|
Softpanorama |
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
|
| Prev | Contents | Next |
Volkov Commander (VC) was the first OFM that beat NC-line to the punch (see also Unofficial Volkov Commander Site). VC 4.0 was and still is a masterpiece of assembler programming -- small (v. 4.xx is a COM program and is less than 64K), but extremely powerful. In a Windows world it is really amazing that a useful program has a size less than 100K ;-).
In 1992 it took the world by storm as the best freeware (and then shareware) implementation of OFMs. VC implemented several important enhancements that later became part of the OFM paradigm (for example Ctrl-[ and Ctrl-], quick tree panel browsing mode, nested and more flexible user menu files, etc.).
I have used VC from the late 1992 (Volkov Commander was first published in the Softpanorama Bulletin in the December 1992). In 1993 the development of Volkov Commander were partially supported by the grant from the Softpanorama bulletin and Vsevolod Volkov made a couple of presentations at the Kiev Softpanorama seminar.
It is interesting to note the he wrote Vsevolod Volkov while being a student in Kiev Polytechnic University, where he graduated in electronics not in computer science. And he wrote the program in extremely difficult times that US readers can understand only as conditions that existed during the depth of Great Depression. Later he worked as hardware engineer in various start-ups. Again this was an extremely difficult time for Ukraine when after the dissolution of the USSR jerks with academic degrees (aka "economic advisors") decided to use "shock therapy" on unsuspecting people to bring "free market" in no time and sold all the assets to local robber barons (aka "oligarchs") and Western companies for pennies on dollar. Salaries instantly disappeared, prices jumped tenfold and Weimar Republic inflation replay was in full swing. Unfortunately it was not a good time to write free software or even shareware. The country lost substantial number of their programmers in just three years and turned into a Latin American country just on a different continent.
Until almost mid 1997 it was my main and later secondary OFM. It was extremely convenient for troubleshooting (nothing, believe me, simply nothing can compete with VC in this role in old DOS/Windows 3.1 days).
We will discuss version 5. It's still in alpha(4.99.07), but the alpha is amazingly bug free and pretty much usable. Despite absence of several features (FindFile, Quick View, built-in editor) this alpha version is more powerful than 4.0. It supports long file names and the archive VFS. And it still is the smallest OFM among the leading OFM implementations (it is just a 78K zip archive ! Again, it's really refreshing to see that program under 100K can perform more that a just "Hello world" with a couple of options ;-).
This version corrects a major problem in previous version. Pressing Alt-F10 in VC 4.0 often initiated time consuming rescan of the whole drive without the reason, and that made this feature almost unusable. In this version a file TREEINFO.VCD is used as a cache for the drive directory info.
VC version 4.xx was a milestone in OFMs. It make a lot of important contributions to the OFM1999 standard, like "Ctrl-[", "Ctrl-]", generation of the selected file list to the command line (Ctrl-I), enhanced attribute command that can change timestamp of the file as well as attributes, etc. Most of them are now firmly incorporated in the both OFM1999 and OFM2004 standards (BTW Ctrl-I, Ctrl-[ and Ctrl-] functionality was recommended by the Softpanorama Bulletin).
VC tiny size makes VC an excellent troubleshooting tool and the best OFM to carry with when servicing customer PCs. There are more that a dozen of various add-ons for VC 4.01 (see for example ftp://ftp.elf.stuba.sk/pub/pc/utilfile/ in the USA the best is to use its Walnut CD-ROM mirror ftp://ftp.cdrom.com/pub/sac/). This attests the popularity and the value for the programming community of this OFM implementation. Good collection of add-ons exist also on the Polish Official Volkov Commander site: http://www.kki.net.pl/~volkov .
Version 5 preserve VC 4.xx unique advantages as it is still the smallest and the fastest of the of leading OFM implementations. Unlike Far is usable in Dos which is very important for troubleshooting. It provides several contributions to the orthodox doctrine:
Quick view was not available in 4.0. It is still absent from the alpha, but is present in the panel menu, so it will probably be implemented in the final version. Xtree VFS currently is not supported. FindFile operation is still not implemented. History is present in only small number of menus. WWW browser style enhancements like Back and forward button, favorite menu, etc. are not supported.
Like in v.4.0 file operations using the passive panel tree view are impossible. For example there is no possibility to copy file from one directory into another directory using the tree representation of the disk on the second panel.
Navigating the tree in one panel will make the current (highlighted) directory current on the second (passive) panel. This is an interesting kind of quick view function for the tree representation and although useful in its own way it does not substitute the functionality of selecting the target directory on the tree representation.
Clicking on Name, Size, Date and Time options does not resort the directory with this key.
Recommended sites:
Links to hiew -- a great utility by Eugene Suslikov that is often used (and should be used ;-) with VC
| Prev | Contents | Next |
Copyright © 1996-2007 by Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov. www.softpanorama.org was created as a service to the UN Sustainable Development Networking Programme (SDNP) in the author free time. Submit comments This document is an industrial compilation designed and created exclusively for educational use and is placed under the copyright of the Open Content License(OPL). Original materials copyright belong to respective owners. Quotes are made for educational purposes only in compliance with the fair use doctrine.
Standard disclaimer: The statements, views and opinions presented on this web page are those of the author and are not endorsed by, nor do they necessarily reflect, the opinions of the author present and former employers, SDNP or any other organization the author may be associated with. We do not warrant the correctness of the information provided or its fitness for any purpose.
Last modified: April 24, 2008