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Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

marta.yanex.org

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Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#21

Post by crispinb »

derefr wrote: post #15
crispinb wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not really unfriendly for developers though, who I would expect make up a decent proportion of the intended audience, and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set. As for the Touch Bar, yes, that's a problem with the standard keybindings (and is also why I'll probably only be a macOS/Marta user for a few months, as I'll never buy a laptop with a fake keyboard). But settings to the…

> and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set. I develop for several different platforms on macOS, and have never felt the need to enable that setting, because I've never encountered any macOS software that required the Fn keys in this particular non-idiomatic way. Even macOS IDEs stay away, tending to map things to complex key-chords instead.

IntelliJ.

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#22

Post by yanex »

yeasayer wrote: post #7

I don't like that file operations are controlled by F1-F8 keys. This UX is unfriendly to macOS environment. Most users' F-row is in media keys mode by default, so you have to hold Fn otherwise. And I'm not even taking into account the Touch Bar.

Marta author here.

The default key binding set is a de facto standard for double-pane file managers. I personally used Total Commander for a long time until I switched to Mac, and I really missed a FM with the similar hotkeys.

But I understand now that it's not what all Mac users expect from a file manager. I'll make an option to choose the hotkeys on the first launch [1].

As about the Touch Bar, Marta supports it since 0.1.2.

[1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/30...

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#24

Post by yalestar »

This is really excellent. I used to use Altap Salamander when I was more of a Windows user, and it became one of my most indispensable tools. I've tried most of the Mac commander-style clones (Forklift, Pathfinder, fman, Nimble Commander) and found them slightly off for various reasons. This one really hits the mark for me in terms of functionality, usability/feel, performance, and predictability. And the Sublime-style command palette makes it even better. Excellent job!

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#25

Post by mrgordon »

josteink wrote: post #10
cyrusmg wrote: post #2

The file manager seems to be closed-source[1], does anyone know of any good open-source alternatives ? [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/

While I think downvoting this comment is unfair, it should be noted that if you care about your OS and tools being open-source, you probably shouldn’t be running OSX in the first place. I might even suggest running Linux. Oh my :)

This all or nothing mentality doesn't often end up being useful in practice. For example, try doing some deep learning on Linux with CUDA without installing closed source NVIDIA drivers. The important detail is who provided the software and in this case most people are going to trust Apple or NVIDIA significantly more than a small third-party software developer they've never heard of.

(FWIW many of us tried running Linux as a desktop OS but found the UI and driver situation to be abysmal so it continues to just power our servers)

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#26

Post by bitL »

yalestar wrote: post #24

This is really excellent. I used to use Altap Salamander when I was more of a Windows user, and it became one of my most indispensable tools. I've tried most of the Mac commander-style clones (Forklift, Pathfinder, fman, Nimble Commander) and found them slightly off for various reasons. This one really hits the mark for me in terms of functionality, usability/feel, performance, and predictability. And the Sublime-sty…

Try Double Commander.

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#27

Post by eridius »

mephitix wrote: post #14
saagarjha wrote: post #3

What does this app provide that Finder doesn't? I see something about a background operation queue, which Finder does, archive support, which I have a QuickLook plugin for, and gadgets, which I can accomplish with services.

If you've ever used Total Commander or even Windows 7+ native file explorer it's very hard to go back to or use Finder. Keyboard shortcuts, tokenizing/detokenizing file paths, opening in terminal, searching within files, search for duplicate files, bulk rename, plugins, and more. Whenever I have a new Mac I spend a couple minutes customizing Finder: adding things like the Path button, showing the Path bar, showing th…

What does "tokenizing/detokenizing file paths" mean?

"Open in terminal" is actually a built-in Service. It's not enabled by default, but you can go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services and enable it, and even give it a hotkey.

Finder also has done bulk rename for a few years now.

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#28

Post by ReverseCold »

mrgordon wrote: post #25
josteink wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I think downvoting this comment is unfair, it should be noted that if you care about your OS and tools being open-source, you probably shouldn’t be running OSX in the first place. I might even suggest running Linux. Oh my :)

This all or nothing mentality doesn't often end up being useful in practice. For example, try doing some deep learning on Linux with CUDA without installing closed source NVIDIA drivers. The important detail is who provided the software and in this case most people are going to trust Apple or NVIDIA significantly more than a small third-party software developer they've never heard of. (FWIW many of us tried running L…

Linux is actually good now for desktop use. I install it (= Fedora or Antergos w/ GNOME) on everything now and it just works(tm).

Not a single thing has been broken across two modern PCs and a laptop.

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#29

Post by dylan604 »

mephitix wrote: post #14
saagarjha wrote: post #3

What does this app provide that Finder doesn't? I see something about a background operation queue, which Finder does, archive support, which I have a QuickLook plugin for, and gadgets, which I can accomplish with services.

If you've ever used Total Commander or even Windows 7+ native file explorer it's very hard to go back to or use Finder. Keyboard shortcuts, tokenizing/detokenizing file paths, opening in terminal, searching within files, search for duplicate files, bulk rename, plugins, and more. Whenever I have a new Mac I spend a couple minutes customizing Finder: adding things like the Path button, showing the Path bar, showing th…

> I do love the spacebar preview though :)

This. It's the biggest pain point I have with using Windows Explorer. As a Mac user, it's pure muscle memory to select a file and hit the space to look at it. Once I'm on Windows, I feel the whole computer is broken because of this one missing feature.

Re: Marta, file manager for macOS, goes beta

#30

Post by Digital-Citizen »

cyrusmg wrote: post #2

The file manager seems to be closed-source[1], does anyone know of any good open-source alternatives ? [1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/

If that's the case (and I take it the absence of a source code repository is how you're reaching your conclusion), that's ironic. The Marta webpage linked to this story includes "Because I want to own what I pay money for." yet one never truly owns proprietary software regardless of price; one can never really tell what it is doing, and users are prohibited from inspecting the program to find out, as well as sharing copies (modified for sure, often verbatim copies too).
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