OFM Bulletin, Vol 15 (2011)

[Dec 06, 2011] GNOME Commander 1.2.8.15

Freecode

GNOME Commander is a fast and powerful graphical file manager. It has a "two-pane" interface in the tradition of Norton and Midnight Commander. It features drag'n'drop, GNOME MIME types, FTP, SFTP, and WebDAV using the GnomeVFS FTP module, SAMBA access, the ability to extend the context menu with entries to call external applications or scripts on the selected items, quick device access buttons with automatic mounting and unmounting, a fast file viewer for text and images, a history of recently accessed folders, and folder bookmarks.

[Jul 02, 2011] Double Commander

Open source, GUI-based OFM with interface similar to Total Commander. Has tabs.  Current version is 0.4.5.2 beta. Pretty stable. Good , usable built-in editor. Precompiled binaries for Linux 64 and 32 bin and Windows 64 and 32 bit are available.   Ability to expand command line window to view the results of the command execution, which would single out it from the crowd, is absent. Not sure about the ability to export macro variables like current panel, left panel, right_panel, etc to the environment.

Double Commander is a cross platform open source file manager with two panels side by side. It is inspired by Total Commander and features some new ideas.

Here are some key features of Double Commander:

• Unicode support
• All operations working in background
• Multi-rename tool
• Tabbed interface
• Custom columns
• Internal text editor (F4) with syntax hightlighting
• Built in file viewer (F3) to view files of in hex, binary or text format
• Archives are handled like subdirectories. You can easily copy files to and from archives. Supported archive types: ZIP, TAR GZ, TGZ, LZMA and also BZ2, RPM, CPIO, DEB, RAR.
• Extended search function with full text search in any files Configurable button bar to start external programs or internal menu commands Total Commander WCX, WDX and WLX plug-ins support File operations logging And more...

[Jun 03, 2011] firecommander - Orthodox File Manager implemented as Firefox extension - Google Project Hosting

Fire Commander is a tool aimed at power users, who prefer traditional two-panel layout, no toolbars and keyboard control.

• Fire Commander Manual
  • Installation & Running
    • As a Firefox extension - from XPI
    • As a Firefox extension - from SVN
    • As a XULRunner application
    • As a XULRunner application, launched from Firefox
  • Usage
  • Comments, feature requests

[Jun 03, 2011] sharpfile - A small, efficient orthodox file manager written in C# - Google Project Hosting

This is intended to be a C# implementation of an orthodox file manager. As of right now, it is about alpha-quality, but it is slowly becoming more usable.

Features

• Drag and drop for copy/move
• Right-click context menu
• File rename with filename selection and tooltips for incorrect file characters
• Automatically refreshing file view
• Calculate directory size inline
• Tabs
• Filter files on-the-fly
• File icons (including TortoiseSVN overlay icons)
• Most operations are multi-threaded for a smoother experience
• Massive amounts of configurability
  • Columns (name, order, property to show, whether the data gets altered in any way)
  • Whether or not to show a root/parent directory
  • How to sort directories (all first, like Windows, or the same as files, like UNIX or OS X)
  • How the drive dropdown displays information
  • How the preview panel displays information
• Plugin support for panes
  • Preview panel which shows the text or thumbnails for files
  • Command-line
• Dynamic tool menu to use custom inputs for commands
• Compressed file support

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 have a mini player inside the listview), show detailed information about copy/move operations with ability to cancel.

For more information about orthodox file managers, please see the wiki article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_file_manager.

SharpFile requires .NET 2.0 Framework only. For more information and download information on the .NET framework and what is necessary for your system, please visit: http://www.SmallestDotNet.com.

[May 22, 2011] Last File Manager freshmeat.net

Lfm is a curses-based file manager for the Unix console written in Python

21 May 2011

Python 2.5 or later is required now. PowerCLI was added, an advanced command line interface with completion, persistent history, variable substitution, and many other useful features.

Persistent history in all forms was added. Lots of improvements were made and bugs were fixed

[Apr 11, 2011] Sunflower

Written in Python...

freshmeat.net

Sunflower is a small and highly customizable twin-panel file manager for Linux with support for plugins. It is intended to be an easy-to-use and powerful file manager that seamlessly integrates into the GNOME desktop environment.

[Mar 26, 2011] Scripting the Linux desktop, Part 2 Scripting Nautilus

Nautilus makes available a number of environment variables containing things like the current directory and the selected files when a script is invoked. Table 1 shows these environment variables.

Table 1. Nautilus environment variables

Environment variable	Description
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS	Newline-delimited paths for selected files (only if local)
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS	Newline-delimited URIs for selected files
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI	The current location
NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_WINDOW_GEOMETRY	The position and size of the current window

In Python, you obtain the value of these variables with a single call to the os.environ.get function as follows:

selected = os.environ.get('NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS,'')

This call returns a string with paths to all the selected files delimited with the newline character. Python makes it easy to turn this string into an iterable list with the following line:

targets = selected.splitlines()

At this point, it's probably a good idea to stop and talk about user interaction. Once control is passed from Nautilus to the script, there are really no restrictions on what the script does from that point on. Depending on what the script does, there might not even be a need for any user feedback, with the exception of some type of completion or error message, which you can take care of with a simple message box. Because Nautilus is written using the gtk windowing toolkit, it seems like a logical choice to do the same, although this is not required. You could just as easily use TkInter or wxPython.

For the purposes of this article, you'll use gtk. Producing a simple message box to communicate completion status requires just a few lines of code. For readability purposes, this code will fit best if you create a simple function to generate the message. Doing so requires a total of four lines of code:

def alert(msg):
    dialog = gtk.MessageDialog()
    dialog.set_markup(msg)
	dialog.run()

Example: Creating a simple script to return the number of selected files

The first example program combines these snippets into a simple script that returns the number of files currently selected. This script will work for individual files or directories. You'll use another Python library function, os.walk, to recursively build a list of files in each directory. A total of 38 lines of code, shown in Listing 1, is all you needed for this little utility, including blanks lines.

Listing 1. Python code for the Filecount script

	
#!/usr/bin/env python
import pygtk
pygtk.require('2.0')
import gtk
import os

def alert(msg):
    """Show a dialog with a simple message."""

    dialog = gtk.MessageDialog()
    dialog.set_markup(msg)
    dialog.run()

def main():
    selected = os.environ.get('NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS', '')
    curdir = os.environ.get('NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI', os.curdir)
    
    if selected:
        targets = selected.splitlines()
    else:
        targets = [curdir]
    
    files = []
    directories = []
    
    for target in targets:
        if target.startswith('file:///'):
            target = target[7:]
        for dirname, dirnames, filenames in os.walk(target):
            for dirname in dirnames:
                directories.append(dirname)
            for filename in filenames:
                files.append(filename)

    alert('%s directories and %s files' %
          (len(directories),len(files)))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    main()

[Mar 20, 2011] File Commander V2.40

This is one of the oldest existing OFM, older the FAR, older then Total Commander. And the only Australian one in popular OFMs mix. The author pays tremendous attention to details of operations (for example F8 does not to recursively decent to the symbolic links that point to directories. Highly recommended

New Features

• Support includes in user menu files.
• Unix port (Linux, FreeBSD, OpenSolaris).
• Win64 port.
• Use Unicode for all file names on Windows & Unix.
• Syntax highlighting in the viewer.
• Viewer and editor support for Unicode text files.
• Symbolic link support in Unix & Windows.
  • Panels display a link's target.
  • Ctrl-Shift-F5 creates a link.
  • F8-Delete knows not to recurse into a link to a directory.
  • Links to files require Windows Vista or later. Directory links require Windows 2000 or later and NTFS
• Support for 7zip archives.
• Support for bzip2 files.
• Scroll back viewer to browse previous program output (Only enabled for unix by default).
• File Information display (Ctrl-I) shows complete file metadata.
• OS/2 & Windows: Ctrl-Shift-E to eject removable media & Ctrl-Shift-L to load.
• Unix: Ctrl-M displays mount point selection list with eject function

Minor Enhancements

• Change the search match highlight colour in the viewer from "Menu Bar" to "Highlight" which is consistent with the editor and more sensible.
• Preserve the case of environment variable names.
• Case insensitive matching is now Unicode based so will work with all languages.
• Allow re-sorting of File Find results before search has finished.
• Use a separate thread to update the file copy progress box to reduce flicker and improve copy speed.
• Editor: line length limit of 64kB removed.
• Windows: Don't query CWD of network drives at startup.
• Windows: Resolve subst'd drives when determining if a file can be moved without copy/delete.
• Added new syntax highlighting directive, "statechange" which allows more flexible state transitions.
• Added includes in syntax defintion file.
• Add support for Unicode file names in RAR archives.
• TAR file support improvements
  • Fix checksum calculation when there are bytes in the header >127.
  • Interpret file names as UTF-8.
• Added field in File Find to specify the code page used when searching files for the "Containing" string.
• Copy/Move: Add ability to specify overwrite mode in the initial dialog so that you don't have to wait for the first collision to occur.
• Add !lf operator to provide a list of tagged files with their full path.
• Add !tf (tagged file with full path).
• Add ability to remove an entry from command history with Delete key.
• Syntax Highlighter: Add /w flag for syntax states of "word scope" to assist with LISP keywords.
• Syntax Highlighter: Enable word characters to be redefined for each state.

Debian Repository

Users of Debian based Linux systems (including Ubuntu) can stay up to date by adding the File Commander repository to their sources list.

• So that package integrity can be verified, download the File Commander public key and add it to your system using either "sudo apt-key add" or Synaptic Package Manager (Settings/Repositories/Authentication/Import Key File).
• Add the line

  deb http://silk.apana.org.au/debian lenny main

  to your /etc/apt/sources.list either by editing it directly or using something like Synaptic Package Manager (Settings/Repositories/Other Software/Add).

RPM Repository

Users of RPM base Linux systems (including Fedora, Red Hat, OpenSUSE, Mandriva) can stay up to date by adding the File Commander repository to their repository list.

• So that package integrity can be verified, download the File Commander public key and add it to your system using "sudo rpm --import fcl.public.key".
• Download the File Commander repo file for Fedora 10+ or Centos/RHEL 5 and put it

[Feb 26, 2011] Orthodox file managers

November 13, 2010 | Computer Hermit

 I remember when I was at elementary school in the computer lessons, we had XTs there (raah lovely for a Computer Hermit like me :) and I was learning to use DOS. Some guy told me "What are you doing? Try cd norton and then type nc". I am surprised now that he knew that thing because he didn't seemed like the person interested in learning what we did in the class. I didn't know what Norton Commander was then. I couldn't even imagine. I am curious about the cultural shock I might had then when I switched from the black DOS background to those two blue panels and never had to type DOS commands again (though I was pretty good at that already).

Well, I found about Norton Commander later and got used to it and loved it. I don't remember when and I don't remember my shock. I probably have missing memories. Much later I installed Windows 95 and so I was using the File Explorer. A friend introduced me to Total Commander (Windows Commander then) and since that time I can't live without it. I learn now that the whole concept of such a file manager is called an Orthodox file manager and there are a lot of managers in the similar style today. I think there is one or more in Amiga and there is certainly one in SymbOS for CPC which is called of course SymCommander :)

Not many people are using Total Commander or something similar. Of course it's hard to get into it when you are used to Windows Explorer. But I was already familiar with Norton Commander in DOS and the way I was using the arrow keys and TAB to navigate and all the other shortcuts, copying, moving, deleting, decompressing stuff in a frenzy, such way it would be not possible to do with windows explorer. I always hated when I had to open two windows explorers and move and resize the windows so that they don't overlap and drag and drop stuff with the mouse, which becomes a more cumbersome action especially if your mousepad sucks and you take a long effort to move stuff around. Ok,. it's not that bad, but when you are used into playing with the keys and copy/move stuff around and organize your directories and stuff so nicely and fast you can never go back.

People are crazed when I install Total Commander in their PC just so I can do my job. Some people hate it. I don't know why. There is even a group in facebook called "I hate Total Commander" but it's not a programm about which everyone talks, it's not a thing that is like a propaganda. It's a programm that very few know. How can they hate a thing that nobody cares about? The boss in my first job was surprised positively that I was using Total Commander and I was the only one there using it. Other people near me hate it, someone was afraid something was wrong with copying file because I wasn't using the explorer but that thing. Doh?
 

[Feb 20, 2011] FreeCommander  version 2009.02b

Really nice, free implementation of GUI-based OFM for Windows.

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 or USB-Stick - 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
• Built in FTP client
• Easy access to system folders, control panel, desktop and start menu
• Copy, move, delete, rename files and folders
• Multi rename tool
• 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

[Jan 11, 2011] Sunrise Commander Version 5 released - comp.emacs Google Groups

On 23.12.2010 0:14, Josà A. Romero L. wrote:
Hello, Emacs Community!

For those who don't know yet, the Sunrise Commander is a powerful and versatile twin-pane file manager for GNU Emacs built on top of Dired, inspired by the Midnight Commander and heavily influenced by the OFM
specification (http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml).

Year 2010 brought to the Sunrise Commander a lot of improvements and a few original new features. Here is a list of the most important and noteworthy changes made since version 4 (r244) was first published

Etc

Society

Groupthink : Two Party System as Polyarchy : Corruption of Regulators : Bureaucracies : Understanding Micromanagers and Control Freaks : Toxic Managers :   Harvard Mafia : Diplomatic Communication : Surviving a Bad Performance Review : Insufficient Retirement Funds as Immanent Problem of Neoliberal Regime : PseudoScience : Who Rules America : Neoliberalism  : The Iron Law of Oligarchy : Libertarian Philosophy

Quotes

War and Peace : Skeptical Finance : John Kenneth Galbraith :Talleyrand : Oscar Wilde : Otto Von Bismarck : Keynes : George Carlin : Skeptics : Propaganda  : SE quotes : Language Design and Programming Quotes : Random IT-related quotes :  Somerset Maugham : Marcus Aurelius : Kurt Vonnegut : Eric Hoffer : Winston Churchill : Napoleon Bonaparte : Ambrose Bierce :  Bernard Shaw : Mark Twain Quotes

Bulletin:

Vol 25, No.12 (December, 2013) Rational Fools vs. Efficient Crooks The efficient markets hypothesis : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2013 : Unemployment Bulletin, 2010 :  Vol 23, No.10 (October, 2011) An observation about corporate security departments : Slightly Skeptical Euromaydan Chronicles, June 2014 : Greenspan legacy bulletin, 2008 : Vol 25, No.10 (October, 2013) Cryptolocker Trojan (Win32/Crilock.A) : Vol 25, No.08 (August, 2013) Cloud providers as intelligence collection hubs : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : Inequality Bulletin, 2009 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Copyleft Problems Bulletin, 2004 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Energy Bulletin, 2010 : Malware Protection Bulletin, 2010 : Vol 26, No.1 (January, 2013) Object-Oriented Cult : Political Skeptic Bulletin, 2011 : Vol 23, No.11 (November, 2011) Softpanorama classification of sysadmin horror stories : Vol 25, No.05 (May, 2013) Corporate bullshit as a communication method  : Vol 25, No.06 (June, 2013) A Note on the Relationship of Brooks Law and Conway Law

History:

Fifty glorious years (1950-2000): the triumph of the US computer engineering : Donald Knuth : TAoCP and its Influence of Computer Science : Richard Stallman : Linus Torvalds  : Larry Wall  : John K. Ousterhout : CTSS : Multix OS Unix History : Unix shell history : VI editor : History of pipes concept : Solaris : MS DOS :  Programming Languages History : PL/1 : Simula 67 : C : History of GCC development :  Scripting Languages : Perl history   : OS History : Mail : DNS : SSH : CPU Instruction Sets : SPARC systems 1987-2006 : Norton Commander : Norton Utilities : Norton Ghost : Frontpage history : Malware Defense History : GNU Screen : OSS early history

Classic books:

The Peter Principle : Parkinson Law : 1984 : The Mythical Man-Month :  How to Solve It by George Polya : The Art of Computer Programming : The Elements of Programming Style : The Unix Hater’s Handbook : The Jargon file : The True Believer : Programming Pearls : The Good Soldier Svejk : The Power Elite

Most popular humor pages:

Manifest of the Softpanorama IT Slacker Society : Ten Commandments of the IT Slackers Society : Computer Humor Collection : BSD Logo Story : The Cuckoo's Egg : IT Slang : C++ Humor : ARE YOU A BBS ADDICT? : The Perl Purity Test : Object oriented programmers of all nations : Financial Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2008 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2010 : The Most Comprehensive Collection of Editor-related Humor : Programming Language Humor : Goldman Sachs related humor : Greenspan humor : C Humor : Scripting Humor : Real Programmers Humor : Web Humor : GPL-related Humor : OFM Humor : Politically Incorrect Humor : IDS Humor : "Linux Sucks" Humor : Russian Musical Humor : Best Russian Programmer Humor : Microsoft plans to buy Catholic Church : Richard Stallman Related Humor : Admin Humor : Perl-related Humor : Linus Torvalds Related humor : PseudoScience Related Humor : Networking Humor : Shell Humor : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2011 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2012 : Financial Humor Bulletin, 2013 : Java Humor : Software Engineering Humor : Sun Solaris Related Humor : Education Humor : IBM Humor : Assembler-related Humor : VIM Humor : Computer Viruses Humor : Bright tomorrow is rescheduled to a day after tomorrow : Classic Computer Humor

The Last but not Least Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage and those who manage what they do not understand ~Archibald Putt. Ph.D

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Last modified: March 12, 2019