Softpanorama (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society

May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)

Softpanorama University Library

The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm

by Dr Nikolai Bezroukov

FAR -- the first OFM
that successfully implemented a plug-in concept

The initial versions of FAR were written by Eugene Roshal in 1997 and from the very beginning it was clear that we have a new leader in classic OFMs for Windows. Despite huge success of Windows 95 at the time FAR is one of the few Win32 API-based implementations of classic OFMs for Windows.

Most of FAR features were already available in version 1.5 that was released in late 1997, but in version 1.70 they are much better integrated, debugged and polished. This is a shareware implementation and IMHO it's definitely worth $25 registration fee to support this excellent implementation. 

It was actively developed approximately until 2001 (v. 1.65), but at this point the author probably decided that this distracts him from the RAR -- his main project and moved development to the selected group of contributors.  

Like in case of many other OFMs, it's difficult to survive when the principal developer left, but FAR managed to make it. Understandably the development pace slowed down: the development of version 1.70 is already in its third year  (there were five beta versions), The production version remains 1.65, the last developed by  Eugene Roshal.  But actually the quality of V. 1.70 beta 5 is very high and it can be used as a production version. For all the time of my exposure to the version I did not notice any bugs. 

Far was definitely influenced by VC, DN and MC. At the same time is it a very clean and  well thought implementation with its own "face" and an excellent compatibility with OFM doctrine. It has an excellent  implementation of FTP VFS and, especially, archive VFS ( Eugene Roshal is also the author of RAR -- one of the best compression programs on the market).

Some new useful keys were added to the standard OFM keymap. For example the key to insert  file name with a full path (Ctrl-F). There is macro support for both file manager and built-in editor and a plug-in that provides interface for macro construction and  editing.

Panelize command and temp VFS support (Like in NC5 temp VFS is most useful as a target of the panel command from search) are implemented and can be used (via macro) to provide an XTree VFS implementation (just search *.* everything in the subtree). But it might be better to implement XTree VFS directly binding it to Ctrl-D (may be somebody will write such a plug-in soon).   There is a (non-obvious) way to hide full path in temporary panel in order to use it for finding  duplicate and other purposes where full path is a disadvantage: when you browse Temporary panel, you can change its panel modes as usual: Alt-1, Alt-2 etc., and the first three modes display file names without path.

There is a way to make panels asymmetrical in width (Ctrl-Left or Ctrl-Right).

FAR has one of the best history implementation including history of searches, selections, visited folders and viewed/edited files. This was done cleanly and uniformly which is in general a trademark of FAR programming style. Again not only because of feature set, but also the quality of the implementation makes FAR a leader among the Win32 API based classic OFM implementations.

Despite being the leader in classic OFM implementations FAR is a relative newcomer and is one of  the youngest implementations discussed in this book. 

The greatest idea implemented in FAR is a concept of  a plug-in -- the concept similar to Netscape.  In this respect FAR is a unique OFM and until recently has no competitors (since  2001 or v. 4.5) Total Commander supports plug-ins too and there is a possibility of using Total Commander plug-ins with FAR).

Several hundred plug-ins for FAR already exist (557 the last time I checked)  See an official list  of plug-ins for more information. This is a revolutionary feature that makes FAR a class of its own. As an example of how a simple plug-in can extend the functionality of FAR see, for example, External Filter for Editor Registry Browser by Michael Yutsis. ,  Colorer by Cail Lomecb and Search And Replace by Ivan Sintyurin. They are all  nice examples of complex plug-ins that substantially enhance the functionality of FAR. Here is an interesting list of recommended plug-ins from My FAR Plugins TOP 10

Built-in editor can work with Windows Clipboard and also supports plug-ins. See, for example, a very elegant "External Filter for Editor"  by Michael Yutsis. Among other popular editor plug-ins I would like to mention Colorer,  a plug-in that provides syntax coloring and another plug-in that provides regular expression based search and replace. Although FAR's internal editor is  somewhat weaker then in Midnight Commander, it is compensated by a wide range of plug-ins available.

One of useful features of FAR plug-in API is that a plug-in can have a command-line prefix and its own command line after it. It allows many things; for example, XML plug-in allows to go directly into a specified element in the specified URL, and you can do it from a user menu.

If you are a programmer, you can feel how good Eugene is by just exploring the reaction of Far on unusual combinations of keys: you will discover that FAR behave very intelligently even in very complex situations.

I am especially grateful for the improved implementation of plugins and creation of the community of contributors that write them. That's probably the main achievement of the developers of FAR 1.70. The fact that there are so many plug-ins for FAR is an achievement in itself. I hope that the current team will make it even better. But, of course they need time.  I just wish them luck !!!

Advanced features implemented

Among advanced features that FAR support are:

• Concept of plug-ins. This is a revolutionary feature that makes FAR a class of its own. Plugins have a special, well documented API  Currently a considerable library of third party plugins exist -- see FAR file manager plugins.   Among them:
  • Select from Clipboard -- by Michael Yutsis (Michael is an important contributor to the OFM field. He contributed several interesting add-ons to VC and classic DOS macrorecoder that was used by many DOS users in the former USSR region. He also published several interesting add-ons to VC in the Softpanorama bulletin). 
  • Descss11    -- Description Search & Select: Plug-in for FAR 1.52 by Michael Yutsis
  • Registry browser -- by Michael Yutsis
  • File name completion -- Version 1.3 by Michael Yutsis. Expands host and resource names too!
  • Here is top 12 pluging from Far PlugRinG Site - Download
    
    

    Name

    Total votes

    Total

    Average mark

    2. Search And Replace

    1481

    13317

    8.99

    3. Far Navigator (Proxy...

    881

    7300

    8.28

    4. Colorer

    781

    6689

    8.56

    5. 7-ZIP

    279

    2371

    8.49

    6. WinSCP

    231

    2150

    9.30

    7. Plug

    215

    1691

    7.86

    8. Unicode Wizard

    184

    1506

    8.18

    9. Extended File Copy

    138

    1222

    8.85

    10. Registry browser

    135

    1154

    8.54

    11. FARMail (POP3)

    141

    1133

    8.03

    12. WEB Editor

    82

    647

    7.89

     

• One of the best implementation of "history of everything" concept in OFMs. History is present in several important domains:
  • Command history (with the ability to save it).
  • File view history -- very useful addition (Alt-F12)
  • Visited folders (directory)  history (alt-F12)
  • selection histories.
     
• Ability to work with UNIX-style regular expressions in selections, for example [c-f,t]*a.?xt.
   
• Supports of keyboard macros (makes possible to add synonims for existing hotkeys, for example using Del key instead of F8 for deleting files.
   
• Customizable file highlighting scheme;
   
• Ability to insert the list of selected files into the command line. That operation that VC performs with a single keystroke (Ctrl-I) FAR can do it using Windows clipboard and standard Windows key combinations: Ctrl-Ins to copy selected files (or command line, if it is not empty) to clipboard. Ctrl-Shift-Ins always copies selected files to clipboard, regardless command line state. Shift-Ins to paste clipboard contents to command line. Such behavior is probably more flexible, because allows to insert selected file names to any other program, which can work with clipboard, but VC Ctrl-I capture the most frequently use case. Jury is still out about which implementation is better.
   
• Integration of windows clipboard with built-in editor with the ability to select text in command line windows and paste it in GUI-window
   
• Case conversion for files (this is a very nice feature; it was first implemented in FC);
   
• Selection enhancements
  • Shift-Gray+/Shift-Gray- for selecting deselecting all files regardless of current selection (was first implemented in DN, but is "forgotten" in v.1.50; FAR consistently has this feature since v. 1.20)
  • Option of changing case to the lowercase of all files in copy and move operations
  • Ctrl-Gray+/- can be used to select files with same extension as current;
  • Alt-Gray+/- can select all files with same name as current.

• The best implementation of the information windows concept. Information windows in Far is a three line entity. regular line in the second. FAR use the panel bottom border as the third line of the information windows (for displaying the number of files in the current directory) and upper delimiter of the information line as the first line (for showing the number of selected files). current file name is displayed in real case. if length of the file in more then a length of the column in the listing part of the panel them full name is displayed (or in case the name is too long just tail from the last symbol displayed in the information panel).
• Flexible panel width and double-width window (single windows on the screen) like in NCW;
• Useful  treatment of Ctrl-0..Ctrl-9 key sequences as a selectors of 10 predefined panel templates (panel templates are customizable).

Suggestions

There are several suggestions that might help to make version 1.70 even more user friendly:

• F5-F5 should synchronize active and passive panels. Alt-PgDN  should open the directory under the cursor (or archive under the cursor) directory  on the passive panel, Alt-PgUp should show the parent directory on the passive panel as required by OFM2004.
• It would be nice if you can click with the mouse on current file in the panel information line (last line in the panel) OFM should select all files with this extension and place extension in the select history list.   
• It might be beneficial to implement the operation of elimination of duplicates entries from all histories. This is especially useful for Folders history and without it the folders history in not very usable.
• There should be a possibility to hide path in the panelized search view. That helps to find duplicates. Full path can be visible for the current file only in panel status line (the last line of the panel)

Level of compatibility

The current version of FAR has the best score in OFM1999 standard compatibility test.  It also has probably the best archive virtual file system implementation, as Eugene Roshal is the author of RAR - a leading archiver.  FAR has the best supports the quick view feature (important part of OFM paradigm) and Directory search panel. Generally  FTP support of advanced elements of the Orthodox standard was and is unmatched. From the very beginning till today it was and remains the leader among command-line OFM implementations for Windows.

• Far macro variables naming scheme is really horrible and definitely needs improvement ASAP either via adopting MC implementation, of variant of  FC implementation.
• No support for resorting of the panel with the mouse and some other important mouse-based operations:
  • Currently a mouse click on file attributes like  name, size,date,  in the panel header does not  change the sort order, etc. as OFM1999  requires although FAR provides a hot key (Ctrl-F12) that produced the menu. Clicking with the mouse on a symbol "m"  in the upper left corner of each panel   provides the same menu. But  this solution is definitely less elegant that using column headers as buttons, but still OK.
  • It would be nice if when you can click with on current file in the panel information line (last line  in the panel) Far should select all files with this extension and place extension in the  select history list.
  • Double clicking on the file in the bottom information line of the panel should produce selection of the files in the panel with just this extension and optionally hide all other files.  This is achievable via Ctrl-I, but clumsy and thus  underused BTW Ctrl-I panel does not have history :-(. Repeated double-clicking should restore full view of the panel.
     
• There is no way to configure information in the panel information line.    That should be configurable via F9/Option/File description modes
   
• Search on the directory tree for the target (for example F5-F10 combination) is buggy. If many files with the same name are present sometimes Far is unable to find the necessary one. Also traversing the tree for the same file names is non-standard.
   
• Gray+ and Gray- does not provide quick navigation on the same level for tree view. Tree navigation panel is also buggy and quick search often does not produce a hit if many names exists on different levels of the tree. It just go to some inner level and is deadlocked there. Quick  search should not take into account nesting of directories. 
   
• Find File operation (Ctrl-F7) cannot search using date and size and generally is very  (uncharacteristically for this very gifted author) basic. You can enhance it with the plug-in but essentially this is a core functionality. Find panel was substantially improved by adding the panelize command, but still it require work as panelizing cannot hide full path to the files/directories that are panelized.
   
• Far merged 3 extension tables (execute (Enter), view(F3) and Edit(F4) into one and stores them in the Registry. It does not provide a way to migrate other OFM association tables into the new format. The idea of merging the association tables so that one can see all three associations at once (as well as of using Windows association table as a default association -- it probably would be better if Window association would have equal standing with user defined one) is questionable -- the loss of flexibility of having separate tables in a simple text format probably outweigh all benefits. For example the ability to include the same sub tables into both extension menu and the user menu is lost. Using Windows registry for storing information is a mixed blessing. For me personally it looks very inconvenient and confusing. Crash of Windows registry is a bad enough and frequent enough event not to overload it with trivial stuff. It also means that automatic generation, formatting, merging, etc. of extension list, launched file list, etc became impossible. I consider it a very bad design decision.

  The main point is that in OFM there should be a possibility of dynamic association when user is presented with several choices. The classic example when one can benefit from that feature is the  use of extension .DOC. It is so overused (text, RTF, MS Word native format contents are common), that the correct choice of viewer is often impossible without examining the first bytes of the file.
   

• WEB browser style enhancements for directories (up one level and down one level using Left and Right ) are not supported
   
• If server is unavailable or down FTP client keeps trying to connect for a long time with no cancel button. It can be pretty annoying. Generally FTP client should start as a separate thread so that it can be killed within FAR.

History

??-Oct-2003 -- FAR 1.70 beta 5 release
17-Dec-2000 -- FAR 1.70 beta 2 release
26-Jun-2000 -- FAR 1.65 maintenance release
17-May-2000 -- FAR 1.64 maintenance release
24-May-2000 -- FAR 1.64 beta release
19-Oct-1999 -- FAR 1.63 maintenance release
19-Aug-1999 -- FAR 1.63 beta release
24-May-1999 -- FAR 1.62 maintenance release
27-Feb-1999 -- FAR 1.61 maintenance release
19-Oct-1998 -- FAR 1.60 maintenance release
01-Jul-1998 -- FAR 1.52 maintenance release
30-Mar-1998 -- FAR 1.51 maintenance release
15-Feb-1998 -- FAR 1.50 shareware released.
08-Oct-1997 -- FAR 1.50 beta released.

New in Far 1.70

Edited from what's new file:

• "Smart" associations: If several associations are specified for a single extension, and if some associations have the "IF EXIST" condition, the action selection menu shows only the items for which the condition is true.

• The link creation function (Alt-F6). It works only under Windows NT/2000. FAR shows an error message if the user tries to use it under Windows 95/98/Me.

• Ctrl-C/Ctrl-Ins - copies the current line from a history menu (Alt-F8, Alt-F11, Alt-F12) to the clipboard, so it can be edited.

• Shift-Enter key can be used in edit controls to insert a file name under cursor from the active panel. Very useful extension, but it probably should be added to edit control menu -- too many keys to remember.

• Pressing the '/','\' in Quick Search will go to directory. Attention: those who used Alt-\ as a macro to pop a Quick Search window up now can use a Alt-< key.

• Functional key bar is extended. It now reacts to three new key combinations - CtrlShift, AltShift, CtrlAlt. That applies to plugins too.

• Ctrl-U removes block in the dialog input lines.

• There is a possibility to specify a color for command line prompt, that allows to distinguish prompt from the entered command. Default color is the same as command line one.

• Ctrl-F copies the full file name as it is shown on the panel.

• Pressing Shift-F1 in the plug-in configuration menu shows the help topic "Config" for the current plug-in. If there is no such topic, the standard topic "Contents" is shown instead.

• Now the task list (Ctrl-W) is more user-friendly - attempts to move the cursor up from the first item or down from the last item cause the cursor to move to the last or the first item, respectively.

• "Screen grabber" function (Alt-Ins)

• The "Show selected first" mode (Shift-F12)

• It is possible to set the filler character for the "Wipe file" operation (Alt-Del) (see TechInfo #29).

• Alt-Shift-Left, Alt-Shift-Right, Alt-Shift-Home and Alt-Shift-End select the block in the command line also when the panels are on.

• Directories can be deleted when F8 or Shift-F8 is pressed in the tree panel.

• Support for the mouse wheel in Windows 2000

• The information panel (Ctrl-L) under Windows 2000 shows correct information for symbolic links (directory junctions and volume mount points) when entering such a directory.

• The internal viewer now is used for viewing descriptions. It allows to:
  - use word wrap in the description file;
  - scroll the description file;
  - switch code pages;
  - search in the description file (F7).

• Display of information about copying speed and time (see TechInfo#26)

• Pressing Ctrl-D on the command line deleted the block instead of moving the cursor one character to the right.

• Editor

  • Alt-Shift-F9 invokes the editor settings dialog.

  • If no block is selected, Alt-U and Alt-I indent the current line.

• Viewer

  • Alt-Shift-F9 invokes the viewer settings dialog.

  • When the "[x] Save file position" is turned on, the file viewing mode (normal or hex) is stored separately for each file.

  •  Clicking the mouse on the status line:
    - on the code page indicator - shows the code page selection menu
    - on the position indicator - shows the "Go to position" dialog

• QuickView: Under Windows 2000, when viewing symbolic links, the path to the source directory is shown.

•  Help

  • KeyBar in the help system.

  •  New section "Operating system commands".

• File attributes

  • One dialog for any actions.

  • If multiple file system objects are selected, or if the attributes of
    a directory are changed with "Process subfolders" enabled, the check
    boxes will have three states:
    "[x]" - the attribute is set (or set the attribute)
    "[ ]" - the attribute is not set (or clear the attribute)
    "[?]" - the attribute is undefined (or do not touch the attribute)
    
    [+] For selected objects:
    "[x]" - the attribute is set for all objects
    "[ ]" - the attribute is not set for all objects
    "[?]" - the attribute is set for some of the objects
    
     If there are no folders among the selected objects, the option "Process subfolders" will be disabled.
    
     For symbolic links, the attribute setting dialog shows additional information about the source directory (NTFS/Win2K).
    
     In the panel mode 5 (Ctrl-5), if a directory is a symbolic link (Reparse point) (NTFS/Win2K), the letter 'L' will be shown additionally.
    
    [It is possible to configure distinct colors for symbolic links (NTFS/Win2K) in the "Files highlighting" dialog.
    
    ...If you do not want to change the file time, leave the respective field empty. You can push the "Blank" button to clear all the date and time fields and then change an individual component of the date or time, for example, only month or only minutes. All the other date and time components will remain unchanged..."
     

• Macros
  
  The look of the key assignment dialog has been changed.
  
  An overwrite warning is shown if a macro already exists, and a warning is shown when trying to delete a macro.
  
  Three new macro areas: "Info", "QView", "Tree",.
  
  4 new modes for panel macro commands:
  "NoFilePanels" - cannot be executed in file panels.
  "NoPluginPanels" - cannot be executed in plug-in panels.
  "NoFolders" - cannot be executed if the current element is a folder.
  "NoFile" - cannot be executed if the current element is a file.
  By default all the modes are set to off. (The modes are also shown in the macro parameters dialog -Ctrl-Shift-.) See TechInfo#22 for details.
  
  As an experiment, 7 new macro commands have been added: "$Day", "$Month", "$Year", "$Hour", "$Min", "$Sec" For example "$Year . $Day . $Month . t x t" macro will generate a
  string "2000.21.12.txt" for 21 december 2000. "$MMode" - change macro mode See TechInfo#22 for details.
   

• User menu

  • If, while editing command in the user menu, the label is not entered
    and the "OK" button is pressed, then the dialog is not closed, because it is
    possible to lose the commands that may have been entered. To exit the menu
    one can use the "Esc" key or the "Cancel" button.
     

• Extension selection

  • Select files with the same extension as the current file extension  Alt-Grey+
  • Deselect files with the same extension as the current file extension   Alt-Grey- 

  • Select files with the same extension as the current file name Ctrl--Grey+

  • Deselect files with the same extension as the current file name Ctrl--Grey- 
     

New in Far 1.63

• New command line option: -u <username> It allows to have separate settings for different users. Can be useful for a power user to have special setting for two or more different FAR invocations. Settings for non-default users are stored under registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Far\Users
• Shift-Enter key can be used in edit controls to insert a file name under cursor from the active panel. Very useful extension, but it probably should be added to edit control menu -- too many keys to remember.
• New %%S variable in archive support plugin allows to specify place in the command line to insert optional switches.

New in FAR 1.62 (from Whatsnew.txt, slightly edited)

1. "Search in archives" option is implemented in "Find file" dialog.
2. Directory names like "dir1\dir2\dir3" are allowed in "Create directory" command. FAR will try to create all directories of the path.  
3. Internal viewer now can store position in the file:
   • RightCtrl-0 -- RightCtrl-9 store current position in viewed file, Ctrl-0 - Ctrl-9 restore it;
   • Alt-BS and Ctrl-Z undo position change;
   • Alt-F8 changes current position.
4. Press F4 in "Plugin commands" menu to assign hot key to menu item. Hot key can be a letter or a digit. This feature is designed to simplify access to items of this menu from keyboard macro commands
5. Plugins can be called from the internal editor. Several such plugins ("Case conversion", "Draw lines", "Auto wrap", "Brackets matching" and "Align block") are added to the distribution;
6. In FTP client "Use firewall" option can be specified separately for each site.
7. "B" and "M" modifiers for "DM", "DC", "DA" column types:
   • "B" modifier allows to show file time in brief (Unix like) format;
   • "M" modifier forces usage of text month names.

   For example, you may use column type "DMBM" to show file modification time in brief format with text month names.

8. If "Save file position" viewer or editor option is on and user manually set character table, this table will be restored when open viewed or edited file next time.
9. Ctrl-Shift-F3 and Ctrl-Shift-F4 always call internal viewer and internal editor ignoring file associations.
10. "!#" modifier specified before file association symbols forces them to refer to the passive panel. For example, !#!.! denotes a current file name on the passive panel.
11. "Set "Hidden" attribute to new description lists" option in "File description" dialog.
12. In archive support plugin 'P' (path only) modifier can be used also with %%A and %%a variables.
13. Several enhancements of in the Plugins API

Problem areas

• Built-in FTP VFS is showing age and behaves very strangly with some FTP servers.  Probably an alternative FTP plugin should be used.

• History of visited directories was implemented incorrectly (should be two of them: one for each panel as ususally each panel is used for the specific area of the filesystem or ftp VFS).  Also the current implementation is too primitive and does not allow suppression of duplicated, suppression of commands without parameters, sorting by name, etc