Softpanorama (slightly skeptical) Open Source Software Educational Society

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Softpanorama University Library

The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm

by Dr Nikolai Bezroukov

File Commander (FC)

File Commander is a 32-bit classic OFM for Win32 and OS/2 written by Brian Havard.  Originally FC was written for Os/2 and OS/2 version is still supported. Brian is the author of several OFM innovations that later found their way to other file managers (FAR).  He also was probably the most aware of Unix developments (especially MC) implementer of Win32 OFM and that provides FC with some distinct advantages over FAR. For example recently he added "/" and "?" keys to viewer as search forwards/backwards as in many unix   tools (less, vi etc)

Historically it was one of the first OFM for OS/2. But starting from version 2 both OS/2 and Win32 releases are simultaneous and are supported equally. Now probably the most popular platform for FC became Win32 and here it competes with FAR.   Main features:

• Undo/redo in editor
• Built in archive support including archives inside archives to any depth, with ZIP, ARJ, RAR, LZH and ACE types currently supported.
• Colorization of file names by boolean expression.
• Built in file viewer with hex view mode.
• Built in editor with undo/redo and cut/copy/paste ability using the global clipboard.
• Code page translation function in viewer and editor.
• File Find facility that supports regular expressions.
• Calculation of the total disk usage of a directory tree.
• Tree views for quick and easy directory changes.
• Intelligent execution of the different types of executables supported by OS/2 or Win32 OSes.
• User definable menu including powerful operators such as
  • Run a command once for every tagged file.
  • Automatically create a file containing a list of tagged files.
  • Get input value from the user.
  • List all tagged files in the parameter list, automatically running the command multiple times if the command line gets too long.
• Directory history for changing back to recently viewed directories.
• Easy creation of desktop objects.
• Enhanced wildcard handling including boolean operators (and, or, not, brackets) for combining multiple file name masks.
• Flexible file name filtering.
• Support for 4DOS/4OS2 descriptions
• 132 column mode support.
• Start DOS programs with session settings (OS/2 only)

Latest news (changes in File Commander 2.30):

• Make tree views able to expand/collapse branches. Controlled with Grey +/- and Ctrl-Grey +/-. Default tree state can be configured with the ExpandedTrees switch in fc.ini.
   
• Add support for directory store/recall via the normal number keys as well as the numpad. (Win32 only).
   
• Add "All Older" option to the overwrite confirmation dialog.
   
• Support environment variable references in stored directory paths.
   
• Change File Find to search directories in alphabetical order instead of  the LIFO stack it was using.
   
• Add !tx operator, like !t but chops the extension. Handy for converting files where the program requies both input & output file names & you want  to change the extension.
   
• Added support for sub-menus of user menus
   
• Allow user menu commands to be up to 4096 characters long, up from 259.
   
• Add initial support for UNC paths.
   
• Calculate Directory Size: Allow "Total Size" display more room.
   
• Fix retrieval of a stored path that's inside an archive via the Alt-F5  stored path dialog.
   
• TAR reading: take notice of unix directory mode flag as well as trailing  slash when deciding if an entry is a directory or file.
   
• In File Find, enable F5/F6 to copy/move all files in the found list.
   
• In File Find, Delete key removes an item from the found list.
   
• Display "dirinfo" file in the lower section of the Info panel. Double click of same area or F4 edits the dirinfo file.
   
• Add / and ? keys to viewer as search forwards/backwards as in many unix   tools (less, vi etc)
   
• Add built-in "set" command & [Environment] INI file section, allowing  environment variables to be changed for executed commands. The set  command allows temporary changes while the INI file section allows more permanent settings.
   
• Added Shift-TAB seek name completion

FC contributions

FC is an interesting product that introduced several innovations that have found its way to other OFMs. I am not a regular FC user and probably I underestimated the innovation that FC introduced. Among the innovations that I would like to mention:

• FC was one of the early adopters of regular expressions in selection and file operations. 
• FC was probably the first OFM that implemented case conversions in files. From FC this feature got to other OFMs (FAR). 
• FC was the first to implement copy/paste operations from/to clipboard to/from the command line. Shift-Insert paste from clipboard into command line and Ctrl-Insert - copy command line to clipboard.
• FC first introduced the uniform support of Ctrl-X/C/V as Cut/Copy/Paste in both editor & dialogs.
• FC also introduced a very useful command for moving to the prev/next tagged line Alt-Up, Alt-Dn. .
• FC was probably the first to implement a Unix-style hotkey for going to the prev. directory (Ctrl-minus).
• FC uses more reasonable extension of NC macrosymbols scheme  that most other OFM managers (including FAR, but excluding MC):
  • ! - Name of current file.
  • !x - Name of current file without its extension.
  • !p - Path of current panel.
  • !P - Path of opposite panel.
  • !f - Name of current file with full path.
  • !s - Path of current panel with trailing '\'
  • !S - Path of opposite panel with trailing '\'
  • !n - Nothing, but prevents automatic appending of current file name
  • !! - A literal, single !

All macrosymbols  can be used in command line. The macrosymbol !t permit execution of the command for each tagged file. It has correct semantic in case no files was tagged; in this case it is equivalent to the current file.  In addition a separate macrosymbol !l(!L for the passive panel) provides for a space separated list of all tagged files. Macrosymbol !@ - Substitutes for the name of a temporary file that contains a list of tagged files, one per line.

FC also provide an interesting and very useful enhancement for starting a program: Shift-Enter will run command in a separate session.

FC has very reasonable built-in viewer and editor that have good compromise between being too complex and does not providing enough features to be useful.

FC compatibility

FC is reasonably compliant with the OFM1999 standard. The main problem is that FC does not have quick view. Also changing of timestamp was implemented as a separate command, not as a part of the attribute command. 

Rescanning of the hard drive in the quick tree view is implemented with non-standard key Ctrl-R (that's acceptable, but the standard key for rescanning is F2).

Ctrl-Enter does not work on quick search. The author decided against this behavior as he thought that it would be more useful to be able to paste the current file to the command line without switching off the quick search mode with Esc. To move to the next/previous quick search match the user should use non-standard keys Alt-Down, Alt-Up. BTW the same keys move to the next/previous tagged file in the regular panel (they are listed among FC contributions, see above).

Last modified: April 24, 2008