Orthodox File ManagersHome of OFM standards2008 is the 22st year of OFM epoch |
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Softpanorama |
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
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Orthodox File ManagersHome of OFM standards2008 is the 22st year of OFM epoch |
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| Orthodoxy: The things that are considered correct and proper beliefs. This word comes from the Greek words 'orthos' meaning straight or right and 'doxa' meaning belief. |
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TheoGlossary - A Glossary of Words and Theological Terms by Dr. Terry E. Shoup |
| Orthodoxy: Any practice or teaching that falls within the established framework of the conventions, beliefs and doctrines of a given religious tradition. |
This page is devoted to the Orthodox File Managers (OFMs) that are also known as "Commanders". They are remote descendants of Norton Commander written by John Socha and first released in 1986. Members of this family of file managers with the most prominent example of FAR on Windows and Mc in Unix use simple yet very powerful command line windows managers with file management capabilities that use three windows: two symmetrical windows with listings of files in two possibly separate directories called panels and one "terminal style" windows that initially is minimized to one (bottom) line. Modern OFM interface is a "screen" inspired generalization of Norton Commander (NC) interface and preserved "look and feel" of the original program with its ability to shrink and manipulate visibility of left and right panel windows as well as expand command window (preferably gradually but at least to half-screen and full-screen). Paradoxically leading Windows implementation (FAR) has richer interface with shell then Unix version (partially because of design flaws in Midnight commander where shell interface is implemented as a hack). There are also many GUI version that implement mainly file handling capabilities but not "visual shell" capabilities. the most prominent version is Total commander which in 2007 became fifteen years old implementation. As advanced usage of OFM requires knowledge of shell, they became the tool of choice for system administrators, especially in xUSSR region, Eastern Europe, Germany and Scandinavian countries. Those regions were place of birth on most impressive OFM implementations such as Far, Total Commander, deco, Volkov Commander, Dos Navigator, Servant Salamander and many others.
I introduced the term "Orthodox File Managers" in 1996 with the first edition of my online book and now it seems to be more or less standard term for this category of file managers. Sometime this type of managers is called 2-pane or two panel managers but this is a superficial term as it does not reflects the importance of command line in the interface, the key distinguishing feature of this type of managers as well as the level of integration with the underling shell (via extension menu, user menu and, especially in the access to the terminal window in Unix screen style). It also hides close analogies of OFMs with such programs as XEDIT, vi and screen. All those programs has nothing to do with two panel concept despite the fact that they are pretty close to each other in key ideas and attract similar type of power users -- first of all system administrators.
There are numerous advantages of Orthodox File Manager (OFM) paradigm, which refines the functionality of the original Norton Commander for DOS and incorporates more then 20 years of development by many talented programmers including John Socha, Vsevolod Volkov, Eugene Roshal (of RAR fame). The first and the main advantage is portability (implementations exist for any major OS including Windows CE) and the availability of public standards.
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The first and the main advantage is portability and the availability of public standard |
All OFMs have a Spartan interface with the main window which is divided into three sub-windows. Two of them are called "panels" that are identical in structure (but can have different sizes and/or be hidden), and are positioned side by side at the top of the screen. The third screen-wide window contains an instance of the shell and usually is minimized to one line but can be expanded either gradually (like in FAR) and/or is large increments (half screen and full screen in classic Norton Commander implementation). You should view this command like window as a separate shell session or, if you wish, telnet session to localhost. In case panels are hidden (with hotkey Ctrl-O ) it should provide full functionality of the OS shell window including history of commends, command completion and other niceties. In essence OFMs is a command line windows manager (similar to screen) with functions of two upper windows (panels) largely fixed. But the important feature of OFMs is that panels are implicitly connected to the operations performed in command window in several ways:
One of the panels always contain the current directory and automatically reflects changes in it.
It is possible to copy certain elements of the left or right panel to the command like using special key combination and special macro variables. Typical examples are the current path, path to the left panel, path to the right panel, the list of names of selected files.
There are also set of operation for exchange of information between panels (always from active to passive)
Panel also can contain editor window of viewer for a particular file.
Panels are shrinkable and can expose hidden behind them terminal window, while normally only the last line of this window (command line) is visible. The latter permits viewing the results of execution the shell command entered on the command line (e.g. via Ctrl-O shortcut in Norton Commander);
Surprisingly, attempts to enhance this simple, Spartan interface largely failed. There were attempts to create the OFM manager with four panels. There were attempts to use tree view as the right panel (similar to Windows Explorer) and most OFM has the ability to replace left panel with tree view. But I personally and many advanced users that I know never learned to use this productively and prefer classic symmetrical panel view with two directories. Strangely enough this two symmetrical panel with two directories remain the most productive for a very wide spectrum of real life file operations. When I need tree view for quick navigation I usually use separate view available vie Alt-F10 (find folder). Probably there are some structures in brain that provide higher productivity with the symmetrical two panels interface vs. various often more sophisticated asymmetrical variants. Moreover after you achieve proficiency with it, it's rather difficult to switch to any other: all of them look inferior even if in reality they are more expressive for some operations (like the Windows File Explorer asymmetric interface with tree on the left side or XTree interface provides very good capabilities of coping/moving files from left panel to the arbitrary place in the directory tree). There is some kind of implicit "lock in": after several years of usage you start thinking about file movements and directories restructurings in terms of OFM operations.
Another advantage of OFM is that this is the only type of file manager that is standardized and the skills are transferable from command like to GUI and back as well as from one platform to another (for example Windows to Unix -- this is an excellent way to dampen shock of the Unix command line for Windows users who want also use or even migrate to Unix).
| Another advantage of OFM is that this is the only type of file manager that is standardized and the skills are transferable from command like to GUI and back as well as from one platform to another (for example Windows to Unix -- this is an excellent way to dampen shock of the Unix command line for Windows users who want also use or even migrate to Unix) |
OFMs are not for dummies. You need to know the shell of the OS you are using fully benefit from its capabilities. That's why they are extremely popular among administrators, especially in Eastern Europe and xUSSR area.
The author argues that this simple classic interface offers the most efficient way to perform complex file operations, and both users and software developers deserve some help in the form of the standard and some kind of commentary about "the state of the art" of this type of file managers. That's why I spend considerable time writing my online book The Orthodox File Manager(OFM) Paradigm that introduced two level of standards (OFM1999 - minimal OFM requirements and Dr Nikolai Bezroukov. The Orthodox File Manager(OFM) Paradigm. Ch. 9 The OFM2004 provide both commentary and overview of major implementations. This is a volunteer effort and some parts are outdated. Still this is the only ebook on the subject and as such it can help system administrators more consciously choose the implementation they need and polish the methods of work with OFM.
In this ebook I tried to distill several possible reasons for this surprisingly high productivity of OFM users, the productivity that despite of the age of the interface (more then 20 years) and its Spartan character remains unmatched. Please read at least Ch.1 of the OFM book, the chapter that introduces the concept.
But even if you do not want to read it, selects and enjoy any OFM you like! I am using this class of filemanagers since 1987 (NC 2.0) and still learn new things each year, things that help to increase my productivity. Despite interface simplicity latest OFMs are very powerful and flexible programs, that have rather steep learning curve and you will be better off learning incrementally, starting with simple file operations and gradually moving toward full power that bring customarization and availability of user many, extensions menu and several other features of OFM.
I also have found OFMs to be indispensable productivity tool for webmasters and despite my interest and professional exposure to other Windows and Unix filemanagers I am still convinced that in the hands of professional, productivity-wise, OFMs have a huge edge. BTW I never managed to fully switched to GUI based OFMs, and still use mc in Unix and FAR in Windows environments although recently I spent considerable time using Total Commander. That's because command line OFMs should be viewed not only as filemanagers but as a new ingenious graphical interface to shell, interface that makes standard Unix-style typing command on the terminal irrevocably backward. Professional Unix administrator fully versed in OFM usually outperform Unix administrator limited to "pure" commend line by a factor of two in not more. It's actually a pity to see how those poor people spend valuable time typing innumerous ls commands ;-)
And that brings us to an important point. While invented as a file manager in reality (and especially in Unix enviroenmnt) OFM should be viewed as new generation of shell interface (visual shell) and as such they should be closely integrated with shell. Unfortunately this point was missed by most Unix developers and capabilities of typical Unix implementation in this respect are rather primitive. In a way you should think about Unix OFM implementation as a fork of screen with specially predefined top windows split vertically (I know screen cannot split windows vertically but let's assume that this is just an implementation limitation). This ides of "OFM as a visual shell for Unix" is the main point that I advocate in my ebook especially in chapter 4 devoted to Unix OFMs. That's why despite their origin in Windows OFMs proved to be extremely natural to Linux/Unix environment. IMHO a Linux/Unix sysadmin with good OFM skills can be probably twice more productive then any super-skilled UNIX guru that use just plain vanilla command line ;-) Actually good knowledge of OFMs is a trademark of best Unix administrators from Eastern Europe.
But while Europe (especially xUSSR region, Eastern Europe and Germany) became the new home of Captain Norton, the initial versions of NC were written by a talented American programmer John Socha. Like with any brilliant idea it did not take long to implement and develop it to a mature condition: all the major work concentrates in just two years 1985-1987. At this time John Socha was the first director of research and development for now defunct small software company: Peter Norton Computing. Peter Norton who wrote the initial version of Norton Utilities, but AFAIK was not involved in writing Norton Commander was one of the pioneer entrepreneurs in PC software development; 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" ;-).
The first version of Norton Commander was released in 1986 and it instantly became the dominant file manager for DOS. In 1987-1991 more then a million copies were sold. In Eastern Europe Norton commander became a synonym of DOS interface and many users did not even understand that this is an add-on program.
In 1990 Peter Norton sold his company to Symantec to pursue his interests outside programming. John Socha left the company after the merger and created his own company, which was later acquired by Asymetrix. He continued cooperation with the Norton division of Symantec and wrote for them several good computer books including classic introductory assembler textbook Peter Norton's Assembly Language Book for the IBM PC .
Symantec first displayed some lukewarm support for this cash cow, but with the introduction of Windows killed it (as well as some other brilliant DOS product it acquired -- XtreeGold). Later they understood the mistake they made and in 1997 there was a reincarnation attempt: Norton Commander for Windows 1.0 was reintroduced in the Symantec product line. But talent was already gone and it was "too little, too late" and after version 2.0 it died again (still as of January 2003 you can buy Norton Commander for Windows 2.0 in Europe, especially in Eastern Europe). Not that I advice you to do that :-)
I would repeat it again that OFM can increase the productivity of sysadmins several times, especially for performing complex operation on Unix-style hierarchical file systems. For some unknown reasons no other file manager can compete with OFM in performing complex copying or moving of files on the directory tree. I several time managed to win a bottle of wine competing against Unix administrators who used only command line, and believe me as typists they were much better them me. The only other tools that I know, that have a similar semi-religious status with its adherents (but in a different area) are Xedit and vi editor (see my Orthodox Editors for details). That's why I consider OFMs to be a must (along with orthodox editors) for any advanced user, sysadmin or webmaster (both Windows and Unix). As I wrote in my book:
One of the most distinctive advantages of OFMs is that the productivity of the power users is really amazing, especially in the command-line environment. To the uninitiated it often looks like a magic -- the speed with which an advanced user can perform complex file operations. It looks much like playing piano. Advanced user probably have "motor maps" for typical operations that are executed on subconscious level much like a good piano player can instantly recognized specific accords in music notation.
OFMs can be found on all major and minor operating systems including all flavors of UNIX, OS/2, all existing versions of DOS, Windows 3.1, 9x, NT and even PalmOS and Personal PC. Actually OFMs probably represent the most portable family of filemanagers in existence (Xtree is also a very good filemanager available on several platforms, but not that many, Windows Explorer is an average filemanager that was also widely ported to almost any OS in existence because of the influence of Microsoft Windows).
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The first and the main advantage of OFMs
is simplicity and stability. |
| "I have found jesus. He came to me in the form of muCommander." -- A happy user |
There is a large variety among OFM implementations. Moreover different OFMs are good for different situations and tasks -- there is no and never be the best OFM for all situations and environments. But they all share same distinctive interface framework and the following basic features:
Again those are Commandments and like in everyday life not everybody is observing them ;-). Still three key features stands out and are the key components of the OFM religion:
Paradoxically, but for complex file operations using mouse is not much superior to keyboard-based interface and combined interface is superior of any. There are several reasons for that:
F5; F10;
down; Enter
A long time OFM user replicate such keystroke sequences subconsciously
using "autopilot". They usually learn many such "precooked"
keystroke sequences, sequences that solve frequent tasks and use them like a
piano player uses "accords". That's why the
speed of some file operations of an advanced OFM users look fantastic for uninformed observer.
Please note that OFM usage of the command line interface is different from the typical shell interface and thus our "advantages of the keyboard" discussion is not equal to the classic "GUI vs. Command Line" debate. It's true that each interface has specific advantages and disadvantages:
Command-line interfaces are better for more complex actions, which you want to repeat (and possibly automate) and/or which you want to affect many objects. They are closer to the shell level: command-line interfaces take more advantage of our capacity for expressing complex thought in language.
GUIs are better for using direct manipulation, and for using the selected object to narrow down the range of possible actions. GUIs take more advantage of our ability to quickly perceive and interact with images.
OFM (especially in GUI-based incarnation) actually represent a hybrid model: commands entered from the keyboard changes the panels and provide instant visual clues that are a trademark of pure GUI interface. This hybrid model has unique capabilities and somewhat resembles comics. You may try Scott McCloud's book Understanding Comics and Reinventing Comics for more information, as this sequel touches some interesting topics. Personally, I find comics, when done well, to be of the few examples when a picture is really worth a thousand words, and a couple of words are worth a thousand of pictures. IMHO this is also the case with OFMs ;-).
I would like to stress that OFMs are an essential (and underutilized ) tool for system administrators, especially UNIX system administrators. Midnight Commander (MC) now seems to be the leading implementation for open source operating systems for Unix. There is also a portable Unix GUI based (X-based) version of OFM called Northern Captain and an excellent KDE-based Krusader. But generally for X-windows the optimal implementation should be based on a scripting language and some OFM managers based on TCL already are available. Scripting language based OFMs are much more powerful and flexible than the traditional complied implementations like MC. Although TCL seems to dominate this field, other scripting languages like Perl, REXX and Python, Jython are (with some reservations) also suitable as both an OFM macro language and implementation language. Recently Java written OFMs make some inroads into the territory. They are more portable then compiled implementations. See for example muCommander.
The author strongly believes that OFMs should become a standard tool for Unix system administrators and WEB masters, but penetration of OFMs in this area is very slow...
For the users with DOS/Windows that also need to use Unix they provide the most painless way to master Unix command line and can save them from a lot of frustration during first several weeks of struggling with a typical command like Unix arcana ;-). Now its less pronounced with the availability of GUI environments like KDE and Gnome, but still a lot of work is done via telnet.
We can distinguish the following three important classes of OFM:
Class 1. Traditional compiled implementations FAR, MC, Krusader , Total commander, Northern Captain, etc)
Class 2. Scripting language based OFMs (for example TCL-based or REXX-based)
Class 3. WWW oriented OFMs (with browser front-end) and Java OFMs. This is a pretty new class of OFMs and the corresponding chapter of the OFM book is still very raw....
Good luck ! A challenge for human-computer interface is to support creativity and that's what distinguishes OFM from other types of file managers. Please note that OFMs have a rather steep learning curve and don't be discouraged by initial difficulties. Your persistence will pay you nicely...
Dr. Nikolai Bezroukov
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| OFM name (and link to a book chapter) |
NC | FC | DN | FAR | Total Commander | Nico | NCW | MC | XNC | Drall |
| OFM Type | Classic | Classic | Classic | Classic | GUI | GUI | GUI | Classic | GUI | Web |
| Status of development (active if the the version is less then six month old, stalled if a year, frozen if more the a year) |
Aban- doned |
Stalled |
ndn and dnosp |
Stalled | Active | Active | Abandoned | Active | Active | Stalled |
| Last stable version | 5.0 | 2.30 beta (as of Nov, 2003) |
See dnosp and ndn |
1.70 (beta 5 as of May 15, 2003) |
7.0 (Jun, 2007) |
5.61 ( as of Jun May, 2007) |
2.0 | 4.6.1 (Jun2007) |
5.0.4 (as of Jun, 2007) | 1.16.0.0 (as of Feb 2005) |
| OS supported | DOS | OS/2, NT, Win 9x |
DOS, Win9x, WinNT, |
Win9x, NT | Win9x, NT, XP (there is an independent attempt to clone TC for Unix) |
Win9x, NT | Win95/NT | Unix (versions for Win95, NT,OS/2 exist but are not that impressive) |
Unix | Multi-platform (Perl) |
| Size of compressed distribution | 1.4M | 0.2M | ~1M | 1M | 1.5M | 0.83 | 2M | 1.56 M | 1M | 29K |
| Software type and download link (if different from the development | Commercial | Shareware | Open source: 2 major versions: dnosp and ndn |
Shareware | Shareware | Shareware | Commercial |
GNU License |
GNU License | GNU License |
| Price | $90 ? | $25 | $0 | $25 | $30 | $20 |
Ł21/€ 35
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$0 | $0 | $0 |
P.S: In order to save the bandwidth for humans (as opposed to robots ;-), Old News and Recommended Links were converted into separate pages.
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Fifteen year jubilee of Total Commander ! |
"The future is here, it's just not evenly distributed."
William Gibson
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| 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001 | 2000 | 1999 | 1998 | Archives |
freshmeat.netAbout:
Key Scripter listens to key press/release events from a keyboard device and sends fake key events to an X display. It supports gaming keypads such as the Nostromo SpeedPad and allows the creation and usage of complicated key scripts for games and other applications.Release focus: Major feature enhancements
Changes:
This release also supports Windows. A Win32 binary has been added to the download packages. To compile the source files on Windows, the latest release of MinGW is required. Additionally, this release fixes a few memory allocation bugs, adds support for wildcard binds, and provides improvements to debug messages. The example configuration file has been extended with extra features.Author:
Andrei Romanov [contact developer]
FreeCommander is an easy-to-use alternative to the standard windows file manager. The program helps you with daily work in Windows. Here you can find all the necessary functions to manage your data stock. You can take FreeCommander anywhere - just copy the installation directory on a CD, USB-Stick or even a floppy disk - and you can even work with this program on a foreign computer.
Main features in FreeCommander:
- Dual-panel technology - horizontal and vertical
- Tabbed interface
- Optional tree view for each panel
- Built in file viewer to view files in hex, binary, text or image format
- File viewer inside archives too
- Built in archive handling: ZIP (read, write), CAB (read, write), RAR (read)
- Nested archive handling
- Easy access to system folders, control panel, desktop and start menu
- Copy, move, delete, rename files and folders
- Wipe files
- Create and verify MD5 checksums
- File splitting
- File properties and context menu
- Calculation of folder size
- Folder comparison / synchronization
- Modification of file date and attributes
- Folder / program favorites
- File searching (inside archive too)
- File filters for display
- User defined columns for detailed view
- DOS command line
- Multiple language support
- Create zip and iso files
- Upload files to the Internet using FTP
- Fast file management using the keyboard
- Built-in viewers for many file formats
- Built-in text editor
- No installation required (self-extracting zip provided for convenience)
- No uninstallation required (just delete the folder)
- Free for non-professional home use
Ultimate Commander strives to be an incredibly powerful orthodox file manager developed with a special focus on usability, extensibility, portability, and power users.
As of right now, this is an alpha-quality file manager.Current features include: drag and drop, right-click context menu, rename, automatically refreshing file view, ability to calculate directory size, tab file view, dual or mdi parent choice, filter file view on-the-fly, file icons (including svn icons), multi-threaded drive and file retrieval.
Features in the works: plug-in architecture for different file retrieval (for example, ftp/ssh) or different ways to show the file information (for example, audio files might show different information), thumbnail preview pane, show information about copy/move operations with ability to cancel, specification of columns for file information, Vista-compatibility.
Doszip Commander (GPL, open source)Project page: sf.net/projects/doszip/
By Hjort Nidudsson . A new Norton Commander clone … test it :-) It is very small and fast. Written mostly in 1996…1997 . Development has recently (2007) stopped, but as last fix the author updated it to support LFN ! Has built-in support for unZIPping - no PKUNZIP or similar needed, but supports only PKZIP 2.xx format incl. decryption. No ZIP creation, no support for other archive types.
It is the only one written in Borland C (use version 3.1, DOS 16-bit real mode).
11/28/2007
muCommander 0.8.1 is out with a bunch of enhancements and bug fixes.
Get it now>>New features:
- New bookmark:// filesystem, mapped onto the alt+B shortcut by default.Improvements:
- Non-automatic sizing of columns is now working properly and preserved in the configuration.
- Columns order, sort and visibility are now preserved in the configuration.
- Editors and viewers are now centered on the current window rather than set to the upper-left corner of the screen.
- Shell encoding is now auto-detected by default, unless a specific encoding is set in the preferences.
- Simplified and extended the theme editor, with new 'selection outline' and 'alternate background' values. A new 'Striped' theme has been added to show these effects off.
- Added keyboard shortcuts for the items in the drive popup button.
- Windows: drives in the drive popup button now show extended names.
- Bzip2 read-access speed substantially improved.
- Improved icon representation of symbolic links.
- 'Delete' dialog now shows the list of file to be deleted (contributed by Alejandro Scandroli).
- New 'Find' functionality added to the text viewer and editor (contributed by Mariusz Jakubowski).
- command keyword substitution now applies to marked files as well as the current selection.
- Quit confirmation dialog now shows the number of open windows and asks for confirmation when the last window is closed.
windows_file_managers - eSnips Search Nice collection of screenshots, links and descriptions. Highly recommended.
CategoryOrthodox file managers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Open Directory - Computers Software File Management File Managers Windows Orthodox
Open Directory - Computers Software File Management File Managers
Commander
Homepage -- collection of OFM links (mainly DOS/Win9x) by
"Robert Oorff" <orndorff@richmond.infi.net>.
A very nice page; contains information that complements this page
[Link updated Jan. 13, 2000]
I am going to try to include a link to every
"Commander" available. However, I primarily use Windows 95/98 and only somewhat
beyond the "novice" stage in Linux, so the selection listed here may be somewhat
biased. A Commander program has to have the two panel interface and the standard
F key assignments: F3 - View, F4 - Edit, F5 - Copy, F6 - Rename/Move, F7 - Make
Directory, and F8 - Delete. Also, support for whatever compressed archive is
standard for the OS, ZIP for DOS/Windows, tar.gz for Unix, etc. The ever present
command line is also a super handy feature.
nud Computers-Software-File Management-File Managers -- might be an older version of dmoz project file management page. Also at Computers-Software-File Management-File Managers
http://www.ghisler.com/ -- Total Commander site. One of the best GUI-based OFM for Windows.
Articles:
A Guide to Efficient Use of Windows Commander 4 by Ilya Gulko. Outdated but still useful. One tip is reproduced below:
If you're a webmaster and have FTP access to your web server, updating your web page should be very simple. You can use Windows Commander to easily synchronize the files on your computer with your web server. Just connect to the FTP server in one pane, and open the directory with the local copy of your files in the other pane. Now, press Shift+F2 to compare the two directories. All the files that are newer than the ones in the opposing directory are selected. If the file doesn't exist at all in the other pane, it is also selected. Now, go to the pane with the local files, and press F5 to copy all of the files that are not up to date.
Dos Navigator -- one of the best of DOS OFMs. Since it become open sourced several programmers are trying to upgrade it. At least two derivatives already work with long file names!
VC was not updated for several years so it's assumed to be dead, but it still have some adepts and reincarnation is still possible ;-). Here are some useful sites:
Volkov Commander -- official German and English homepage maintained by Daniel R. Egner. Among other things contains the latest versions of VC, a newsletter, a photo of the Vsevolod Volkov -- the famous author of VC, zip file with various icons for VC and an interesting collection of links about other OFMs. Attention: the site was redesigned (and IMHO greatly improved) in Jan.1999.
VC Official Polish Homepage -- site with good collection of utilities for OFMss. Among them hiew -- a viewer that is often used as an external viewer for VC, Edit 4.4. BTW this site contains all alpha versions for v.5 and a keyboard reference. Great job !
An Unofficial Volkov Commander Site maintained by Finn Ekberg Christiansen. Contains interesting icons for VC as well as good collection of links.
XTree Fan Page More On XTree Links -- Page of our friends -- fans of Xtree file manager... Please visit it. You can never fully understand OFM managers without trying Xtree-clone. Xtree introduced two great ideas:
"history everywhere" approach -- this is actually the second greatest idea of Xtree that eventually found its way into best OFMs is the idea that each and every operation should have history available.
Jeffrey C. Johnson XTree story from the original developer.
Articles:
Xtree -- a nice article
Better File Management By Using XTree by Tom Ruben & Len Stuart
See also the following derivatives:
ZTree -- Xtree managed to survived Symantec acquisition (the XTree company was bought by Central Point who were themselves immediately swallowed up by Symantec with usual result... Their first move was to bring out a XTree Gold 4 for Windows and then, as usual, to abandon the product...) See also ZTreeWin Unofficial Homepage and Zedtek
Tree86 Lite- Directory tree and file management utility.
UnixTree XTreeGold look-alike for the Unix and Linux systems by Rob Juergens
Ytree XTree look-alike file and archive browser for UNIX by Werner Bregulla
ZTreeBold Text mode XTreeGold clone for OS/2 by Kim Henkel
ZTreeWin Text mode XTreeGold clone for 32 bit Windows by Kim Henkel
ZTreeWin Unofficial Homepage
ZTreeWin support site by Victor Garcia
F freeware file manager features -- very interesting file manager; long list of useful features.
F is a freeware multi-platform text-mode file manager with many features. Main F functions: multiple file windows display, full support for ZIP archives, integration with built-in file viewer and editor, network support.
File Managers
-- list of free file managers
Childrens
of Captain Norton (in Russian) -- interesting page with some
new OFM managers [May 16, 1999]
Window
Managers for X [February 27, 1999]
Managers for Linux X11
http://sunsite.auc.dk/linuxberg/x11html/fil_managers.html
Chuck's
Linux File Manager Page contains descriptions of several OFM style managers
[December 4, 1998]
File
Managers/File Handling Utilities -- from SCO
[added October 3, 1998]
[March 7, 1999] GNU Interactive Tools - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF) -- non- orthodox, but very modular -- contains components that can be reused in other GPLed OFMs (suggested by Juhapekka Tolvanen <juhtolv@st.jyu.fi>)
Also, I was surprised to find out that tomorrow, February 6, is NC5's ninth birthday. Weird. Could it be that many others like myself felt a point of anguish and somehow projected it into the collective unconscious? Or does NC5 have a psychic presence among us, in our hearts and minds? I don't know, but here's to you, old buddy!
Posted by Eric Pircher on June 20, 2006 05:39 AM
Norton Commander 5.5 for DOS with Long File Names really exists. Look at Wikipedia to proof that is true.
Posted by TurricaN on November 24, 2005 11:52 AM
Well, turns out you are right, TurricaN. I don't know if it was you, but the other day a guy e-mailed me a copy of NC 5.5 with LFN support.I have to say that I was severely disappointed in this version. Unlike NC 5.0 and its predecessors, NC 5.5 needs to be installed and cannot be moved around with ease; it does not interact well with Windows, crashes a lot and is very slow.
P.S. TurricaN, just because someone says something on Wikipedia, it is not necessarily true.
NC 5.5 inability to move and crashes exists only in NT line of WIndows, while in Windows 9x/ME this is not in the case. For Windows NT better use NC 2.01 for Windows.
Posted by TurricaN on November 28, 2005 04:50 AM
Win 9x/ME is utter crap, without argument; the first good, stable Windows version was Win2K, which is NT-based. I will have you know that NC 5.0 works perfectly on all NT-based systems, even though it does need tweaking to work with LFN.Now, if I still wanted to use an orthodox file manager, I'd use FAR, by far (pun not intended) the superior NC clone, in all regards; NC for Windows is not a true OFM.
If you want 100% NC-like archiver, use Commandline ACE - mentioned in one of links inside Wikipedia NC article.Posted by ACEfan on February 13, 2006 07:27 AM
I would, Acefan; if I hadn't been lured by the power and compatibility (and increasing ubiquity) of WinRAR over the years. ;)I used to use NC 2.0-4.0, but then I discovered DOS Navigator.Posted by Guti on February 28, 2006 08:07 AM
A long time ago, on another computing platform, Peter Norton Computing released Norton Commander. This became my favorite file management program. As I wandered further and further into the UNIX realm, I found it hard to believe that a program like this wasn't available on UNIX. Finally, I came across Midnight Commander, as shown in Figure A. It offers more features than Norton Commander and, unlike Norton Commander, it runs on a variety of different computing platforms.
[Feb 7, 2000] Battle of the File Managers - the quest for the perfect file managers starts HERE! Suggested by Nguyen Nam Duy <ndnguyen@wanadoo.fr>
XTreePro as HTML-editor... : ion1.ionet.netbills
Xtree was another original file manager that created a strong following
and almost cult-like devotion. Like OFMs Xtree users were able to achieve very high
productivity in command line environment and it can became the style of thinking
about filesystem, more merely a file manager. Like OFMs Xtree was re-implemented
on most other operating systems, including Unix. See
UnixTree Homepage - XTree
alike filemanager for Unix - Linux
Along with tree-like representation of the DOS filesystem Xtree was/is a pioneer that introduced two very important concepts that later and often incompletely found their way to other file managers including OFM:
History for all commands
The idea of Virtual File System (from the first version Xtree users were able to work with files in any directory subtree as if they all were in one directory).
As far as I can remember the original version was very small(34K ?) and did all this staff and more... It was really amazing masterpiece of programming.
Please take a look on the homepage of Jeff Johnson, the author of the original XTree and XTreeGold (Thank you Jeff, for your great work !)
Recommended Links:
UnixTree
Homepage - XTree alike filemanager for Unix - Linux[Jan 5, 2001]
XTree Fan Page
More On XTree Links -- Page of our friends -- fans of Xtree file manager...
Please visit it. You can never fully understand OFM managers without trying
Xtree-clone. Actually two greatest achievements of Xtree eventually found their
way into OFMs. And if "history everywhere" -- each operation should have
history available was implemented more or less adequately, the idea of "flat
directory tree" or XtreeVFS) is still not implemented properly in most managers
(most limit themselves to Panelize command).
ZTree
-- Xtree clone that continues the line despite Symantec acquisition of Central
Point (the XTree company was bought by Central Point who were themselves
immediately swallowed up by Symantec with usual result... Their first move
was to bring out a (much inferior) XTree Gold 4 for Windows, then, as usual,
they abandon the product...). See also
ZTreeWin
Unofficial Homepage and
Zedtek
Xtree
-- a nice article
Better File Management By Using XTree by Tom Ruben & Len Stuart
UPX Homepage GPLed execution compressor
- UPX 1.07 has been released - featuring major compression speed improvements
- Visit the UPX Message Board for discussions about problems, features, GUI frontends, and more.
- We'd like to hear from you if you are a happy author that uses UPX to compress your programs! Please announce your files on the new UPX Application Board.
- The UCL compression library has been released. UCL is a re-implementation of some especially efficient NRV compression algorithms. This is the first step of the UPX source code release as UCL contains all of UPX's stub decompressors.
- UPX is rated number one in the well-known Archive Comparison Test .
- http://upx.tsx.org now is the official (and hopefully permanent) UPX redirector.
{*****} [Oct. 26, 1999] WebDrive FTP Client Software by RiverFront Software -- a revolutionary FTP client that makes an autonomous FTP VFS implementation in OFMs redundant. This was probably the most important breakthrough for the 1999 and paradoxically it was produced by the company that has nothing to do with OFM development. Currently limited to Windows 9x/NT environment. Highly recommended. Shareware $39. Suggested by Eric Pement <epement@jpusa.org>.
WebDrive is a Windows 95/98 FTP software client that allows you to map an Internet FTP site to a local drive utilizing the standard FTP protocol. This enables you to connect to an FTP site and perform familiar file operations like copy, xcopy, and directory functions with the Windows explorer, a DOS box, or any other application like Microsoft Word, Excel, etc. WebDrive instantly FTP enables any application that reads or writes files by allowing the application to read files from or write files to the FTP site.
Until now, in order to upload or download files from an FTP site, you needed to run a client FTP utility that presented a user interface to manually select the files to transfer. The WebDrive FTP client makes the FTP site an extension of the file system which enables you to use any application to upload or download files to the FTP site transparently. For more details, click here
Hiew 6.04 by Eugen Suslikov. Great external viewer for classic OFMs. Frequently used with VC...
Viewer for HTML and XML for DOS
George's Home Page -- textviewer with RTF reading capability
Polish Official VC site/Utilities -- indisputably the best collection of add-ons to DOS-based OFMs. Many will work in Linux's DOSEMU mode). I do not need to compile my own ;-). Please pay special attention to the following:
Gpm 1.0 -- Vsevolod Volkov driver that allows to select a part of the screen text by mouse and then paste it to this or another application (DOS, Windows 3.1X, Windows 9X, Windows NT, OS/2, Linux's DOSEMU).
View 16.0(a) -- File viewer for DOS, allows you to view: WordPerfect 5.0-7.0, Word 1.0-6.0 and 97,Word for DOS, Wordstar, HTML, Notepad, Publisher, Ami Pro, Write, RTF, ASCII, ANSI, UNIX, ClarisWorks. You can see a quick preview of the first part of files.
See also Softpanorama History links
FILE MANAGEMENT FOR DOS by Rich Green -- short descriptions of several DOS file managers including (OFMs are listed in italics). [Feb 9, 2000]
Volkov Commander -- official German and English homepage maintained by Daniel R. Egner. Among other things contains the latest versions of VC, a newsletter, a photo of the Vsevolod Volkov -- the famous author of VC, zip file with various icons for VC and an interesting collection of links about other OFMs. Attention: the site was redesigned (and IMHO greatly improved) in Jan.1999.
Dos Navigator -- one of the best of DOS OFMs. Since it become open sourced several programmers are trying to upgrade it. At least two derivatives already work with long file names!
[May 10, 2001] Some old staff from Symtel
- www.simtel.net: gencm132.zip (Genesis Commander 1.32: Norton Commander clone)
- ... Publisher: Simtel Legacy File Name: gencm132.zip Downloads: 22 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 167840 File Date: 1996-12-28
- www.simtel.net: tn122.zip (Free Norton_Commander-Windows_Explorer clone)
- ... Publisher: Marko Vodopija File Name: tn122.zip Downloads: 11 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 510956 File Date: 1999-11-07 01:08:00 Description: Free Norton_Commander-Windows_Explorer clone Turbo Navigator
- www.simtel.net: gynav125.zip (A Norton Commander clone.)
- ... Publisher: Gyula Bibernáth File Name: gynav125.zip Downloads: 11 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 1304715 File Date: 2001-04-26 04:52:00 Description: A Norton Commander clone. A Norton Commander clone for the win32 platform- Parallel file operations (copy, search) - Built in txt, rtf, bmp, avi viewer - ...
- www.simtel.net: ncav48bd.zip (Norton Commander Archive Viewer v4.8 Beta-D)
- ... Publisher: Simtel Legacy File Name: ncav48bd.zip Downloads: 3 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 297365 File Date: 1996-11-22 00:00:00 Description: Norton Commander Archive Viewer v4.8 Beta-D Norton Commander Archive Viewer v4.8
- www.simtel.net: rc150.zip (Clone of Norton Commander w/some new features)
- ... Publisher: Simtel Legacy File Name: rc150.zip Downloads: 16 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 214675 File Date: 1995-08-29 23:00:00 Description: Clone of Norton Commander w/some new features Clone of Norton Commander w/some new features
- www.simtel.net: dc-sk.zip (DOS Controller: Norton Commander clone)
- ... : Simtel Legacy File Name: dc-sk.zip Downloads: 21 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 39372 File Date: 1992-02-01 00:00:00 Description: DOS Controller: Norton Commander clone DOS Controller: Norton Commander clone
- www.simtel.net: wfu.zip (Wagner File Utility, like Norton Commander)
- ... Simtel Legacy File Name: wfu.zip Downloads: 6 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 49756 File Date: 1986-04-08 00:00:00 Description: Wagner File Utility, like Norton Commander Wagner File Utility, like Norton Commander
- www.simtel.net: fcw212.zip (File Commander/W v2.12: NC style file manager)
- ... Publisher: Brian Havard File Name: fcw212.zip Downloads: 48 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 262045 File Date: 2000-01-06 05:17:00 Description: File Commander/W v2.12: NC style file manager File Commander is a Norton Commander style 32 bit text mode file manager and shell. It allows you to locate, copy ...
- www.simtel.net: nc531.zip (Nico's Commander: File/Zip manager)
- ... Publisher: Nico Cuppen File Name: nc531.zip Downloads: 7 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 793246 File Date: 1999-12-13 13:28:00 Description: Nico's Commander: File/Zip manager Nico's Commander is a Windows 95/98/NT file manager that resembles the old Norton Commander. It offers a dual directory/folder display ...
- www.simtel.net: ncom23.zip (Norbert Commander NCOM: Long name file manager)
- ... Publisher: Norbert Harle File Name: ncom23.zip Downloads: 4 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 198704 File Date: 1997-04-20 23:00:00 Description: Norbert Commander NCOM:
www.simtel.net: ncmd_201.zip (NeuralCommander: File manager for Win 95/NT)
- ... : 1 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 786720 File Date: 1998-01-16 00:00:00 Description: NeuralCommander: File manager for Win 95/NT NeuralCommander is a Norton Commander like file manager running under Windows 95/NT.
www.simtel.net: cdnav41e.zip (CD Navigator v4.1: Audio & data disk catalog)
- ... ;amp; data disk catalog CD Navigator v4.1 is a disk catalog program for DOS. Handles audio, data, mixed CDs and support floppy cataloging. Looks like Norton Commander. ...
http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/551.shtml , 17294 bytes
- www.simtel.net: wn193.zip (Powerful but easy-to use file manager)
- ... .zip Downloads: 4 since 4/23/2001 File Size: 2250155 File Date: 2000-11-01 14:43:00 Description: Powerful but easy-to use file manager Explorer or Norton Commander. Besides usual file management (copy/move/delete etc), it contains built-in viewer for 9 most popular graphic formats, and 11 sound/music
XTree Fan Page More On XTree Links -- Page of our friends -- fans of Xtree file manager... Pleas
I'm so glad to find someone else who is nostalgic for the days of Norton Commander. Back in those days, you were either an XTree Gold man or an NC man ... I was definitely an NC man through and through. My fingers would fly through the keystrokes with NC, and hapless customers would stand by open-mouthed :)
I was so disappointed when I discovered that NC for Windows was slow and ugly. After a careful search, I settled on Servant Salamander and I haven't looked back since. God bless you, Norton Commander!
PS. Yes, I too keep a copy of NC4 and NC5 on my hard disk for no reason other than nostalgia :)