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DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

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Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#51

Post by aldanor »

blacklion wrote: post #36
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…

What do you mean by "recall"? FAR Manager (which is modern incarnation of NC) is second program I install on any new Windows system (after Firefox). All these graphical file managers (both Explorer and Finder) are unusable to me. Absence of FAR is one of the main reasons I can not bear MacOS and, no, Midnight Commander is not replacement for modern FAR.

Heh, I've been there as well a decade ago when switching from windows to macos. Far manager was also the first program I'd also install on any box. I can assure you, this will eventually pass :)

To be fair, far is also not a match to modern file browsers like https://binarynights.com (forklift), especially if you need s3 integration etc

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#53

Post by LVB »

6c696e7578 wrote: post #22
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.

I credit XTree with building some of my foundational CS intuition. At 11 y/o I became a master at grouping, filtering, tagging, inverting, summing subgroups (directories), and coming up with efficient routes to moving stuff around as we coped with our ever-stuffed 10MB drive.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#54

Post by Torwald »

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…

another good one, originally steming from the Amiga:

https://www.gpsoft.com.au/

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#55

Post by rbanffy »

jaclaz wrote: post #42
rbanffy wrote: post #14

From the screenshots, it is a bit cluttered. I know the VGA resolution is limiting, but GUIs were not uncommon at that time.

Only for the record/for some retro experimenter, there was at the time also MC Shell, the Author, Mike Manning, allowed the redistribution of the full shell (it was Shareware at the time): http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=752

Looks MUCH nicer. I remember some library, which I saw used in an accounting package, that had a very OpenWindows look that worked well on low resolution screens.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#56

Post by blacklion »

aldanor wrote: post #51
blacklion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "recall"? FAR Manager (which is modern incarnation of NC) is second program I install on any new Windows system (after Firefox). All these graphical file managers (both Explorer and Finder) are unusable to me. Absence of FAR is one of the main reasons I can not bear MacOS and, no, Midnight Commander is not replacement for modern FAR.

Heh, I've been there as well a decade ago when switching from windows to macos. Far manager was also the first program I'd also install on any box. I can assure you, this will eventually pass :) To be fair, far is also not a match to modern file browsers like https://binarynights.com (forklift), especially if you need s3 integration etc

I've worked 6 months on corporate Macbook Pro 16" (M1 Max), and changed it to Dell (which is SLOWER) as soon as it become possible :-)

And, not, FAR IS match to these browsers, as here are hundreds if not thousands plugins. S3? We got it. DropBox? We got it. Any file-access protocol, including IMAP (!)? We got it! Also, editor with syntax coloring of hundreds of text formats, embedded command line with history (which works perfectly with addition of POSIX tools, like find, grep, cut, xargs, sort, etc), several ways to rename files by template ("multiple rename" in ForkLift features), etc, etc, etc.

Almost any task by organizing, editing and managing files you can name has plugin for FAR, if it is not embedded feature.

Does ForkLift support full-powered perl-compatible regular expressions for its operations? FAR does, including batch search-n-replace in text files (and archives!).

And it is only 1% of available plugins :-)

Plus all of that is controlled by keyboard, no mouse required at all. And all shortcuts are configurable, and here is embedded macro recording abilities.

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#57

Post by blacklion »

jannes wrote: post #40
blacklion wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you mean by "recall"? FAR Manager (which is modern incarnation of NC) is second program I install on any new Windows system (after Firefox). All these graphical file managers (both Explorer and Finder) are unusable to me. Absence of FAR is one of the main reasons I can not bear MacOS and, no, Midnight Commander is not replacement for modern FAR.

I use Directory Opus on Windows these days. https://www.gpsoft.com.au/

Does it have command line and terminal embedded?

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#58

Post by jaclaz »

rbanffy wrote: post #55
jaclaz wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Only for the record/for some retro experimenter, there was at the time also MC Shell, the Author, Mike Manning, allowed the redistribution of the full shell (it was Shareware at the time): http://reboot.pro/index.php?showtopic=752

Looks MUCH nicer. I remember some library, which I saw used in an accounting package, that had a very OpenWindows look that worked well on low resolution screens.

There was Ensemble/New Deal, though that was later (derived from Geoworks):

http://toastytech.com/guis/nd32.html

Re: DESKTOP2 – A Graphical User Interface for DOS

#59

Post by rbanffy »

jaclaz wrote: post #58
rbanffy wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks MUCH nicer. I remember some library, which I saw used in an accounting package, that had a very OpenWindows look that worked well on low resolution screens.

There was Ensemble/New Deal, though that was later (derived from Geoworks): http://toastytech.com/guis/nd32.html

That’s not the one. Close though and very pleasant to use.
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