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DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

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Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#21

Post by Krisjohn »

mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

I used Norton Commander back in the DOS days, but hated the Windows product. I still find myself tossing Midnight Commander onto places I only have a text mode console for. (Great for Windows Core.)

My daily file manager now is Directory Opus. The dual pane stuff is at the core of how I use it.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#22

Post by 6c696e7578 »

mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

Was a bit like XTree Gold, but not quite.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#24

Post by 6c696e7578 »

jiveturkey wrote: post #11
mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

> Does anyone here recall Well, midnight commander is still actively updated even today in 2023.

Was going to mention mc as modern. Most people wouldn't see past the TUI.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#25

Post by networked »

galkk wrote: post #8
mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

Norton-style commanders were huge in xUSSR. FAR and Dos Navigator were among the most popular, and in the end FAR won it (as it was windows app and got rich ecosystem of plugins). They were good not only due dual panel interface (newer versions were actually multi-panel, where you cold go as many 2 panel "workspaces" as you want), but they enabled extremely efficient keyboard only workflows. Windows couldn't get it e…

Don't forget Volkov Commander (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkov_Commander). It was convenient for bootable floppies because of its small size and self-contained design.

Far 2 has a Linux (as well as macOS and BSD) port that is quite active: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l. Far Manager was what I switched to from Norton Commander. These days I prefer Double Commander, a cross-platform Total Commander workalike: https://doublecmd.sourceforge.io/.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#26

Post by blackhaz »

networked wrote: post #25
galkk wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Norton-style commanders were huge in xUSSR. FAR and Dos Navigator were among the most popular, and in the end FAR won it (as it was windows app and got rich ecosystem of plugins). They were good not only due dual panel interface (newer versions were actually multi-panel, where you cold go as many 2 panel "workspaces" as you want), but they enabled extremely efficient keyboard only workflows. Windows couldn't get it e…

Don't forget Volkov Commander ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkov_Commander ). It was convenient for bootable floppies because of its small size and self-contained design. Far 2 has a Linux (as well as macOS and BSD) port that is quite active: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l . Far Manager was what I switched to from Norton Commander. These days I prefer Double Commander, a cross-platform Total Commander workalike:…

Can't live without Double Commander. If anyone is wondering how it looks: https://ibb.co/Xbbp9qM

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#27

Post by krm01 »

behnamoh wrote: post #3

Icons used to be meaningful and convey what they did. Now it's mostly shiny fancy crap, and they all look the same. I always find it difficult to find VSCode on macOS because a lot of apps use similar colors and patterns. I tried customizing VSC's icon but it goes back to its ugly confusing default icon after each update.

I’ve designed many interfaces. Icons and use of icons is a difficult story. It used to be simpler, because many of the operations the icons would represent were digitized actions that previously had a physical component. For example: save was iconified as a diskette. Later we had upload icons being a cloud with an arrow going up to indicate ‘upload to the cloud’.

Today we design Interfaces for Machine Learning software, where an action might be ‘load language model’. These are actions that don’t have a history rooted in physical space. Or in the case of the upload icon, a visual metaphor.

So the iconography space is currently in an interesting phase. We have to create new metaphors if we want to keep utilizing benefits of icons in UI.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#28

Post by badsectoracula »

mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

I basically use Total Commander and Double Commander (open source TC clone) even on Linux as file managers (TC is a windows program but i use it via Wine, DC works natively on Linux but has missing features and bugs but it is easier to work with other native Linux apps while TC needs a bunch of workarounds).

These are NC-like programs.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#29

Post by prmoustache »

mjsweet wrote: post #6

*DESKTOP is somewhat in the middle between MS-Windows and Norton Commander...* Does anyone here recall the intuitive nature of Norton Commander, especially in terms of file operations? This may be reaching back about three decades, so my recollection might be a bit hazy. As I recall, it was a viable alternative to Windows Explorer even during the era of Windows 3.1. One particular aspect that stands out to me was the…

It is funny that people mostly remember Norton Commander while it came very late in msdos history.

Back in 1987 we were using Microsoft Dos Manager on our intel 8088 that was doing pretty much the same thing already, offering a dual pane.

You can see it here:

https://www.pcjs.org/software/pcx86/sys/ext/microsoft/dosmgr... (F9 to split panes, options menu allow to change color scheme)

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#30

Post by networked »

blackhaz wrote: post #26
networked wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't forget Volkov Commander ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkov_Commander ). It was convenient for bootable floppies because of its small size and self-contained design. Far 2 has a Linux (as well as macOS and BSD) port that is quite active: https://github.com/elfmz/far2l . Far Manager was what I switched to from Norton Commander. These days I prefer Double Commander, a cross-platform Total Commander workalike:…

Can't live without Double Commander. If anyone is wondering how it looks: https://ibb.co/Xbbp9qM

Nice Motif window decorations. What window manager is it?

This is what my Double Commander looks like: https://paste.dbohdan.com/doublecmd.mr2hnji.png. (Small screenshot because I am connected to my computer from an iPad at half its native resolution.)

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