Less is More: The Orthodox File Manager (OFM) Paradigm

by Dr Nikolai Bezroukov

Content : Foreword : Ch01 : Ch02 : Ch03 : Ch04 : Ch05 : Ch06 : Ch07 : OFM1999 : OFM2004 : OFM2012

Classic OS/2 implementations

Technically OS/2 was superior to Windows 95.  Generally OS/2 is more close to UNIX  than Windows 95 and like UNIX has decent command line interface and large library of command line programs. OS/2 GNU ports are of very high quality and usually are up to date. 

OS/2 file systems (both FAT-based and HPFS)  also has unique and a very interesting concept of  file attributes -- so called extended attributes. If I remember correctly the initial idea was to based on the fact that at least half of  the sectors in the last cluster are empty and can be used for storage of useful information about the file. But it was implemented differently and can be considered as a database for a particular file. And in many respects this concept makes OS/2 file system behave like general purpose database. For example extended attributes like .SUBJECT, .COMMENT and .KEYPHRASES can be used as a descriptor for the file -- much more powerful and clean implementation of descriptors that hacks like descript.ion in 4DOS or treeinfo.  Other example is storing of interpreted Rexx as an extended attribute -- the idea that makes running of REXX scripts much faster that scripts in Unix or NT.

Unfortunately OS/2 file systems does not support links natively (if it would do so, it would be more powerful than UNIX filesystem), but free extension to HPFS (the Toronto Virtual File System) provided for links for directories.  

OS/2 was very popular among FIDO sysops, so the number of OFMs implementations was second only to DOS/Windows. I have found almost ten OFM implementations in the Hobbes OS/2 archive.  At least four OFMs discussed in DOS/Windows section of the paper have native OS/2 implementations. Among them is  EFC,  JetCommander, MC and Norton Commander for OS/2 (the latter is a discontinued commercial product). Other OS/2-based  OFM implementations include:

• File Commander. The leading OFM implementation for OS/2, later ported to Windows and Linux/Unix. We will discuss it in Chapter 5
• Larsen Commander. An excellent GUI-based OFM for OS/2. Very interesting and innovative solution for "console monitor". I feel that built-in commands popd and pushd that are trivial to implement should be added to command list of all DOS/Windows OFMs too.

  Larsen Commander is a powerful GUI File Manager and Command Processor that has a look and feel like the classic Norton Commander. The most notable difference is that the Larsen Commander is pure GUI but still has a built in command line and a scrollable console monitor. You can find some interesting screen shots at this page, and you can download Larsen Commander version 1.0 for OS/2 here. If you experience any bugs or problems with the program then please let me know by sending a mail to: [email protected]

   Among most interesting features:

  • Filename completion (ala 4OS2) when pressing CTRL+TAB.
  • All commands are accessible by keyboard shortcuts and are customizable !
  • Built on optimized C++ library that ensures low memory usage and high speed.
  • Built in command line commands: ALIAS, CD, CLS, EXIT, FINDDUP, HELP, HIST, INFO, POPD, PUSHD, REP, SET, TAG, UNTAG, WHICH, +++
  • editable INI-file.
  • Snappy bubble help with dynamic keyboard shortcut mnemonics.
  • Preserves the Command and Directory History between sessions.
  • User customizable icon resources
  • Scrollable console monitor, with various search and navigation capabilities.
  • Built in GUI Console and Command Line with History.
• F file manager. Free file manager with two panels, but non-orthodox key mappings. Has some advanced features. It has been developed by Nam Duy Nguyen. Initially developed on OS/2, it was ported to Windows and then to Linux. Suggested by Michel Normand <[email protected]>
• JC - Jet Commander by Frank Klosek  (already discussed in classical OFM section)
• DirMaster.
• fm2 - file manager from Barefoot Productions.
• nemo - Captain Nemo.
• os2c -OS/2 Commander.

OS/2 supported a powerful macro/script language -- REXX. And it's rather strange that there were no attempts to integrate REXX into any OFM implementation on OS/2.  That makes OS/2 implementations less interesting. So we will discuss only one OS/2 implementation - FC in Windows section o this e-book (see Chapter 5)

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