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2006: 20th Anniversary of Norton Commander 1.0 Release !!! |
Norton Commander for DOS is the original line of Orthodox file managers that exists in five major versions: 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and 5.0. Only the last one has an additional sub-version (nc 5.5). All versions are still used (mostly by DOS enthusiasts) and are often posted on the abandonware sites. It looks like some people still use the first version of Norton Commander twenty years after it was released. For example, Symantec site contains an FAQ article: Is Norton Commander Version 1.0 or 2.0 Supported Under Windows NT 5 (Beta)?. Also in October of 2005 I received the following email addressed to me as an editor of the OFM page at the Softpanorama website ( Orthodox File Managers: Home of the OFM standards):
Norton Commander 1.0 Hi, I'm still using Norton Commander version 1.00 (1986) in Windows 98SE, even in Windows 2000 Professional and Windows XP. I prefer it's small size and fast, and I can write with it small batch programs. Bye Alvaro Alonso From: Bogota, Colombia (South America)
It was probably one of the most popular file manager of the DOS era, which along with Xtree remains one of the few programs which managed to transcend their DOS roots and Norton Commander descendants (OFM managers) now exist on all popular OSes. The first version of NC (1.0) was designed and written and versions 2.0 and 3.0 were designed and partially written by John Socha in 1984-1989. We provide a short biographical notes about him later in this chapter.
Starting from version 2 Norton Commander got a cult following, somewhat comparable with the success of 123, WordPerfect and MS Word, especially in former USSR and Eastern Europe, where blue screen of Norton Commander became the synonym of DOS. Many users from this region never suspected that this was not a native DOS interface. In Russian the words "Norton" and "Commander" became part of PC jargon and are widely used as synonyms for file manager. Please refer to Chapter 1 for more exploration of this phenomenon.
Norton Commander was taught as a part of introductory computer classes in most Former USSR and Eastern European colleges and universities. That means that all graduates were more or less knowledgeable Norton Commander users and Norton Commander, in essence, served as standard interface for DOS. Many people never suspected that this was not the part of DOS but an additional utility. In DOS days it even affected hiring process: the mastery of Norton Commander was irrevocably linked with mastery of DOS in minds of many Eastern European IT hiring managers.
The initial version of Norton Commander was called VDOS and was written in a blend of C and assembler. As John Socha recollected the events (personal communication):
I started work on what became known as the Norton Commander in the fall of 1984 while I was still a graduate student in Applied Physics at Cornell University. The first versions were entirely in assembly language, but that was too time-consuming, so I soon switched to a blend of C and assembly language at a time when most "real programmers" wouldn't touch C.
At the time I called it Visual DOS, with the abbreviation of VDOS instead of the usual two-letter abbreviations used at the time. The program itself was inspired by several things coming together. I had a contract to write some books for Microsoft Press and actually spent some time in Bellevue, WA working on site. I'd take two months off from graduate school and write a book.
The second book was to be a book of small utility programs like I used to write for Softalk Magazine (such as whereis, scrnsave, etc.), but I never finished writing the book because one small utility took on a life of it's own.
John Socha received both MS and PhD in Applied Physics from Cornell University. After graduation from the university John became the first director of research and development for now defunct Peter Norton Computing. I think he actually was the second programmer in the company after Peter Norton hired Brad Kingsbury.
The company was founded by Peter Norton who was one of the pioneer entrepreneurs in commercial PC software development. He formed his company in 1982 with $30,000 and an IBM computer (the company was sold for 70 million to Symantec in 1990). In 1992 Smart Computing paper Investigating The Lost Files Of Peter Norton, PC Pioneer Gillian Coolidge wrote:
The story goes that Peter Norton worked in the aerospace industry back in the late 1970s, but he lost his job when Boeing, McDonnell Douglas and Lockheed all made severe cutbacks. To pay the bills, Norton took contract computer programming jobs.
One day, Norton accidentally deleted an important file, a common-enough error. Instead of re-entering all the information, however, he thought he'd write a computer program that would recover the lost data. (Some people are really motivated.) That program not only rescued the lost file, but its framework also eventually helped make Peter Norton very rich, and very famous.
Norton called his program the Norton Utilities...
This was in 1982, and Norton marketed the program (primarily on foot) through the one-man software publishing company he formed, Peter Norton Computing Inc. (PNCI). The next year, PNCI released the second version of Norton Utilities, which was actually made up of several smaller programs that rescued ``lost'' files and disk contents.
In 1984, PNCI reached $1 million in revenue, and version 3.0 of the Norton Utilities was released. At the time Peter Norton had three clerical people working for PNCI but he was doing all the software development plus book writing, manuals writing and running the business. The company was essentially a one-man show. Brad Kingsbury, who was the author of NCD -- a utility that was later integrated into Norton Commander as NCD mode recollects those early days in the following way:
I joined Peter Norton Computing in 1985, as the company’s first programmer. My previous employer had just closed its doors, so I had sent my resume to a few companies in the area. Peter responded, flew me to Seattle where he was vacationing for the summer, and hired me on the spot. Because Peter was still on vacation, I worked out of a hotel in Seattle for my first two weeks on the job. After that, I spent another six months working from the Nortons’ kitchen table. When Eileen, Peter’s wife, started cooking dinner, I knew it was time to call it a day and head home.
... My job responsibility was to develop the software, and that's what I did. I just developed the programs, and that was pretty much the last day Peter programmed.The PNCI staff was up to five now. Peter did his writing, managing and marketing from the den of his home. The three clerical people worked upstairs...
Peter Norton has always been a laid-back person. His whole philosophy, and I've heard him quote this many times, was, `We're going to do this business stuff while it's fun.' So that was our primary focus that first it has to be fun, and second it has to make money.``I never knew what would happen if we didn't make any money and it was still fun. It probably wouldn't have been too fun at that point, especially for Peter,'' says Kingsbury. ``But he wasn't out to create the next greatest generation of software, he wasn't out to make a whole lot of money. It was really to have fun and he enjoyed the flexibility of not having to work under someone else.''
PNCI reached $5 million in revenues in 1986. It published several other software packages but, according to Kingsbury, the Norton Utilities was still PNCI's cash cow. Utility software was gaining wider acceptance in the microcomputer industry as users realized the advantages of data recovery.
Peter Norton essentially created a new class of software for PCs: "data recovery" software, the very profitable class of commercial software that soon will attract many competitors (with PC Tools as the most prominent). Peter Norton quickly realized that he tapped gold mine and he made a commitment to build the business. And that's one of the reasons why he hired Kingsbury and Socha.
PNCI published several and more capable with each iteration versions of Norton Utilities for almost a decade of its existence. Peter Norton was also a gifted writer and along with columns and that was important part of PR for the company. He also wrote several books. He and John Socha co-authored influential book on assembler language programming. BTW the famous quote "Assembly language programming is an extravagant waste of human talent and should be avoided whenever possible" is from 1986 edition :-)
The initial versions of Peter Norton FAT file undelete utility was the core component in a popular DOS package "Norton Utilities". It allowed files to be restored it the clusters they occupied were not yet overwritten. In FAT to restore the file it was enough to restore the first letter of the directory entry (a feature of the FAT file system used in MS-DOS, albeit one that was not originally documented). Following the initial release Peter Norton was made Utilities Editor of PC Magazine. The package quickly grow and in the second version (version 4, 1986) contained approximately two dozens of utilities (Brad Kingsbury participated in writing of this version as he was hired in 1985, see below and made several original contributions like ndd).
Among the utilities that were included in NU 4.0 package:
Later several other extremely successful program were added:
Here is how Peter Norton was viewer in 1987 by Washington Post article Lost and Found;A Program to Recover `Erased' Data - The Washington Post - HighBeam Research
If they think of Peter Norton at all, most owners of personal computers probably think of him as "the disk man," or perhaps as the finder of lost files. This is not completely fair; Norton has spread enlightenment on other aspects of computing hardware and programming. But only a small fraction of those who use a PC every day ever feel a need for his "Programmer's Guide" or his "Assembly Language Book"-though, should such a need arise, they might be inclined to turn first to Norton.
Peter Norton also invented "personalization" idea of software products marketing: usage of the same photo model for the line of products (the idea which survived acquisition of the company by Symantec and still used in the Norton line of products). Now he is known mainly due to his role as a photo model on the boxes of Norton Utilities and other Symantec products belonging to a "Norton line" (until 2002 I think), but in old days his company was a very innovative company that like Borland, Lotus and several other "DOS software start-ups.
Among their products were famous Norton Guides, one of the first successful pre-HTML hypertext implementation for DOS. Later versions of Norton commander (starting from version 3.0 used this format for help). I think more then a dozen were produced and later guides in this format continued to appear despite the fact that the product was abandoned after acquisition of Norton Computing by Symantec. The total number of books that were converted to NG format is probably in hundreds. Among the original Norton Guides were:
John Socha is also the man who coined the term screen saver and probably created the first one. Actually a rudimentary screen saver (night sky with stars) was the second the most distinctive feature of Norton Commander 3.0 along with famous two panel blue screen. This is the screen saver that many Eastern European would call a classic DOS screensaver; many associated it not with Norton Commander but with DOS. In 2001 Joe Forster wrote Starry Night (2001-05-08), resident screen saver that accurately reproduces the classic Norton Commander screen saver. You can download and try it.
The initial years of Norton commander development (1984-1988) were years of triumphant ascent of MS-DOS as the most widely used operating system on the planet, which rapidly replaced CP/M starting from late 1983. And rising tide lifts all boats: many programming products created for DOS became dominant in their class and even served as de-facto standards for porting to other OSes. And that was not limited to spreadsheets, word processors and computer games. Utilities were also a fast growing field. Crazy, high stress and high pressure atmosphere of the first commercial software start-ups is now semi-forgotten. But it was the first commercial software "gold rush" which later in a slightly different manner it was replayed during dot-com bubble.
The larger then life figures of superheroes of this DOS revolution and subsequent "gold rush" rivals the best of science fiction. Now such intense atmosphere can probably be found only in game companies. They did not invent any major new software but they had the unique blend of the ability to do high-quality programming, along with the ability to market the product and gradually make it better so that it becomes a successful, profitable business. The most successful of them possessed the unique blend of the qualities of an software developer plus a drive of a construction foreman, and a deep understanding of the market typical for a stock broker.
Personal computers for sale in the late 70's just before DOS did not come with anything other than a very rudimentary software. IBM mainframe software was very expensive and time of those computer time was sold per hour (say, $70 per hour). That situation changed forever with the launch of DOS. Personal computer and associated DOS software represented a revolt against the establishment and the first DOS software entrepreneurs in this sense were revolutionaries that destroyed old order. You can read more about this period in the book Hard Drive Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace and Jim Erickson published in 1993 when the memory about this period still did not dissipate irrevocably.
All early players in this new industry were hands-on Swiss-knife type of personalities able to work extremely long hours and simultaneously be a good technical leaders/technical architects as well as programmers. So it does not surprise me that John Socha later organized several successful start-ups. As one famous athlete once said, "the harder I practice, the luckier I get" and that is applicable to the successful software entrepreneurs of this period. Those start-ups hired the brightest programmers with demonstrated practical abilities who were also expected to work crushingly long hours, and work as a team. Those who were winning did it because they were better and smarter and were selling to customers superior products at cheaper prices. Most of those early DOS software entrepreneurs would be as successful in other industries, they just happened to be right time at the right place and managed to push "hard core" business-before-pleasant envelope to the limit to survive, outsmart competitors and prosper. Peter Norton investment of less then $10,000 in 1982 turned into 70 millions profit when he sold the company in 1991. In comparison Microsoft, the largest company in this industry, in 1985 (just prior to its IPO) had revenues 140 million, a pre-tax profit margin of approximately 34%, no long-term debt, and cash reserves of 38 million.
It is interesting to note the initially Norton Commander has had a strong competitor, the competitor who beat them to the finish line in version 1.0 and which topped the reviewers charts for another five years. Here is how Jeff Johnson recollected the events that led to launch of Xtree in April 1985 ( Xtree actually was launched a year before Norton Commander):
A couple of months later we had hundreds of floppy disks and several hard disks cram-packed with files and no idea where anything was. We had no way to manage all the files - and there hangs the tale.
You see nobody had a way of managing files. At least not any reasonably easy way. There just weren't any utilities to do it. There was a utility for CP/M written by a friend of ours, Mike Karas, that we had been using, and some command-line-oriented programs, but none of them addressed the concept of managing a directory structure. You know, paths and stuff like that.
Which made us all say, "Hmmmm?"
So we thought about it. We talked about it. We shouted over it. We threatened one another with ancient Klingon curses. In other words, we sat down like adults and reasoned the thing out.
We discussed different kinds of tree structures, recursive processing, and other technical stuff. Drawings and diagrams came and went like the kitchen trash.
Among the subjects discussed were how the program would represent the DOS directory structure on-screen, and what the screen might look like. I drew a picture of this outline on a white board. It looked like a tree that needed water. It was a swell picture but no one thought it could be done. Impossible, they said.
Famous last words.
I went home on a Friday, programmed like mad until Sunday, and showed it to Henry on Monday. A week later we decided to try out the tree display in a backup program we were writing for Epson. They liked it. And we had the beginnings of a product.
In December of 1984, we began really working on what you now know as XTree. Our feature list was huge, and a lot of these features didn't make it into the original version of XTree but were added later in XTreePro and XTreePro Gold. I was working full time on the program, Ken worked on it between other tasks, and everyone else chipped in as needed. When enough of the program was written so it could be used, we used it ourselves. We felt that if other people were going to rely on the program, it had to be rock solid for everyday use, easy to learn, and a cinch to operate.
If it's not yet obvious, I don't want you to think that I'm some kind of mad genius and created XTree all by myself. Far from it. Whenever you're trying to do something that's never been done before, lots of people are involved.
That's the way it was with XTree. Dale made sure it had plenty of whiz-bang features. Henry made sure we didn't write any bad code. Tom made sure the user interface was consistent. (His unrelenting efforts to maintain consistency in the interface really weren't appreciated until the hundreds of reviews and millions of users began expressing their pleasure at how easy XTree is to use. Of course, back then, every time we thought XTree was ready, Tom had just one more small revision. Right.) Finally, there was Ken, bug catcher supreme.
All that was left was a name.
Arletta, my wife, gets credit for that one. We had been throwing names around the office for months and no one could agree on anything. One night, late at night, very late at night, she suggested, "XTree." You know, like "X-Tree, X-Tree read all about it!"
Pretty stupid, I thought, but jotted it down.
When I mentioned it to everyone at the office the next day, they said, "Pretty stupid," and before you knew it we had a name - XTree.
Okay, we've got a name, we've got a program, we've also got a problem; how do we get it into the stores so people like you can buy it and we can make ba-zillions of dollars? At the time, we had two choices: We could either publish it ourselves or find someone who knew more about software publishing than we did - and in early 1985 there weren't a lot of people to choose from.
On March 1, 1985, we made the decision to publish XTree ourselves. Which is when Dale took charge and in a moment of sheer insanity vowed to have XTree ready to sell at the West Coast Computer Faire in San Francisco on April 1, 1985. Dale promised to have XTree packaged; the manual completed, written, and printed; and all the hundreds other details required to bring a product to market...ready in 30 days. As this was a seemingly impossible task, we thought April Fools' Day was an appropriate choice for our premiere.
What we didn't know was Dale had an ace up his sleeve... Michael Cahlin, president of Cahlin/Williams Communications.
In the next four weeks, Cahlin had the product packaged; the cover designed and printed, press materials created and syndicated columnists; the first XTree brochure, XTree Read All About It, written, produced, and printed; and along with Dale Sinor and Judy Mason, had XTree's booth at the West Coast Computer Faire set up. (Rumor has it that when Cahlin hired Bob Cabeen to actually design the first XTree package, he gave Bob only seven days to create it. When Bob protested, Cahlin is alleged to have said, "Look, Bob, God created the universe in six days - all I want is a package design." When Bob came through in five days, the rumor continues, he replied, "Show that to God!")
Of course, Dale had his own miracles to perform. Two days before the show, he went to the typesetters to pick up the final proofs for the manual and discovered the typesetter had been evicted and was ducking everyone. Dale finally tracked him down, but the guy would only exchange the proofs for cash - something we weren't exactly knee-deep in. While the countdown to the West Coast Computer Faire continued, Dale found the cash, got the proofs, rushed them to the printer, then to the bindery, and waited for them, refusing to let them out of his sight. He left Los Angeles at 1:30am. Four hours later, he pulled into Moscone Center in San Francisco, carried the boxes of manuals, software cases, cover inserts, and brochures inside, and calmly began assembling the booth. The show opened at 9:00am.
And so it goes.
It's ironic that the original XTree was officially introduced on April 1, 1985. The West Coast Computer Faire, at the time, was one of the most popular computer shows in the country. I hate to sound like your father, but this was back in the old days when computer shows were a far cry from the slick conventions you see today. These were end-user shows, and there were so many silicon-type bargains at these shows that they made the 24 bucks the Indians sold Manhattan for seem a bit high.
We sold XTree version 1.0 for only $39.95 at that show, and we were literally selling it from the front of the booth while frantically putting the software packages together in the back! (And now they're a bonafide collectors item.) We shared a ten-by-ten booth with a small software publisher, who, as fate would have it, almost published the original XTree. The president's name was Pete Ryan, and knowing a good thing when he saw one, he became XTree's product manager six months later and eventually worked his way up to marketing vice president and chief wheeler-dealer.
Within weeks after the show, XTree was in the hands of John Dvorak, Jerry Pournelle, and all those other demigods of hi-tech who decide the fate of products. Dvorak, et al., loved the product, and positive reviews appeared one after another. Near as I can figure, XTree was quite simply the right product, at the right price, at the right time: inexpensive software that solved a common problem and was easy to use. A rare beast in those days, or any days. In November 1985, PC Magazine gave XTree their prestigious Editors Choice Award. (XTreePro, released in 1987, received the same award, as did XTreePro Gold in 1990.) Other reviews and awards followed, and following them were orders from distributors and retailers. ...And the rest is software history.
Due to tremendous popularity in the USSR Norton Commander also has some cultural influences. First of all the word "Norton" became almost synonym to orthodox file manager in Russian language. It also generated an elaborate series of computer humor stories like the story of conflict between Norton Commander and Digger (an addictive DOS game):
"You eat too long and way too much private Digger ! ... "
the Norton Commander speech to the DOS faithful in the face of growing number of Windows defectors (imitates arcane style of Politburo's announcements ("false values", "our enemies"))
"Comrades, we should reject false values which are instilled by our enemies ! The fact that a Windows GUI user is happier than a command line user is similar to the fact than a drunken man is happier than a sober one..."
and about the incompatibility of Norton Commander and alcohol (which is probably the best one of the series):
A drunk programmer is sitting behind the computer with Norton Commander on the screen. Both left and right panel displays the content of disk C:. "Why do I need two disks C: with exactly the same files?" thinks the drunk, it's only waste of disk space. Then he selects all the files and directories on the active panel and clicks F8.
Here is the actual entry from one of the freshman quizzes submitted to me on the first lab for the "Introduction to computing " course in Kiev University of Commerce and Economics (which at this point replaced Norton Commander with Volkov Commander as a standard shell in all computer labs in 1992-1994):
Q: What is the name of OS in which you performed the assignment?
A: Volkov Commander.
It is interesting to note the Emperor Norton I was a real, Don Quixote-like figure of the US history (ca. 1815 – January 8, 1880). Joshua Norton was a businessman in San Francisco who the 1840's, just before the Gold Rush, tried to corner the market on rice and failed. He went from being wealthy to being broke overnight and the experience influenced his mental stability. A couple of months after this event, he put on a formal admiral's uniform, complete with gold braid and epaulets and strode in to the office of the newspaper. He handed the editor a large, official looking proclamation which stated in quite formal language that, due to popular demand, he hereby declared himself Emperor Norton I of San Francisco, California, and Mexico. He bade all his subjects show him loyalty and the other courtesies due a person of such eminent stature. As Wikipedia noted:
Though he was generally considered insane, or at least highly eccentric, the citizens of San Francisco (and the world at large) in the mid-to-late 19th century celebrated his presence, his humor, and his deeds—among the most notorious being his "order" that the U.S. Congress be dissolved by force, and his numerous decrees calling for a bridge to be built across San Francisco Bay. The King in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is reportedly modeled after him.
He is considered a saint by the followers of Discordianism and is referenced repeatedly in the seminal work of the religion, the Principia Discordia. I think that he can be considered as a saint in OFM religion too :-).
The history of development of Norton Commander spans approximately 15 years: from 1984 till 1999. The first release was in May of 1986. At least 13 versions of Norton Commander were commercially released (not counting localized versions; with them it would be almost 30). Here is the approximate chronology (please help me to correct the missing versions and/or wrong dates):
| Version | Year | |
| 1 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 1.00 | 1986 |
| 2 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 2.00 | 1988 |
| 3 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 3.00 | 1989 |
| 4 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 4.00 | 1992 |
| 5 | Norton Commander for OS/2 v. 1.00 | 1993 |
| 6 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 5.00 | 1993 |
| 7 | Norton Commander for Windows 95/NT v. 1.00 | 1996 |
| 8 | Norton Commander for Windows 95/NT v. 1.01 | 1997 |
| 9 | Norton Commander for Windows 98/NT v. 1.02 | 1998 |
| 10 | Norton Commander for Windows 98/NT/2000 v. 2.00 | 1998 |
| 11 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 5.50 | 1998 |
| 12 | Norton Commander for DOS v. 5.51 | 1999 |
| 13 | Norton Commander for Windows 9x/NT/2000 v. 2.01 | 1999 |
Due to historical importance of each we will discuss each version in the order they were released. Please note that two Windows versions (Norton Commander for Windows 95/NT v. 1.0x and 2.0x) are discussed in a different chapter.
MS DOS 3.1/3.2 were released in 1985 and opened the golden age of DOS programming. It was during this time the most interesting and lasting DOS utilities were created.
Among many talented software authors who were determined to dig this Eldorado
of personal PCs was former physicist John Socha, who continued work of his VDOS
program after joining the company created by Peter Norton. As I already mentioned
after graduation from the university John become
the first director
of research and development for Peter Norton Computing a pretty funny title for
company which consisted of just three programmers.
In May 1986 he released the product under the name of Norton Commander (NC
1.0). It was probably the second commercial product from the company -- the
first was Norton Utilities which introduced among other things concept of file recovery
in DOS. A box with NC 1.0 included:
A floppy. Manual © 1986, 120 pages. Includes handwritten note from Peter Norton Computing with replacement page 118 and apology. Registration postcard with $.14 stamp. Order form. Keyboard Reference Card for PC XT keyboard (with ten function keys, F1-F10).
In this version there is no upper menu, no hypertext help file, but all major file operations are present. At the bottom of the screen you can see traditional set of operations that we got used to. There is also a possibility to hide left or panels (or both). It is interesting that there is no "classic" full-screen mode that we used to: only half-screen mode was implemented. The program is still operational in Windows XP. What is interesting is that from version 1.0 NC was able to use mouse and mouse still works on XP. Look and feel of the panels are close to "classic" view with blue underground and white letters that eventually became the trademark of this file manager.
Here is the screenshot (please note half-screen mode) and some output from shell commands visible at the lower part of the screen:
Both nc.mnu and nc.ext files that give OFM so much power and flexibility are also present in this first commercial version of the product. Unfortunately I do not have the full distribution of the first version. It would be interesting to see the contents. Here the listing of the most complete version that I have:
07/06/1986 08:27 AM 1,627 CURSOR.TBL
06/18/1986 03:37 PM 28 DIRINFO
05/15/1986 01:00 PM 65,840 NC.EXE
05/15/1986 01:00 PM 149 NC.EXT
11/23/2007 10:36 PM 725 NC.MNU
05/15/1986 01:00 PM 11,468 NCSMALL.EXE
06/27/1985 05:23 PM 60 NPROMPT.BAT
8 File(s) 79,897 bytes
Working distribution of version 1.0 needed just three files: one 66K executable nc.exe (ncsmall.exe was just a swapper for nc.exe) and two optional files: nc.ext that contains extensions mappings table and (optional) nc.mnu with the collection of scripts/program invocation strings with one letter hotkeys (I am not sure that I have the original version of this file). File nc.ini that often can be found in old versions of NC archives does not belongs to the distribution: it is an initialization files that was created the first time the program run and updated after that on each exit.
It is important to note that that idea of user menu and extension menu (user-definable file associations) was present in this version of NC as at this time this was pretty novel idea. Here is the content of the original version of NC.EXT distributed with NC 1.0. Please note the presence of macro variables ! and !.! (name of the current file without extension and name of the current file with the extension, respectively):
doc: word ! bak: word !.! wks: \ver1a\123 wk?: \ver2_0\123 xtk: !:xtalk ! dbf: !\dbase ! : type ! asm: pe !.! *: rem no run file for this extension
The menu file (supposedly original) that I have contained the following:
D: Run this item by pressing the D key dir /w F1: Volume label and directory Vol dir Check free disk space chkdsk ' This is a comment. Any line that starts with a single quote ' is a comment line, and is ignored by the Commander.
In a way Norton Commander was approximately 10 years ahead of its time as those ideas got into mainstream only in late 90th with the Windows 95.
As I mentioned before there was no upper menu. Instead pressing F9 produced a setup screen that has most of the functionality:
Norton Commander 1.0 instantly got a traction and later became a dominant file manager for DOS (see for example:
It's dominance
continued until the end of DOS era.
In 1987-1991
more then a million copies were sold.
Most of the features that are typical for Orthodox Managers as a class were already
present in this version. For example all F-keys assignments were present (F1-F10).
There is also a rudimentary viewer and built-in editor. Help is just one screen
reference to hotkeys. BTW it contains the famous phrase "Norton Commander was created
independently by John Socha" at the top. As of time of writing of the book NC 1.0
is still working in DOS emulation mode in Windows and remains a useful tiny utility.
Among things that were still missing was top menu and related sub-menus ("Left"
"Files" Commands" "Options" "Right") and NCD-tree (Alt-F10) option.
The program was instantly noticed by computer press, although at the time Xtree was the top choice of the reviewers. See for example:
As we can see in 1987 the field was already pretty crowded with almost a dozen major players: 1Dir Plus, Direc-Tree, Pathminder, Keep Track Plus, Snap, Norton Commander, Qdos II, and Xtree.
Version 2 of Norton Commander was released in 1988, approximately two years after the first version. It preserved now classic look & feel of the first version but significantly enhanced functionality and benefited from synergy with the development on Norton Utilities and first of all from code of NCD (Norton Change Directory) written by Brad Kingsbury for Norton Utilities 4.0 which was released in 1987. Among the major enhancements we can mention:
A built-in directory tree view was a very interesting and useful enhancement. It introduced the concept of NCD view and treeinfo.ncd disk directory structure caches. The concept was probably borrowed from the NCD.EXE (Norton Change Directory) which was one of best components of Norton Utilities suit of programs (along with famous file unerase utility). Norton Change Directory was designed and written by Brad Kingsbury. It permits quick and very convenient navigation on the directory tree by using pseudo-graphical representation of the tree similar to one used in windows File Explorer and introduced a quick search command on this representation when by typing the first letters of the directory you get to the first directory with this prefix; Ctrl-Enter gets you to the next. The results of NCD operation were stored in a separate file in the root directory of each drive (files treeinfo.ncd ) which saved time for rescanning. The files were kept in sync with the directory content if file operations were performed via Norton Commander so total rescans were needed rarely. This elegant solution used to work reasonably fast even on floppy drives.
The size of main executable almost doubled in this version and as a result EXE format was used instead of COM. The main file had size 98K (uncompressed) and that reflected dramatic growth in functionality and complexity of interface. In many respects this is a Norton Commander as we know it. Please note that swapper was renamed to NCS.EXE; like version 1.0 NC2 can be used in old way without swapper as well by just executing nc.exe). In case of NC2 I do have a copy the original distribution which was a single 360K floppy disk (thanks to Michael Cronsten ) :
Volume in drive A is NC 2.01
Volume Serial Number is FA00-0000
Directory of a:\
1988-09-16 14:01 2804 NCSMALL.EXE
1988-09-16 14:01 98362 NC.EXE
1988-09-16 14:01 31192 123VIEW.EXE
1988-09-16 14:01 38614 DBVIEW.EXE
1988-09-16 14:01 577 READ.ME
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> DEMO
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> SAMPLES
5 File(s) 171549 bytes
Directory of a:\DEMO
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> .
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> ..
1988-09-16 14:01 59250 NG-DEMO.EXE
1988-09-16 14:01 50703 _FILE_0.DBD
2 File(s) 109953 bytes
Directory of a:\SAMPLES
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> .
1988-09-16 14:01 <DIR> ..
1988-09-16 14:01 1390 NC.EXT
1988-09-16 14:01 1051 NC.MNU
1988-09-16 14:01 6321 REALLIST.WK1
1988-09-16 14:01 3826 REALLIST.DBF
4 File(s) 12588 bytes
Total Files Listed:
11 File(s) 294090 bytes
6 Dir(s) 60416 bytes free
Format of the nc.ext file did not changed. The macros supported were:
The original nc.ext from SAMPLES directory contained:
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------' ' This is a sample NC.EXT file, which you can customize for your own ' ' date files. ' ' ' ' Point & Shoot refers to what happens when you move the cursor bar to ' ' a file name and press thekey (or double-click with the ' ' mouse). You can set up the Commander, using this file, to start ' ' a program and load the file under the cursor bar. ' ' ' ' The apostrophe is used to add remarks (like this). The Norton ' ' Commander will ignore lines that start with an apostrophe. ' ' ' ' Below are some typical examples of Point & Shoot. ' ' ' ' Note: if two extensions appear more than once (such as 'doc' in this ' ' file) the first one will be used. ' ' ' ' You can have up to 25 extensions defined in this file. ' '-----------------------------------------------------------------------' ' 'dBase III -- program files ' prg: dbase ! ' 'Word Perfect ' doc: C:\WP\WP !.! ' 'Microsoft Word ' doc: C:\WORD\WORD !.! ' 'Norton Editor to load C source files ' c: ne + !.! ' 'Norton Editor to load Assembly source files ' asm: ne + !.! ' 'Delete all Norton Editor backup files in the current directory ' ~??: del *.~?? ' 'Delete all the *.BAK files in the current directory ' bak: del *.bak
Here is another example of nc.ext file, which demonstrates the customarizations users made ( it has interesting use of macros):
doc: list !.! txt: list !.! hlp: list !.! mon: list !.! wks: \ver1a\123 wk?: \ver2_0\123 xtk: !:xtalk ! dbf: !\dbase ! : type ! *: rem no run file for this extension
Please note that line before next provided an opportunity to read files without extensions like README.
Menu file at the SAMPLES directory of the original distribution contained:
'-----------------------------------------------------------------------' ' This is an Example Menu file. Modify it for you own needs. ' ' ' ' To create a blank line, hold down thekey and type 255 on the ' ' numeric keypad, then let go of the key and press . ' '-----------------------------------------------------------------------' F1: Microsoft Word c: cd \word\document word cd \ F2: Word Perfect c: cd \wp wp cd \ ' ' The following line starts with an ASCII 255 character. This will appear ' as a blank line in the menu. ' D: dBase III c: cd \dbase dbase cd \ L: Lotus 123 c: cd \123 123 cd \ N: Norton Utilities \norton\ni P: Park Heads to shut down Computer park
Help still remains just one page screen with the listing of major hot keys. Also the string at the top "Norton Commander was created independently by John Socha" is preserved). But in all other respects version 2 is very close to implementing all the major features of OFM file manager.
That was the version with which I got acquainted with Norton Commander. It was widely used on first Russian clones of IBM PC: EC1840, Iskra and Robotron . They have just two 5.25 floppy drives and no hard drive (Robotron has 5M harddrive). The monitor was black and white.
I used it for creating the first issues of Softpanorama bulletin, one floppy electronic bulleting that I published from 1989 till 1994 (approximately the same time span as official versions of Norton Commanders ;-). Actually I switched to Norton Commander from Xtree, which I used for about a year. Old issues contain a lot of interesting historical information and some adds-on to Norton commander. They are available from this site for free download (texts are in Russian, but most programs use English).
NC 2.0 got rave review. In his influential InfoWorld review John Walkenbach called it "near perfect", (Walkenbach J. Norton Commander Version 2.0: Near-perfect DOS shell emerges as market's best. (software review) InfoWorld, September 12, 1988, 63-65.).
It was often used as a launch pad for Norton Utilities, a best-selling package of disk and file tools which was similar to classic Unix utilities (find -- FF.exe, fa -- file attributes, etc): it was relatively easy to add all the necessary programs to the user menu. Also Norton Editor was better then the internal editor in NC 2.0 it was often used as the external editor. BTW Norton Utilities 4.5 which included famous Norton Disk Doctor (NDD) were released the same year (1988). It was shipped with demo version of Norton Commander.
Symantec never released those independently written by John Socha versions in public domain.
In 1991 one of the participants of Softpanorama seminar, Leonid Obuhov (Kiev State University), disassembled NC 2.0 and reconstructed library of functions that John Socha used. His research was published in Softpanorama, Vol 4, No.1 (Jan. 1996).
Also Dmitry Gurtyak independently created a much faster than in original NCD algorithm of creating directory catalogs (files treeinfo.ncd ). The source of his Pascal program sdir is available from this site.
The last version written mostly by John Socha was version 3 (NC 3.0). It proved to be remarkably reliable. As John Socha recollected in 2006:
"... The Norton Commander 3.0, the last version I wrote, survived for two years without a single maintenance release. "
NC3.0 probably represents the peak of the popularity of the Norton Commander line, the swan song of the old NC team. It was released in 1989, one year before the company was sold to Symantec and John Socha left the company. Brad Kingsbury stayed for another 6 years as Chief Technologist and after some years at McAfee and Brightmail re-jointed Symantec in 2004 as a vice president. As I mentioned before, Peter Norton sold the company to Symantec for $70 million in 1990. Initially the merger is hugely successful: Peter Norton products sales increased dramatically and Symantec posted record yearly revenues. By 1992 Symantec became known primarily as a utility company, thanks to the increased success of Peter Norton products. But they proved to be not ready to the changes introduced by Microsoft in 1995 with Windows 95 and lost a part their market, including market for Norton Commander. But we will talk about this later.
Version 3.0 was a really impressive improvement over the version 2 and it extended the functionality of NC2 in many non-trivial ways. Due to the size of main module (ncmain.exe became 139K) swapping commander out of memory became standard mode of operation for users.
Version 3.0 introduced many features which soon became a trademark of all OFM managers. Among them:
The total product distribution still fits on a single 1.44M floppy. The archive that I have contained 40 files but some like arcview.exe were added later (see below). The list below represent a customized version that was typically used instead of standard:
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,464 123VIEW.EXE
05/28/1992 04:22 PM 4,096 ARCVIEW.CFG
11/21/1992 01:54 AM 30,048 ARCVIEW.EXE
01/12/1995 02:55 PM 465 ARCVIEW.EXT
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 342 CHKMAIL.BAT
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 61,026 DBVIEW.EXE
10/19/1993 09:25 PM 10,946 HAVIEW.EXE
01/17/1992 12:01 PM 9,955 ICONVIEW.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 1,312 INREAD.ME
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 52,538 INSTALL.EXE
12/11/1991 08:50 PM 8,094 LIBVIEW.EXE
11/27/1991 12:32 PM 13 MCI.ATT
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 103,396 MCI.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 27,050 MCI.HLP
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 71,272 MCIDRIVR.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 3,104 NC.EXE
03/20/1995 10:03 PM 430 NC.EXT
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 45,727 NC.HLP
04/09/1995 08:31 PM 476 NC.INI
10/03/2002 12:43 PM 82 NC.MNU
10/17/1991 02:56 PM 139,280 NCMAIN.EXE
04/06/1991 01:58 AM 37,216 NCOLOUR.EXE
07/15/1988 02:00 PM 2,816 NCSMALL.EXE
05/30/1991 04:49 PM 524 NCVIEW.EXE
03/20/1995 09:56 PM 379 NCVIEW.EXT
01/29/1990 01:12 PM 32,384 NE.COM
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 62,596 PARAVIEW.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 46,094 PCXVIEW.EXE
04/27/1993 11:55 AM 51,226 PVIEW.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 67,966 RBVIEW.EXE
11/11/1991 10:20 AM 974 READ.ME
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 63,492 REFVIEW.EXE
10/16/1988 04:50 PM 79,079 RTDEMO2.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 4,480 SER-TEST.EXE
10/23/1989 03:00 PM 9,564 SERIAL.TXT
06/08/1991 02:09 PM 13,161 UBL_VIEW.EXE
01/04/1991 02:07 PM 48,272 WPVIEW.EXE
12/31/1991 06:38 PM 31,273 ZIPVIEW.EXE
41 File(s) 1,366,006 bytes
Due to larger size in Eastern Europe the all executables of NC 3.0 were usually packed with diet.exe or similar compression utility to save space (see below discussion of packing of executables in NC. 4.0). Here is the info about efficiency of different utilities for packing executables translated from Norton Commander 3.0 - Test of executable compressors
|
nc.exe should not be packed |
|||||
The idea of viewers have led to the first attempts to extend NC. Many programmers independently started to add various viewers and even fix problems in existing viewers with some binary patches. The most common trick was to replace the rarely used 123 spreadsheets viewer (123VIEW.EXE) with something more useful, usually Zip archive viewer and change the extension it was associated with using a binary patch. That's way the first archive viewers for OFMs were created. The last time I checked some of them were still available from file archives on the Internet:
ncpatch.zip 1773 03-04-92 -=FREE=- From Russia. Patch for Norton Commander v3.0. ncpatchz.zip 1622 06-21-92 Patch Norton Commander 3.0 to view ZIP files.
Due to its capabilities and very high quality of programming version 3.0 was a huge success and it dominated the field of DOS file managers probably until 1993. Only after Volkov Commander was released (Volkov Commander was first published in the Softpanorama Bulletin in the December 1992) its popularity started to fade, as VC was more powerful and more compact program, the real masterpiece of assembler language programming. We will discuss it later in the chapter.
Among the most successful Norton Commander early plug-ins I would like to mention Hiew (short for Hacker's view) is a popular console hex viewer, editor and disassember written by Eugene Suslikov. Most of early versions were published in and distributed by Softpanorama bulletin. The program is particularly useful for binary patching. Later it became a useful tool for analyzing early computer viruses.
After 1992 due to creation of more powerful clones and growth of popularity of other types of file managers like Xtree Gold, the popularity of Norton Commander stated to fade.
The other reason was that after acquisition Symantec lost some developers (including John Socha) and failed to produce a new version within a reasonable interval (let's assume that the reasonable internal in this case was approximately two years ). That means that competitors received unique capability to imitate and extend the Norton Commander capabilities in their products.
Actually Symantec served as the graveyard for many interesting DOS programs besides Norton Commander. With the growing popularity of Windows it killed all major DOS projects without understanding their potential in a new environment or their potential value in Unix market. Among other interesting products killed were XTree, PC utilities and Norton Utilities (in the latter case only the name survived, but content did not: since 2001 Norton Utilities for Windows were just a pale shadow of its former self)
Here is one review from this now ancient period taken from issue 1777 of New Scientist magazine, 13 July 1991, page 52:
Most users of personal computers will have heard of Peter Norton. He was the man who cooked up a set of programs, known as the Utilities. Anyone who has inadvertently deleted a life's work of text or data from a hard disc will think immediately of suicide: for them Norton's Utilities are a life-saver as they can retrieve that precious lost data. They also make the horrid MS-DOS operating system, which IBM to its everlasting shame chose for the personal computer, go at least some of the way towards accommodating the real needs of real people. ('Forgiveness is all', New Scientist, 14 October 1989).
Norton's company in Santa Monica went on to produce related program packages that humanise DOS even further. Norton Commander helps personal computer users to bring order to the muddle of files that will always accumulate on a hard disc. It lists and sorts the files that are there, giving a quick view of the contents before deletion. Norton Backup helps users to make safety copies of selected files, and checks that the copies are indeed safe.
... ... ...
The latest version of Utilities has a 'trashcan' - a hidden store that holds files intact for a week after they have been deleted. If in that time you change your mind and want to save a file, it can easily be retrieved. After that Utilities can only do its best to retrieve whatever is left of a deleted file after the personal computer has written new data over the disc space previously allocated to it.
The Utilities even make formatting a disc safe. They impose a Safe Format routine on the personal computer instead of the steamroller Format program that comes with MS-DOS. To test it I saved a large file onto a floppy disc and reformatted it using Safe Format. The file then disappeared. I used Norton's Unformat and it reappeared. Utilities also has an improved facility to search large discs for text lost in forgotten files.
Norton programs are easy to install. The computer copies them from the master floppy disc (Norton supplies both standard sizes), prompting the user from the screen. But here I found some irritating faults. I do hope this does not mean that the rapid growth of Peter Norton Computing Inc and its recent merger with the software publisher Symantec has made Norton's ever-expanding team of programmers careless.
Backup is more awkward to install than the rest as its myriads of options flash past. It performs a useful test backup routine, but perplexingly leaves the disc drive light on while asking for discs to be swapped. Personal computer users are always warned not to swap discs while the light is on.
The new Commander seems not to recognise the existence of any previous version already installed. This might cause problems. Confusingly it then throws up a red error message about a menu file that is missing only because it has not yet been created. Also it seems to insist on using a mouse if one is attached to the personal computer for other purposes, even if the operator would rather key in commands. The mouse puts a red cursor slap in the middle of the screen, until the operator moves the mouse to move the cursor.
The installations for all the programs automatically modify the personal computer's set-up files (Autoexec. Bat and Config. Sys) but Backup erroneously added its path instruction twice when installed over a previous version.
The new Utilities uses an instruction called Image to save a snapshot of the disc's contents in case it is accidentally reformatted. The old version used a similar instruction called FR/Save. When someone who is using the old version buys the new one and installs it, the new Utilities does not delete the old instruction. As stray instructions will give error messages on screen, this can be very disconcerting to all but the most computer-literate user. Sorting out silly problems like this can be time-consuming.
You still can find "how to" articles about NC3 on the Web. Here is one such example: Get the most out of your PC: Norton Commander:
The section differs from the others in that I will walk you through the functions I use the most. So it is a bit like a course in using NC.
This section is here because many people have purchased and use this excellent program, originally written by John Socha. The description mainly relates to the English-language version 3.0.
As time goes by, you cram a lot of files onto your hard disk, and these are spread around in many different directories. I have always used Norton Commander to manage files and directories. If you don’t have this program, I’m afraid that you won’t benefit much from this section. However, bits here and there might interest you enough to make you consider buying the program. You may well ask (with good reason) why I devote so much space to a program that doesn’t come with DOS.
There are many similar programs, including Dosshell, PCTools and File Manager in Windows. I personally find NC the easiest, fastest and smartest.
NC was developed many years ago to ease the management of files and directories. You can use a mouse in NC but I will only describe the use of the keyboard.
Start NC by typing NC at the DOS prompt, and exit by pressing F10. Tab toggles between the two windows. Press Esc if you regret doing something; if you open a window and select a function that you don’t want, press Esc. The screen is split into two windows, as if you had two simultaneous DOS prompts, a very intelligent and handy function, especially when copying and moving files.
At the top of each window is the paths of the two directories shown by the left and right windows. I call the horizontal marker the "bar." The bar marks a drive, a directory or a file. If the current directory is empty, the bar will be at the top of the screen.
Both windows show files and directories in the manner you stipulate via the pull-down menus. Try pressing F9 and Enter or the down arrow.
This activates the pull-down menus. You can move around in a window by using the up and down keyboard arrows, and you move to a new window using the right or left keyboard arrows. Press Esc twice to return.
The bottom of the screen shows the actions of the different function keys. Try holding down Alt and you will see what Alt + a function key will do.
Configuration
Let’s start by configuring your screen and program to resemble mine while you read this. You can always change it later. In the options menu, select configuration. In each dialogue box, you select with the space bar to activate a point and move with the arrow keys, Tab or Enter. Here are my recommendations.
Screen blank delay means that the screen goes (almost) blank after a certain period of time if you haven’t touched the keyboard. This protects your screen. Mine is set at three minutes, but you make your own choice.
Show hidden files: blank (until you are familiar with NC, I recommend you use a setup that doesn’t show hidden files). Ins Moves down means that pressing the Insert key moves the bar one step down. Auto change directory means that if you have a directory tree in the left window and the corresponding files of a marked directory in the right window, the files of the new directory will be shown each time you change directory in the left window. Under other options, select: Menu bar always visible – blank. Menu bar always visible means that the top bar for pull-down menus is always visible. Auto save setup – x, means this configuration is saved when you exit NC. End with OK – just keep pressing Enter until you reach OK.
Still under Options (F9 and either arrow-down or Enter). The selections toggle between on and off each time they’re chosen. You should have the following active, i.e. showing a small check mark next to them, which you do by pressing Enter or the emphasized letter. Unfortunately, you can only change one thing at a time.
Path prompt – The DOS directory path: The DOS prompt at the bottom of the screen shows the current directory.
Key bar – The function keys are shown at the very bottom of the screen.
F9, and Enter. The menu for the left and right window is split into three sections and within each frame you can choose from one of the following:
Top Section – Shows the information you choose to see in the window
Brief: file names only.
Full: file names, sizes, dates and times.
Info: information on the current disk, space used and available.
Tree – directory diagram: directory tree in this window and files in the other.
Middle Section – sort order for files
The different options are self-explanatory. Normally, I have Name activated but if, for example, you change something in a program that’s made up of several files and you want to see in which file the program saves certain things, the most convenient way is to sort by Time and the changed file will appear at the top of the list. If you need to view many files with the same extension, then select Extension.
Bottom Section – I never use this.
You can select either by moving with the arrow keys and then pressing Enter or by typing the capitalized letter. Try selecting Brief; the window shows the current directory with files, though with names only. Do the same with the other window, by pressing Tab, F9 and selecting Brief. If you press F9 and regret it, press Esc. Move the bar up and down with the arrow keys. Notice that at the bottom of the small frame you get full information about the file or directory that the bar is resting upon.. Directories are written in capital letters and files are written with lowercase letters. Now select Full for both windows (F9, Enter, Full,), which shows the files with name, size, date and time. This is my preference; you may have a different opinion.
Version 4.0 of NC was released only in 1992 (with three years interval from NC3.0). While it definitely made some progress, it was far less impressive as it was more resource intensive (uncompressed ncmain.exe is over 200K). On plain vanilla DOS this was larger then many DOS PCs can afford (in other words it become close to bloatware). Initial version was also somewhat buggy.
Also the success of new generation of OF managers and first of all Volkov Commander and DN as well as the absence of the original architect were quite evident. On the other side Windows 3.1 already became an instant success and most commercial application development moved to a new platform.
All of those factors made the product much less commercially successful. I would like to stress that the absence of John Sochi talent was clearly evident. It's really too heavy-weight for "native" DOS (but OK for emulators and thus was more attractive in Windows 3.1 then in DOS). Also it was time to move to 32-bit API but the developers mentality was still stuck in DOS world. also strong competitors like Volkov Commander DOS Navigator arrived and attacked many users. I personally consider NC 4.0 to be a mediocre product which failed to move the franchise to a hew height like was the case with versions 2 and 3. The phase "too little too late" looks perfectly applicable. I switched from NC 4.0 to Volkov Commander so NC 3.0 was the last product in Norton line about which I have quite a bit of experience.
NC 4.0 integrated zip-archive viewer into the distribution and treated zip archives as folders but functionality was limited to viewing of the content of the archive -- it did not treated archive like folders with all operations available.
The distribution contained 62 files and occupied 2,237,459 bytes. Here is the content of the distribution:
05/10/1993 10:46 AM 64,328 123VIEW.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 255 4372ANSI.SET 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 255 8502ANSI.SET 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 255 ANSI2437.SET 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 255 ANSI2850.SET 03/09/1993 09:56 AM 1,487 ARCVIEW.CFG 05/07/1993 11:07 AM 87,648 ARCVIEW.EXE 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 54,805 BITMAP.EXE 04/23/1992 10:51 AM 17,939 CHIVIEW.EXE 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 38,501 CLP2DIB.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 8,073 CMPSRV.SCX 07/02/1993 03:44 PM 71 COMPUSER.SYS 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 790 DATEX.P 05/10/1993 05:11 PM 59,348 DBVIEW.EXE 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 49,957 DRAW2WMF.EXE 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 64,085 DRW2WMF.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 8,036 GENIE.SCX 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 37,925 ICO2DIB.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 52,750 INSTALL.EXE 04/13/1993 04:03 PM 83 LGAVIEW.CFG 05/13/2001 01:13 AM 38,992 LGAVIEW.EXE 11/24/2007 08:58 AM 0 manifest 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 27,269 MSP2DIB.EXE 07/20/1993 04:27 PM 2,225 NC.CFG 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 3,358 NC.EXE 12/24/1993 06:55 AM 146 NC.EXT 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 55,245 NC.HLP 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 766 NC.ICO 11/23/2007 11:07 PM 774 NC.INI 12/07/1994 11:08 AM 866 NC.MNU 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 63,264 NCEDIT.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 212,777 NCMAIN.EXE 02/19/1996 07:07 AM 5 NCTMP.TMP 12/22/1992 09:59 AM 340 NCVIEW.CFG 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 93,696 NCZIP.EXE 01/14/1993 04:43 PM 20,737 NE.COM 11/28/1990 01:00 PM 65,814 NE.EXE 06/22/1993 04:13 PM 425 NE.INI 05/27/1993 07:00 AM 200,451 NLIB100.RTL 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 39,514 PACKER.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 4,408 PACKER.SET 05/10/1993 05:11 PM 60,898 PARAVIEW.EXE 07/30/1992 01:00 AM 38,085 PCT2DIB.EXE 05/07/1991 08:42 PM 25,285 PCXVIEW.EXE 05/10/1993 05:11 PM 59,230 Q&AVIEW.EXE 05/10/1993 05:12 PM 65,022 RBVIEW.EXE 11/28/1990 01:00 PM 4,597 READ.NE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 6,919 README.TXT 05/10/1993 05:12 PM 61,576 REFVIEW.EXE 06/06/1991 06:00 AM 64,889 SFORMAT.EXE 02/27/1994 12:50 PM 1,220 STATUS.ME 07/02/1993 04:01 PM 128 TERM90.DIR 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 325,623 TERM90.EXE 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 13,343 TERM90.HLP 03/21/1994 12:53 PM 1,140 TERM90.INI 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 11,187 TERM90.RES 05/10/1993 06:52 PM 3,735 TESTMDM.SCX 01/10/1992 11:23 AM 30,413 TXTVIEW.EXE 02/27/1994 12:50 PM 50 VIEWER.BAT 05/28/1992 08:10 PM 324 WPVIEW.CFG 05/07/1993 11:07 AM 55,824 WPVIEW.EXE 01/10/1992 11:23 AM 30,053 ZIPVIEW.EXE 62 File(s) 2,237,459 bytes
It did not contain any innovative features that would position it above the clones that were released the same year. first of all it failed to beat Volkov Commander in this new "orthodox file manager" development game. Volkov Commander was smaller, faster and paradoxically richer in features. It was written in assembler (actually it was a COM program). In the heavy-weight category NC 4.0 cannot compete with DN -- another very innovative and influential orthodox file manager. It quickly found pretty wide user community in Eastern Europe. DN was larger then NC 4.0 and was written in a Turbo Vision which give it a rich Windows-style look and feel despite being a command line program: windows were very flexible and resizable in all dimensions. We will discuss both later in the book.
Due to large size components of NC 4.0 were usually packed (some of them were packed by Symantec but efficiently). Here are comparative result (translated from Russian) from the page Norton Commander 4.0 и 5.0 - Test of packers and reference information:
Part I
Name Orig size DIET PKLITE LZEXE WWPACK UPX 2.01
--brute --8086INSTALL 52270 32374 32254 33132 31032 30379 nc 2910 nc.exe should not be packed
ncedit 63152 39713 39720 40512 37694 36267 ncmain 212393 115900 115214 116996 106345 100047 nczip 93536 48533 48051 49588 45248 43128 packer 39514 22247 22756 22613 21048 20041 Note: TERM90.EXE is unusable in packed format
Part II (8 files)
Name Orig size DIET PKLITE LZEXE WWPACK UPX 2.01
--brute --8086123view 63912 39670 39402 40571 37620 36460 arcview 87232 33328 33280 34091 31479 30566 dbview 58932 37156 36971 38093 35350 34379 paraview 60482 38418 38214 39357 36539 35634 q&aview 58814 37235 37042 38173 35417 34477 rbview 64606 40686 40374 41597 38556 37489 refview 61160 38745 38516 39693 36833 35890 wpview 55424 35520 35393 36321 33968 32992
NC 5.0 was the last "official" version of Norton Commander. It was released in 1993 just one year after NC 4.0. NC 5.0 was a much better product then version 4.0 and it did produced really useful innovative enhancements that defined the OFM standard for years to come. But at this time DOS was in decline and interest generated by new DOS programs started to fade. Windows was the name of the game and understanding that the best DOS programs can benefit from conversion into 32-bit interface will come much later with Far and Total commander. There was no such understanding among Symantec developers and that probably was the root problem.
In a way version 5.5 represented the attempt by Symantec to recapture the market share from NC clones. Although it was a very impressive implementation, it failed to revive commercial success of early versions as DOS itself was already in decline in 1993 and new DOS programs was less commercially successful then Windows 3.1 based programs. The time for the commercial success of DOS programs has gone. Also several strong free and shareware competitors existed and they were not that easy to displace.
Here is the contents of the distribution:
Name Last modified Size --------------------------------------------------- Parent Directory 25-Jul-2007 13:24 - 123VIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 125k 4372ANSI.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k 8502ANSI.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k 8632ANSI.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k 8652ANSI.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k 8662ANSI.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ANSI2437.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ANSI2850.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ANSI2863.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ANSI2865.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ANSI2866.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k ARC.EXE 13-Mar-1989 17:30 64k ARCVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 80k ARJ.EXE 28-Aug-1992 12:26 106k AVIEW.CTL 22-Dec-1993 21:55 1k AVIEW.DOC 31-Jan-1993 17:00 8k AVIEW.EXE 31-Jan-1993 17:00 55k BITMAP.EXE 21-Mar-1994 08:43 54k BUG.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 16k BUNGEE.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 41k CHKLIST.MS 22-Nov-1994 20:40 1k CLP2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 38k CMPSRV.SCX 07-Feb-1995 04:00 8k COMPRESS.HLP 03-May-1990 00:03 6k CONNECT.INF 02-May-1995 11:01 1k DATEX.P 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k DBVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 99k DIR2DIR.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 12k DRAW2WMF.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 49k DRW2WMF.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 63k EVILEYE.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 7k FACES.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 13k FIE_ID.DIZ 11-Apr-1995 00:30 1k FISH.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 53k FLIP.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 51k GENIE.SCX 07-Feb-1995 04:00 8k ICO2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 37k INSTALL.EXE 01-Jan-1994 19:00 51k LHA.EXE 20-Jul-1991 15:13 33k LIST.COM 13-Aug-1991 13:06 24k LOG.LOG 11-Apr-1996 15:17 0k MCIDRIVR.EXE 26-Jan-1990 18:00 70k MOUSE.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 37k MSP2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 27k NC.CFG 08-Apr-1995 12:17 1k NC.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 4k NC.EXT 27-Jan-1996 18:13 1k NC.FIL 07-Feb-1995 04:00 3k NC.HLP 07-Feb-1995 04:00 67k NC.ICO 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k NC.MNU 08-Apr-1995 11:49 0k NC.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 16k NC.PIF 07-Nov-2000 09:07 1k NCCLEAN.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 115k NCCLEAN.INI 29-Jul-1999 10:28 3k NCDD.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 264k NCDD.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 4k NCEDIT.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 189k NCEDIT.EXT 21-Sep-1995 22:31 1k NCEDIT.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 2k NCFF.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 103k NCFF.HLP 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k NCFF.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 3k NCLABEL.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 164k NCMAIN.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 228k NCNET.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 181k NCNET.INI 29-Apr-1999 13:25 1k NCNET.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 5k NCPSCRIP.HDR 07-Feb-1995 04:00 13k NCSF.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 329k NCSF.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 7k NCSI.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 331k NCSI.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 4k NCVIEW.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 8k NCZIP.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 136k NCZIP.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k NC_EXIT.COM 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k NC_EXIT.DOC 07-Feb-1995 04:00 3k NMAIL.EXE 11-Jun-1993 05:00 221k NMAIL.HLP 11-Jun-1993 05:00 129k NMAIL.ICO 11-Jun-1993 05:00 1k NML_MCI.DRV 11-Jun-1993 05:00 47k NML_NMD.OVL 11-Jun-1993 05:00 94k NORTON.INI 22-Jul-1997 14:36 2k PACKER.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 103k PACKER.MSG 07-Feb-1995 04:00 1k PACKER.SET 07-Feb-1995 04:00 5k PAK.EXE 08-Oct-1990 08:51 104k PAKINST.EXE 08-Oct-1990 08:51 17k PARAVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 113k PCT2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 37k PKUNZIP.EXE 01-Feb-1993 17:04 29k PKZIP.EXE 01-Feb-1993 17:04 41k PLAYWAVE.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 25k Q&AVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 97k RBVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 119k README.TXT 07-Feb-1995 04:00 17k REFVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 115k SAVER.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 154k TERM95.DIR 02-May-1995 10:59 1k TERM95.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 389k TERM95.GTT 07-Feb-1995 04:00 7k TERM95.HLP 07-Feb-1995 04:00 16k TERM95.INI 10-May-1996 01:13 1k TERM95.RES 07-Feb-1995 04:00 19k TESTMDM.SCX 07-Feb-1995 04:00 3k TIF2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 46k TORNADO.NSS 07-Feb-1995 04:00 9k VECTOR.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 62k VIEWER.BAT 27-Feb-1995 17:28 1k WHATS.NEW 07-Feb-1995 04:00 7k WPB2DIB.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 37k WPV2WMF.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 60k WPVIEW.EXE 07-Feb-1995 04:00 94k WS_FTP.LOG 06-Jun-2000 13:38 10k ZOO.EXE 09-Jul-1991 08:53 66k
Here is the content of whats.new file from the distribution:
What's New in Norton Commander 5.5 ----------------------------------- * Drag & Drop Drag & Drop support now makes it even easier to manipulate your files between panels. You can drag as single file, or groups of files and directories. Drag from one panel to another to copy files, or hold down the ALT key to move files. You can even drag files/directories to the button bar at the bottom of the screen to invoked a file operation. * Filters Norton Commander 5.5 features advanced file selection techniques. File selection is now based on Operation Filters that affect all file operations like copy, move, synchronise, delete and compress. Operation Filters allow the users to specify file selection based on file name, date and time, file size and even file attributes. This advanced selection criteria is traditionally confined to File Finder utilities, however Norton Commander integrates this feature at the heart of the Commander kernel making it the best all-round file manager available today. * Synchronise Directories The Norton Commander makes it easy to synchronise files/directories between two or more machines or network volumes. This feature will be particularly useful for portable computer users that have to keep copies of Filters. * Compressed File Viewing Now you can view the contents of any file contained within a compressed file. Simply open the compressed file, select the file and press the View button. * Disk Utilities The Norton Commander adds some useful Disk utilities to extend the functionality of the File Manager so that common day-to-day DOS activities can be carried out from within the Commander environment. <> Format Diskette: Format disks easily without worrying about how to use the DOS format command. <> Copy Diskette: Create a disk image and make multiple copies of a disk. Simpler and faster than the DOS copy command. <> Label Diskette: Now add a label to any DOS drive using this simple and useful utility. * Network Utilities The Norton Commander now lets your perform a variety of operations across a LAN, using a simple menu system and a familiar interface. You can send messages, view server volume information, attach to or detach from servers, and map or unmap drives. The utilities are designed for Novell networks supporting Netware 3.x and Netware 4.x. <> Send Message: Send Messages and review details of users or groups of Users on the LAN. <> Attach/Detach Server: Attach to or Detach from a list of Servers easily with out needing complex syntax. <> Drive Mappings: Map drives to servers with the click of a button. <> Server Information: Provides information regarding all networks on a LAN. * File Splitter The Norton Commander 5.5 features a file Split and Merge utility that allows large files be broken down into small ones. Essential if you file wont fit on one floppy disk. Split it up over a number of disks and remerge later onto another hard disk. * Disk Cleanup Clean you hard disk of unwanted files created by other programs such as readme, autosave and temporary files. Completely configurable to create your own file sets. * File Search The Norton Commander File Finder has been completely rewritten and designed to provide the following advanced and useful features. <> Regular Expressions. You now have greater control in how you define your search criteria when looking for files. You can control what files are included and excluded during the search and locate specific text patterns in files. <> File Find Panel. You can send the results of your search operation to a standard Commander File Panel. This is useful when you want to perform block operations on a group of files scattered around different directories on your hard disk. <> Duplicate File Searching. You can now search for duplicate files on your hard disk. <> Multiple Search locations. You can search multiple locations for your files. You can also use environment variables like %PATH% to guide your file search on your disks. <> Commander Line Support. You can launch the Norton Commander to find essential files using command line switches. They offer the full flexibility of the menu driven program. What's enhanced in the Norton Commander 5.5 ? -------------------------------------------- * File Attributes Now you can select multiple files and directories and set the attributes of the files using one simple step. Useful for marking all files in a nested directory structure as read-only. * Configuration Panel Configuration has been moved to one location, making it easier to configure screens, panels, screen savers, mouse and video characters. * System Information The Norton Commander System Information has been extended to display information about memory arrangement, hardware configuration, and CMOS Status. * File Printing You can now print the contents of files to a postscript printer. * Compression The Norton Commander 5.5 now compresses up to 40,000 files, using a variety of compression programs including ZIP, ARC, ARJ, PAK, LHARC and ZOO. * Delete Command An improved Delete command now lets you delete all files in a directory but keeps the directory structure intact. Great for developers archiving a development project who want to get rid of their MAP and LNK files. * Configuration The Configuration of Norton Commander 5.5 has been consolidated into a single, easy-to-use dialog box. Through this one interface users can configure the screen colours, confirmation options, compression options and printer options for all the Commander utilities. One new feature supported in the Norton Commander 5.5 is the ability to switch the character set into a semi-graphical one that displays check-boxes and radio buttons as they appear in Windows. * Terminal emulation Program The terminal emulation program has been modified to provide support for the newer, more modern UI of Norton Commander 5.5, with support also provided for Keyboard macros, INT-15, and NCSI. The product now also supports data connections at up to 115,200 bps, so users with fast modems can avail of the speed using this product. Access to CompuServe is improved with support for the CompuServe-B file transfer protocol. * Copy Command The Norton Commander Copy command has been modified <> Copy newer files only : this can have a dramatic effect on the overall time to copy and synchronise directories from one machine to another. Use in conjunction with the new Synchronise directories command and you have the ideal File Manager for mobile computer users. <> Check the destination disk space prior to starting a copy operation. * Screen Savers You can now choose from a selection of 20 text based and graphical screen savers.
Still version 5 in many way represents the pinnacle of development of Norton Commander and can be viewed as a reference implementation for OFM. From the quality of implementation point of view NC5 was more stable. The main enhancements introduced in NC5 are:
The archive VFS was probably the most important addition to the OFM paradigm in NC 5.0. Actually NC 4.0 also can show archive contents in panel, but unlike NC 5.0 it cannot view archived files. As I mentioned before, the archive VFS was introduced in a guerilla fashion by OFM enthusiasts as add-ons to NC 3.0 (archive viewers of different flavor with NC-like panel structure and operations were very popular addition to NC 3.0, but the level of integration was limited). The archive VFS provides possibilities of working with archives in a completely transparent way by viewing archives as directories.
The search VFS was the second important addition to OFM paradigm. Search panel provided the following possibilities: