable. Btw. I back-ported all new usefull things appeared in 4.5.x.
    
    
• [Dec 05, 2000] Delphi Free Stuff  It's actually pretty old stuff. Neural Commander is a file manager similar to Norton Commander, running under Windows 95 and Windows NT. v.1.1beta. Dec. 7, 1997 Size
  520kSource available on request. Suggested by Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen 
  
• [Dec 02, 2000] www.CanadaComputes.com -- a review of X Northern Captain

• I was recently trying to install the latest Codeweavers release of WINE, and when I tried to install, it told me I had required files missing.

  Installing the new files, euthanized my filemanager of choice, Filerunner. I was more than a little annoyed, particularly since the Codeweavers release of WINE still failed to work underlease of WINE still failed to work, but I decided to try to see the good in the situation. I decided I was going hunting for a new file manager. I downloaded a few, which I may cover in later weeks, but for now I am reviewing X Northern Captain.

  X Northern Captain is a filemanager for X based on Norton Commander. Having only used Norton Commander once, many years ago, I can't comment on how faithfully the program is sticking to the NC look and feel, but what I can say is that this is a great file manager.

  At the Web site you can download Redhat Package Manager, or RPM, files or the source code. As I am now back in the land of RPM based distributions, I decided to try the RPM. It installed painlessly.

  Before you run the program for the first time, I would recommend running "xncsetup" so you can set up your configuration files. I'm not sure if this is vital, but the actual program seemed to complain a little when I ran "xnc" without running the setup program.

  After seeing a nice splash screen, you are greeted by a very simple looking screen. You have lists of files, though the way the list looks will vary depending on how you configured the program, three menus at the top and a row of buttons at the bottom. It doesn't look like much, but it's power is hidden underneath.

  First of all, if you're looking for an entirely point and click experience, you may want to look elsewhere as XNC works best if you combine the mouse with the keyboard. Operation entirely from the keyboard is probably possible, but I like to use whatever works fastest, a combination of mouse and keyboard.

  My benchmark for filemanagers has always been Directory Opus on the Amiga and, while there is a program for X that is similar, Worker, it just didn't seem to capture the feel for me. I had yet to find a program that was as enjoyable to use as Opus. Until now.

  One area where XNC excels is with it's file associations. They are easily configurable so you can double click on any file and have it opened in the appropriate program. While some programs operate by reading the header of the file to find out the content, XNC works on the file extension. If you name an MP3 file with the extension .txt, you'll have the joy of text editing an MP3, which won't be all that helpful. I have already tweaked the extensions since, by default, it points at programs that probably don't exist on your system. Editing is a simple affair, and the changes take effect immediately.

  One thing I found a little unintuitive, bearing in mind I didn't read the documentation, was how to select files. A lot of programs in X use the Windows way of doing things, holding the ctrl key and clicking individual files to select multiple files. XNC doesn't stick to this, which makes a mildly irritating but also refreshing change. To select multiple files either right click over a filelist and drag or use the cursor keys, scroll and hit the insert key to select them. This was about the only problem I had picking up the software.

  A lot of people will dismiss all filemanagers as not being "hardcore" enough when it comes to Linux. Those people prefer using the command line. To each their own. If you don't have a problem with using tools to make your life easier and you are looking for a clean, quick and effective way to manage your files, then XNC could be for you. I will try other filemanagers, such as the previously mentioned Worker, but right now, I'll be sticking with XNC.

   

• [Aug 21, 2001] Midnight thoughts about Midnight Commander

  From: vda@vda.ilyichevsk.odessa.ua (Denis Vlasenko)
  Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 02:04:43 +0300 (UKD)
  

  Hi MC developers,
  
  I am long standing user of Norton Commander and its clones. I have started using Linux recently and must admit that MC
  helps me a lot to feel comfortable in this new and scary environment ;-).
  
  I think maybe you're interested in newbie's impressions. I know that you've done a great program and don't expect you
  to rush and implement all my wildest dreams. It will be interesting to hear your comments/explanations.
  
  *** ESC key ***
  >From FAQ:
  >2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
  >   Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
  >   Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
  >   three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
  >   pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
  >   representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
  >   If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice
  >   i.e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
  >   cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
  >   ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
  >   only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
  >   the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately.
  
  I found this ESC-ESC the most annoying thing in MC.
  
  I understand that on some terminals this is really necessary.
  But lots of people use Linux mostly at 386 PC consoles. I know
  there's a way to remap keys on Linux (loadkeys etc).
  Maybe Commander could remap ESC key to ESC-ESC while user
  is in Commander shell and restore normal mapping
  whenever user starts new program or terminates MC.
  However, I see that it can be problematic:
  1. What if MC gets SIGKILLed?
  2. If keymapping affect ALL consoles, this wouldn't work
     without kernel modifications.
  
  
  *** Panels on/off - Ctrl-O ***
  Norton Commander and its DOS/Win clones usually have only one
  command line. In MC we have two: one when panels are on and
  one when they are off. It's confusing. I'm starting to hate
  "Shell is already running a command" error box.
  What is the reason it is done this way?
  
  Also NC and clones usually allow to show/hide left and
  right panel with Ctrl-F1,F2. It's nice to see output of previous
  command(s) and file panel at the same time. Can it be done in MC?
  
  
  *** Renaming/copy ***
  Imagine you wanted to create directory named "MEMBENCH" but
  typed it as "MEMBRNCH".
  In NC you can hide other panel, press F6 and you'll see:
    Rename or move "MEMBRNCH" to:
    [MEMBRNCH                                      ]
  You can fix your typo easily.
  In MC after F6 you'll see:
    Move directory "MEMBRNCH" with source mask:
    [*                                             ]
    to:
    [/usr/local/and_whatever_other_panel_is_in     ]
  Not that easy, eh?
  
  
  *** Character 0x9B ***
  I need to work with Cyrillic. Now my box loads necessary fonts
  and keyboard mappings at startup. Everything is OK except for
  one Cyrillic letter with code 0x9B. Yes, it's CSI.
  
  Since Linux console provides VT100 emulation, it
  tries to emulate some VT100 quirks too, including
  CSI escape sequence:
    0x9B == ESC [
  This is not 8-bit clean. I patched console.c in kernel
  source tree and now  printf("-> \x9B <-")  does display character
  with code 0x9B. I think it won't break anything, because
  any decent program will print ESC [ sequence instead of
  0x9B. What do you think?
  
  However, MC does not display that character, althought
  other Cyrillic chars are displayed.
  How can I tell MC that it is now safe to print 0x9B?
  In /etc/termcap? In terminfo database? Or I should patch
  ncurses/SLang?
  
  Also my box does nothing under MC when I press key bound to
  emit 0x9B. Maybe it thinks it's a Meta-Escape?
  I haven't a faintest idea how to make it work.
  
  
  *** File Search ***
  When I invoke M-? file search and press F3/F4 to view/edit files
  found, I'd like to have F7 preloaded with the same search string
  as in the M-? dialog.
  
  
  *** FAR's F12 ***
  One of the NC clones, namely FAR Manager, have a very useful feature:
  you can switch to panels from viewer/editor and do what you need,
  even open another viewer/editor! F12 brings list of currently available
  'screens' and you can switch to any of them:
    [0.Panels                                     ]
    [1.View: /etc/fstab                           ]
    [2.Edit: /etc/inittab                         ]
    [3.View: /usr/src/linux/REPORTING-BUGS        ]
  I found this very useful. Turns FAR into _multi-file_ editor.
  
  
  *** Hiding cursor ***
  It would be nice if MC would show cursor only when it is expected
  that user can type something or toggle [x] checkboxes
  and (*) radio buttons. It is more intuitive and saves some (however
  tiny) CPU load when MC runs on framebuffer console or in xterm.
  
  
  ******
  I'm not subscribed to any MC-related mailing list.
  Please CC me if you decided to reply.
  Thank you for your attention!
  Have fun,
  --
  Denis Vlasenko
  Email: vda_unique@iname.com
  

  Re: Midnight thoughts about Midnight Commander

  From: Vlad Harchev <hvv@hippo.ru>
  Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2000 12:38:16 +0500 (SAMST)
  On Thu, 10 Aug 2000, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
  
   Hi, MC user :)
  
  > Hi MC developers,
  > 
  > I am long standing user of Norton Commander and its clones.
  > I have started using Linux recently and must admit that MC
  > helps me a lot to feel comfortable in this new and scary
  > environment ;-).
  > 
  > I think maybe you're interested in newbie's impressions.
  > I know that you've done a great program and don't expect you
  > to rush and implement all my wildest dreams. It will be
  > interesting to hear your comments/explanations.
  > 
  > *** ESC key ***
  > >From FAQ:
  > >2.4 Why does the ESC key behave funny?
  > >   Midnight Commander uses the ESC key as a prefix for simulating the
  > >   Meta and Alt keys (for terminals which don't have Meta or Alt, see the
  > >   three previous questions). For example, pressing ESC-a is the same as
  > >   pressing Meta-a. In addition most terminals use ESC for internal
  > >   representation of arrow keys, function keys and other enhanced keys.
  > >   If you want to use ESC to cancel things you have to press it twice
  > >   i.e. ESC-ESC. If you find this cumbersome you can generally use F10 to
  > >   cancel. Alternatively turn on the old_esc_mode setting in the
  > >   ~/.mc.ini file. The old_esc_mode setting makes ESC work as a prefix
  > >   only if another key is pressed within 0.5 seconds. After 0.5 seconds
  > >   the ESC key cancels. There is no way to make ESC cancel immediately.
  > 
  > I found this ESC-ESC the most annoying thing in MC.
  > 
  > I understand that on some terminals this is really necessary.
  > But lots of people use Linux mostly at 386 PC consoles. I know
  > there's a way to remap keys on Linux (loadkeys etc).
  > Maybe Commander could remap ESC key to ESC-ESC while user
  > is in Commander shell and restore normal mapping
  > whenever user starts new program or terminates MC.
  
   This would require root privileges.
  
  > However, I see that it can be problematic:
  > 1. What if MC gets SIGKILLed?
  > 2. If keymapping affect ALL consoles, this wouldn't work
  >    without kernel modifications.
  
   Also, mc runs on many unices, not only on linux.
  
  > 
  > *** Panels on/off - Ctrl-O ***
  > Norton Commander and its DOS/Win clones usually have only one
  > command line. In MC we have two: one when panels are on and
  > one when they are off. It's confusing. I'm starting to hate
  > "Shell is already running a command" error box.
  > What is the reason it is done this way?
  
   Look at the way it's implemented: when subshell wishes to paint prompt, it
  sends mc a signal (so it decides that shell completed running a command). If
  you type one letter and then press backspace (i.e. completely clearing
  commandline in subshell), shell won't redraw prompt, so mc will think that
  it's running a command. So, just press enter in subshell when commandline is
  empty but mc barks "Shell is already running a command".
  
  > Also NC and clones usually allow to show/hide left and
  > right panel with Ctrl-F1,F2. It's nice to see output of previous
  > command(s) and file panel at the same time. Can it be done in MC?
  
   No, it's nearly impossible to implement (terminal io is designed in a such
  way).
  
  > 
  > *** Renaming/copy ***
  > Imagine you wanted to create directory named "MEMBENCH" but
  > typed it as "MEMBRNCH".
  > In NC you can hide other panel, press F6 and you'll see:
  >   Rename or move "MEMBRNCH" to:
  >   [MEMBRNCH                                      ]
  > You can fix your typo easily.
  > In MC after F6 you'll see:
  >   Move directory "MEMBRNCH" with source mask:
  >   [*                                             ]
  >   to:
  >   [/usr/local/and_whatever_other_panel_is_in     ]
  > Not that easy, eh?
  
   I prefer to type 'mv ' and then "Ctrl-Enter" (or Escape-Enter)  twice and
  then edit the name in commandline in such cases.
  
  > 
  > *** Character 0x9B ***
  > I need to work with Cyrillic. Now my box loads necessary fonts
  > and keyboard mappings at startup. Everything is OK except for
  > one Cyrillic letter with code 0x9B. Yes, it's CSI.
  
  > Since Linux console provides VT100 emulation, it
  > tries to emulate some VT100 quirks too, including
  > CSI escape sequence:
  >   0x9B == ESC [
  > This is not 8-bit clean. I patched console.c in kernel
  > source tree and now  printf("-> \x9B <-")  does display character
  > with code 0x9B. I think it won't break anything, because
  > any decent program will print ESC [ sequence instead of
  > 0x9B. What do you think?
  > 
  > However, MC does not display that character, althought
  > other Cyrillic chars are displayed.
  > How can I tell MC that it is now safe to print 0x9B?
  > In /etc/termcap? In terminfo database? Or I should patch
  > ncurses/SLang?
  > 
  > Also my box does nothing under MC when I press key bound to
  > emit 0x9B. Maybe it thinks it's a Meta-Escape?
  > I haven't a faintest idea how to make it work.
  
    I don't know either.
  
  > 
  > *** File Search ***
  > When I invoke M-? file search and press F3/F4 to view/edit files
  > found, I'd like to have F7 preloaded with the same search string
  > as in the M-? dialog.
  
    Yes, I would like to too. I hope somebody will hack this in.
  
  > 
  > *** FAR's F12 ***
  > One of the NC clones, namely FAR Manager, have a very useful feature:
  > you can switch to panels from viewer/editor and do what you need,
  > even open another viewer/editor! F12 brings list of currently available
  > 'screens' and you can switch to any of them:
  >   [0.Panels                                     ]
  >   [1.View: /etc/fstab                           ]
  >   [2.Edit: /etc/inittab                         ]
  >   [3.View: /usr/src/linux/REPORTING-BUGS        ]
  > I found this very useful. Turns FAR into _multi-file_ editor.
  
  
    I think this will be difficult to implement in mc. Use 'screen' (window
  manager for any terminal) or twin (nice window manager for linux
  console or X terminal) to run several terminal sessions on one terminal.
  
  > 
  > *** Hiding cursor ***
  > It would be nice if MC would show cursor only when it is expected
  > that user can type something or toggle [x] checkboxes
  > and (*) radio buttons. It is more intuitive and saves some (however
  > tiny) CPU load when MC runs on framebuffer console or in xterm.
  
    Yes, I think it would be nice to implement this. But a lot of more important
  things to do are waiting mc hackers. If you have time, welcome to hacking mc.
  
  > 
  > ******
  > I'm not subscribed to any MC-related mailing list.
  > Please CC me if you decided to reply.
  > Thank you for your attention!
  > Have fun,
  > --
  > Denis Vlasenko
  > Email: vda_unique@iname.com
  > 
  
   Thanks for expressing your thoughts on mc.
  
   Best regards,
    -Vlad
  

  mc.hlp in russian is available

  From: Vlad Harchev <hvv@hippo.ru>
  Date: Wed, 23 Aug 2000 21:14:24 +0500 (SAMST)
  
   Hello, Pavel!
  
   I just looked at the gnome cyrillization patch located at 
  ftp://ftp.comprice.ru/pub/linux/abiword.rus/gnomeoffcyr1.tar.bz2
  
   It contains mc.hlp for mc-4.5.51 (fully?) translated to russian by Albert
  Sultanov <sarras@mail.ru> (the size of mc.hlp is 178K, size of entire archive
  is 1.67M). I put the mc.hlp for your convenience here
  www.hippo.ru/~hvv/patches/not-mine/mc.hlp.koi8.gz
  
   Pavel, could you consider integrating it into mc cvs?
  
   Best regards,
    -Vlad

   

• [July 24, 2000] List SOFT. Necromancer's Dos Navigator

  This is a clone of Dos Navigator by RitLabs. It supports long file names (while working under Win9x or Win2000). In addition to LFN there are a number of smaller changes and corrections of original DN, e.g. codepages support in editor, encryption, FTP, etc.
  Doesn't require installation.

• [July 24, 2000] File Wizard -- freeware OFM from Hungary. Author: Antony-Denis Gulyas. Suggested by Gordon Gibson. Here is review from the site:

A polished, dual pane, text mode file manager with pulldown menus and mouse support. Quick, efficient navigation reminiscent of NC. Without doubt, a top pick if you have 386+ PC and enjoy customizing your file manager to suit your specific tastes. After using this program for a few months, I'd have to conclude that FW has entered the same league as the best shareware competition. Author: Antony-Denis Gulyas, Hungary (2000). Home Page. Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

Some features which distinguish File Wizard:

• Can display/edit file descriptions (FILES.BBS or DESCRIPT.ION. Displays titles of HTML files.
• Movable, customizable, and sizable directory panels. Just pull on a pane to see more information (e.g., file descriptions). Supports VESA text modes. Customize colors for file extension groups.
• Reads popular archive formats as directories. Reads contents of ZIP, RAR, ARJ, and ACE archives. Easy on-screen configuration of archiver parameters.
• Drag and drop COPY, MOVE, and DELETE operations (between archives too).
• Good file finding function.
• Extension associations.
• Win9x support. Win2000 support under development (4-00).
• Full featured integrated CD player.
• Integrated text editor w/ mouse and Win clipboard support (you can even edit archived files- FW will update the archive)
• TEXT/HEX viewer.
• Unique built-in screen savers (with screen "hot spot").
• Good built-in help.

Notes:

• Y2K compliant: Option to display four digit century-year.
• Requires enough XMS memory to make it unusable under Windows on a system with limited RAM.
• System requirements: 386/sx or better processor; 290KB base memory and 4000KB free XMS or EMS or INT15h memory; VGA card (SVGA required for 100,112,132,150 column modes); Mouse. EXE size:240K.

• [July 24, 2000] Turbo Navigator  by Marko Vodopija -- free GUI-based OFM. Suggested by Gordon Gibson. In his opinion it's fast but somewhat buggy and needs more work.

  In the computer world everything relies on files. Operating system you currently use consists of many files that are bound to work together as a whole. Every program or game you have installed on your system have one or more of them. All data that you enter while working in the operating system or in any of these applications are saved to a file on a disk. It is now clear that it is essential to have an application which will help you organize all these files. Here is where TN (short for Turbo Navigator) comes in. It is very fast, very powerful, very versatile, very informative file manager and much more. It is based upon Norton Commander, the legendary file manager for DOS and Windows. The feature that made NC legendary is two pane window display that enabled user to see content of two different file folders (directories) at the same time. This feature is essential for every decent file manager and as such it is present in Turbo Navigator. One other thing that is also inherited from NC is it unique keyboard bindings. It is totally different then what you use in standard Windows application such is Windows Explorer. Once you get used to it you will find that they are very comfortable and designed for fast usage. User interface is different yet very familiar and it is designed to give you as much of information as possible on one screen. Without pressing any buttons you can see the name of the current volume, free space and size of the current volume, number of objects (files and folders) in the current folder (directory) and the size of the current folder. Don't forget to multiply these by two - you have two window panes, remember? Attention to details is present in every corner of TN. While copying files from one location to another you are presented with plethora of information (copy speed, file size, disk remaining…) that most other applications will not show. User interface design is uncluttered and you can understand it easily without any help files at all. With many advanced features built in and many still to come, Turbo Navigator is your best choice for file manager. And how am I to say it is the best. Try and see it yourself. It is free!

  Marko Vodopija

   

• [July 24, 2000] WinNavigator's homepage by WnSoft Inc. Shareware $29. Suggested by Gordon Gibson. He considers it to be rock-solid.

  WinNavigator is a powerful but easy-to use file manager -- a good replacement of Windows Explorer or Norton Commander, with file management copy/move/delete features and a built-in viewer for 9 most-popular graphic formats, 11 sound/music format, as well as video clips Microaoft AVI. In addition, it supports all compressed files like zip, arj, rar etc showing them as regular folders, has the SysInfo panel, internet dialer, clipboard viewer, calculator, audio CD player, and resource explorer. As a bonus, the program contains two simple games tetris-like one, and Life. Multi-language support is also there now available: English, Italian, Polish and Russian, Czech, Hungarian.

• [July 19, 2000] This page was awarded Open Directory Project "Cool Site" logo. Here is the quote from the letter by George Ruban <george_ruban@hotmail.com> informing me about this award.  This is the first award my site got, but what is interesting is that  for the last month  this page did not manage to get into the first dozen of the most popular Softpanorama pages "trafficwise" (see statistics in the frontpage), so there might be other cool pages on this site :-)

  Well, your Orthodox File Managers site is being marked "cool" in the File Managers category, for the obvious reason that it is the most comprehensive site on such things.
  http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/File_Management/File_Managers/

  The fact that the site supports open source and the ODP ("We support dmoz.org. You should too !" logo on the page) has ... absolutely nothing to do with this choice. Yeah, that's the ticket. :)
  

• [July 12, 2000] Krusader - Graphical OFM for Linux. KDE 2.0 version only. Might be better than graphical version of Midnight Commander.  Still in beta.  Suggested by Juhapekka "naula" Tolvanen 
• [Jul 10, 2000] [fm] advanced midnight commander  -- a fork of MC

  The Advanced Midnight Commander has as its main goal to make a bugfixed, stable version of the well-known Midnight Commander. Most of known bugs are fixed, and it has a rewritten FTPfs with FXP support, handles symlinks well, and has some new useful features.

   

• [Jul 08, 2000] Windows Commander 4.50 is now available for download. See links at http://www.ghisler.com/
  Among enhancements are a PC to PC link over a parallel port cable, a special rename tool, and colors by file type.
• [Jul 06, 2000] Jeffrey C. Johnson - Inventor of the Directory Tree and XTreeGold -- great personal account of how Xtree -- yet another great and underappreciated file manager --  was actually created. Suggested by Ron Perrella <perrella@yahoo.com> . Please take a look
  • The History of XTree
  • The links page

  As a gesture of recognition to the important contributions that Xtree made I also created a subsection devoted to Xtree on this page.
  

• [Jul 2, 2000]Welcome to WnSoft Inc. -- Win Navigator. Shareware $29.

  Powerful but easy-to use file manager -- a good replacement for Windows Explorer or Norton Commander. Besides usual file management (copy/move/delete etc), it contains built-in viewer for 9 most-popular graphic formats, and 11 sound/music format, as well as video clips (Microsoft AVI). In addition, it supports all compressed files like zip, arj, rar etc (showing them as regular folders), has the SysInfo panel, Internet dialer, clipboard viewer, calculator, audio CD player, and Resource Explorer. As a bonus, the program contains two simple games  (Tetris-like one, and Life). There is also a multi-language support (now available: English, Italian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, Lithuanian, German, French, Dutch).
  

• [Jun 20, 2000] Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz> made a pioneering work to run gtk on curses display. Take a look at Cursing gtk (http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/cursed/cursed.html). That bridges the gap between classic and GUI-based OFM coding.
• [Apr 17, 2000] VC assumed to be dead and was replaced by FC in the table above. FC is the second smallest OFM after VC and it's actively supported on Windows and OS/2.
• [Apr 8, 2000] A Guide to Efficient Use of Windows Commander 4 by Ilya Gulko. One tip is reproduced below:

  If you're a webmaster and have FTP access to your web server, updating your web page should be very simple. You can use Windows Commander to easily synchronize the files on your computer with your web server. Just connect to the FTP server in one pane, and open the directory with the local copy of your files in the other pane. Now, press Shift+F2 to compare the two directories. All the files that are newer than the ones in the opposing directory are selected. If the file doesn't exist at all in the other pane, it is also selected. Now, go to the pane with the local files, and press F5 to copy all of the files that are not up to date.

• [Apr 6, 2000] Anti-Mac -- an interesting critique of MAC-style graphic interface

  Using direct manipulation, users interact directly with objects in the interface [17]. The archetypal example is to move a file from one directory to another by opening the original folder and using the mouse pointer to drag the file icon to the destination folder. This procedure works well for simple actions with a small number of objects, but as the number of actions or objects increases, direct manipulation quickly becomes repetitive drudgery. The dark side of a direct manipulation interface is that you have to directly manipulate everything. Instead of an executive who gives high-level instructions, the user is reduced to an assembly line worker who must carry out the same task over and over.

  Direct manipulation also means that users must always operate at the atomic level. They cannot group a related series of basic actions into one high-level action or use conditionals. Suppose we have a group of images and want to convert all of the PICT files into icons (see Figure 2). If the conversion requires several steps, this will be a very tedious process with direct manipulation, but a simple scripting language provides a natural means for specifying this task. Direct manipulation also limits the precision of our actions to the precision achieved with eye-hand-mouse coordination. Language and mathematics can be more precise ("Place the bottom of the triangle level with the middle of the circle") and more dynamic ("Maintain the height of this histogram bar at 37% of that of the bar to its left"). Finally, direct manipulation requires the user to be involved in every action, but sometimes the user may not know what to do....

   

• [Mar 23, 2000] Viewer for HTML and XML for DOS
• [Mar 03, 2000] Linux Today Linuxcare App of the Week xcruise

  "xcruise, an open source application for X licensed under the GNU GPL, gives you a graphical space flight through your filesystem. I am reviewing xcruise version 0.24."

  "As you fly through filespace, you will see galaxies, planets, and worm holes. Galaxies represent directories, planets represent files, and wormholes represent symlinks. Planet size is determined by the file size. Just look at /proc/kcore and you will probably see a huge planet..." Complete Story
  

• [Feb 20, 2000] The VFU Page non-orthodox one panel file manager by Vladi Belperchinov-Shabanski . Linux and FreeBSD ports are maintained.
• [Feb 20, 2000] Sunshine Commander DOS commander migrated to Unix. Still in alpha.
• [Feb 19, 2000]  Building GNOME on Solaris -- contains precompiled MC for Solaris as part pf GNOME project. You need glibc to be installed to make MC work.
• [Feb 9, 2000]  FILE MANAGEMENT FOR DOS   by Rich Green  -- short descriptions of several DOS file managers including (OFMs are listed in italics). The part of Free Software For DOS page. The following file managers are described:
  • DOS Controller (DC-SK)- Fast file manager for DOS, Norton Commander clone.
  • FW- (File Wizard) Feature-packed file manager with WIN9x support. File Wizard - freeware file manager for DOSWin9x
  • DOS Navigator- Excellent multi-window file manager- now freeware.
  • NDN- DOS Navigator file manager offshoot with Win9x LFN support, other enhancements.
    3c. DOS Navigator Open Source (DN OSP)- DOS Navigator file manager offshoot with Win9x
    LFN support, other enhancements.
  • UFO- Norton Commander style file manager; Win9x support.
  • HFM - Powerful file manager for DOS, with many features.
  • Directory Freedom- Comprehensive dir. utility/ file manager; Small, fast, configurable.
  • Connect - ("IBM Handshaker") Integrated shell with impressive NC style file manager.
  • File Maven- File manager with PC-to-PC file transfer capabilities.
  • Terminate Commander- Good file manager tuned for use with comm programs.
  • Pinco's Commander- Dual pane file manager with fast XMS copy, RAR archive support.
  • Tutordo- Good file manager/shell with mouse support.
  • PC Valet- Small file manager with built-in file viewer, hex editor, and more.
  • PMS (2)- Small program launcher/ file manager with built-in editor.
  • Tree86 Lite- Directory tree and file management utility.
  • DirMatch -  dual pane directory comparer that lists the contents of two directories side by side.
    
• [Feb 7, 2000] Larsen Commander An excellent GUI-based OFM for OS/2 -- Larsen Commander. Scandinavian countries are now a serious threat to former USSR region dominance in this area ;-). Very interesting and innovative solution for "console monitor". I feel that built-in commands popd and pushd that are trivial to implement should be added to command list of all DOS/Windows OFMs too. OS/2 users definitely need to check it out !

  Larsen Commander is a powerful GUI File Manager and Command Processor that has a look and feel like the classic Norton Commander. The most notable difference is that the Larsen Commander is pure GUI but still has a built in command line and a scrollable console monitor. You can find some interesting screen shots at this page, and you can download Larsen Commander version 1.0 for OS/2 here. If you experience any bugs or problems with the program then please let me know by sending a mail to: leifel@online.no

   Among most interesting features:

  • Filename completion (ala 4OS2) when pressing CTRL+TAB.
  • All commands are accessable by keyboard shortcuts and are customizable !
  • Built on optimized C++ library that ensures low memory usage and
    high speed.
  • Built in command line commands: ALIAS, CD, CLS, EXIT,
    FINDDUP, HELP, HIST, INFO, POPD, PUSHD, REP, SET,
    TAG, UNTAG, WHICH, +++
  • editable INI-file.
  • Snappy bubble help with dynamic keyboard shortcut mnemonics.
  • Preserves the Command and Directory History between sessions.
  • User customizable icon resources
  • Scrollable console monitor, with various search and navigation capabilities.
  • Built in GUI Console and Command Line with History.

   

• [Feb 7, 2000] An interesting review of several file managers in Battle of the File Managers - the quest for the perfect file managers starts HERE!  Suggested by Nguyen Nam Duy <ndnguyen@wanadoo.fr>
  • Windows Commander review
• [Feb 5, 2000] Tk Commander -- This one is written in Tcl/Tk, and is designed specifically for X-Windows use. The development was stopped at version 0.7.1
• [Jan 19, 2000] F file manager -- free file manager with two panels, but non-orthodox key mappings. Has some advanced features. It has been developed by Nam Duy Nguyen. Initially developed on OS/2, it was ported one year ago to Windows then 6 months ago to Linux. Suggested by Michel Normand <michel_n@club-internet.fr>
  
• [Jan 18, 2000]  New  version of X Northern Captain (4.2.1) was released