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News and Reviews => Mini-Reviews by Members => Topic started by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 10:53 AM

Title: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 10:53 AM
After more than eighteen weeks of private beta testing and eight months since previous version, Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 is finally available.

Official announcement: http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=21820

The newest version brings out almost 600 fixes (mostly related to new functionality) and many new features. In this mini-review I will try to focus on the biggest changes only because I want to avoid copy&paste of help file. I recommend to take a look on Help or HISTORY.TXT files (some additions will be listed at the end of my post though).

I also encourage anyone to write full review about how do you use the newest TC or what do you expect from it :)

What is worth to mention is that 7.5pb1 is free for any registered user. Simply run downloaded file and improved installer will update your installation without any data loss.

Even having above in mind I recommend anyone to make backup of your TC (&data but it's obvious) before using it. This is first public beta and new bugs will be found. If you find any, please, report them on TC's forum board.

1. Unicode support

The most awaited feature was to have this application Unicode aware. TC previously had been warning users about improper characters in directories names but it changed. All internal tools support Unicode now. Also plugins API has been updated for that reason. I hope its authors will update their files soon to use it to the fullest.

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

Internal "Compare by content" window gained few benefits and allows to compare any combination of ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16  and UTF-16 little endian (Mac).


2. Files handling

64bit systems users will be satisfied now because context menu problems should be gone. TC handles them properly and even allows to define which shell extensions should be shown for them.

Also all time-related functions now use the NTFS time instead of the old FAT file system time (dates before 1980 supported). There are no problems with paths containing names longer than 259 characters too.

Copy dialog gained Pause/Start buttons also in foreground transfers. Copying to multiple targets (folders or LNK files) is supported by selecting them before copy.


3. FTP

All connections are now stored with within tree and can be grouped in folders for easier usage. Because of many complaints about passwords storage security, TC offers master password (AES) for better protection of your data.

Obviously, all encoding related features has been also added like:

[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

4. Breadcrumbs

There were few requests on public board about this functionality and one of them growth large enough to gain author's agreement for implementation. So similar to other file managers (i.e. DirectoryOpus, Vista's Explorer) TC has breadcrumb navigation panel now. The biggest difference from other software is that even if breadcrumbs are mainly mouse oriented, Total offers keyboard shortcuts (Alt+F11, Alt+F12) for them what extends it's usability for each keyboard lover.

By default breadcrumbs seem to be harder to handle because of no automatic menu pop-up but after a little bit of playing with wincmd.ini file, they are lot easier to use.

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wincmd.ini
[Configuration]
BreadcrumbDelayButton=-500


Drag'n'drop is fully supported not only for local drives but also for FTP and filesystem (WFX) plugins.

5. Internal associations system

One of the best features (IMHO better than Unicode) delivered within newest TC is portable files associations system which allow to skip Windows registry hell while dealing with various files. Thanks to that you can assign any application to any kind of file by your own and be sure that your setting will follow you with your pendrive together with favourite applications. All changes made are not messing with operating system and are valid in TC only. By default each assigned program is called by Enter or double click but there is nothing against having more than one application: they will be visible in RMB menu or in separate one (called with cm_ContextMenuInternal command).

Sounds simple and not revealing my excitement yet? Well...

The power of this feature is using similar approach as for files names colouring which are filters based on "Find files" dialog. It is now possible to have rules defined according to various files attributes like date, size, hidden / system /etc. or data provided by content (WDX) plugins. So (i.e.) you can have AIMP opened for John Lennon's songs and Foobar for Paul McCartney ones (to keep 'em separated ;) Of course, if there are no internal associations, Windows ones will be used instead.

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6. Lister

Due to Unicode support it would be inexcusable if there is no support for different characters encoding. Since this version Lister will not only allow you to change displayed text's characters set but will also offer full RTL handling, with easy language direction switch between LTR and RTL (hold Ctrl and press either left or right Shift key).

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7. Quick filter

Quick filter (Ctrl+S, Ctrl+Shift+S), as the name reveals, give the possibility to filter files list according to typed phrase. QF, custom views and file types filter (menu Show -> Custom) - these features altogether make files operations much easier than any other known (at least to me) file manager.


[ You are not allowed to view attachments ]

8. Button bar

Over the years buttons bar seemed to be ignored and few changes made to it, so Christian Ghisler took his time (and users ideas) and extended its functionality. Maximum number of available buttons has been incerased to 500 and they can be placed in multiple rows. No more gymnastics with empty buttons :)

For such purpose button bar edit dialog has been redesigned a little bit:

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As you can see on the picture above, you can add a "link" to other button bar. You can even treat it as pop-up menu:

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9. More, and more, and more…

All previous paragraphs are only a brief description of new features. Lots of things have been improved (i.e. synchronize tool or new command line parameters) and it's impossible to write them all and keep myself away from overwriting. I recommend (once again) to take a look on history file to get whole  fixes / addins coverage.. For simple list of some addins, for which I got bored too soon to make it complete... simply click on button below.

Even more features added…
  • Allow to use the Windows key for custom hotkeys
  • CRC check: Show lines with errors in red, so they can be found more easily
  • Combine files: Show counter of file being combined
  • Combine files: Show counter of file being combined
  • Command line switch /S=C starts directly "Compare by content" without TC main window, e.g. totalcmd.exe /S=C c:\file1 d:\file2
  • Command line switch /S=L starts Lister directly
  • Command line switch /S=S starts "Synchronize dirs" directly, accepts two paths as parameters, or alternatively a settings name in the form /S=S:SettingsName
  • Ctrl+C or Ctrl+Insert in new style overwrite dialog copies names and details to clipboard (similar to standard Windows MessageBox)
  • Custom icon for CRC checksum files (.sfv, .sha, .md5)
  • Date/time picker to search dialog (date from/to)
  • Drag file system plugin root to button bar -> add button with the icon of this plugin
  • Dropdown menu listing all redefined hotkeys
  • Exception stack trace code added, inspired by uLkStackTrace. Modified code available under http://www.ghisler.com/strace.zip in accordance with Mozilla General Public License
  • Installer: Auto-detect previous installation and allow to auto-update without questions asked. No icons will be created.
  • Installer: Let the user retry when overwriting a file fails -> user can close the running program/open file
  • Installer: Only close running Total Commander if in same dir where the installation goes to (only works on NT-based systems)
  • Internal unpacking of encrypted RAR archive with encrypted file names (Alt+F9 unpack specific only)
  • Internal unpacking of multi-part RAR archives: Alt+F9 on first file unpacks all files from it, even if they are on different disks
  • Internal unpacking of multi-part RAR archives: ENTER on first part shows content of all parts in same dir and allows to unpack them
  • More keys for hotkeys in Configuration - Options - Misc
  • New icons for Ctrl+S quick search filter, sync dialog title, ftp connection dialog, and "ftp" item in tree and breadcrumb bar
  • New internal cm_SrcHideQuickView (also with Left and Right) to turn quick view panel off
  • New internal command with parameters: MULTIRENAME <saved rename parameters> opens the multi-rename dialog box with the specified rename parameters. Giving an invalid name will set all options to the default values
  • New start menu parameters %UL and %UF to pass UTF-8 list file (with BOM) to program in button bar or start menu (like %L and %F)
  • New start menu parameters %WL and %WF to pass UTF-16 Unicode list file (with BOM) to program in button bar or start menu
  • OPENTABS and APPENDTABS internal commands now also work without parameters - showing the file open dialog
  • Press Shift+F4 (edit specific file) repeatedly to select only the name part (not the extension) of the name, like in F5 copy dialog
  • Search function, plugins page: New operator !regex (NOT regular expression) finds files which do not match the given regular expression
  • Show drive icons also in drive dropdown list. Can be turned off via wincmd.ini [Configuration] IconsInDriveList=0
  • Show drive icons in drive not found dialog
  • Show encoding icon for *.sha files if they aren't associated with any other program
  • Speed up loading of Alt+F10 tree by using a virtual listbox (LBS_NODATA) except when an accessibility software is used - LB_GETTEXT doesn't work with LBS_NODATA
  • Store line breaks in descript.ion files in the form \n (\ is stored as \\), mark such comments with custom ID 0xC2 received from inventors of descript.ion
  • System information: Better detection of CPU
  • System information: Show display adapter name
  • Themed list header: On XP, draw header of sorted column as pressed if the theme supports it, so it can be found more easily
  • Use Combobox  in F5 copy dialog (options section) for overwrite options, number them for quick access by keyboard
  • When using "Watch directory changes": Detect when user wants to eject USB stick via system tray, and stop watching a dir on the stick so it can be removed
  • Windows 2000, XP and newer: Show drive labels in tree, and use RegisterDeviceNotification to be informed when drive label changes
  • ZIP packer: Pack files from directories with no read rights (read via tcmadmin) - no single locked files supported
  • increased max. comment length in descript.ion to 4096 characters (minus the length of the file name, a space, and final line break)
  • wincmd.ini [Configuration] SpeedLimitEnabled=1 enables speed limit when background transfer manager is started
  • wincmd.ini [Layout] TabHeaderBoldArrow=0 turns off bold arrow in tab header (default: same as TabHeaderThemed)
  • wincmd.ini [Layout] TabHeaderThemed=0 turns off themed tabstop header (Name/Ext/Size/Time/Attr)
  • ZIP packer: Pack files from directories with no read rights (read via tcmadmin) - no single locked files supported

Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on April 16, 2009, 11:11 AM
Awesome review!!  TC is one of the greatest programs ever.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tomos on April 16, 2009, 11:18 AM
Thanks Fenix :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 11:28 AM
Thanks guys.

BTW I did not post it in reviews section because this is only the list of new features and I hope someone will write better one (and complete) in the future :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: TucknDar on April 16, 2009, 11:29 AM
Fantastic file manager, and awesome post, fenix!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: AbteriX on April 16, 2009, 01:26 PM
Thanks for that ingenious overview fenix  :Thmbsup:
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: cranioscopical on April 16, 2009, 02:52 PM
A very nice and well written piece, fenix.  Thank you for taking the time to do this!
 :up: :up:
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tranglos on April 16, 2009, 03:05 PM
Thanks for the round-up, fenixproductions! This is awesome news. I'm such a TC fanboy!  :-*
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on April 16, 2009, 03:19 PM
TC is the best filemanager, period. And the license is great.

Now, for the new features...
I cannot get the filter to work. ctrl + s does nothing. Is there any setting we need to get right?
And how do you take advantage of the file associations?
The only mod I have is the "English with extended menu (wcmd_ext1_eng.mnu)" just in case it matters...
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 03:29 PM
I cannot get the filter to work. ctrl + s does nothing. Is there any setting we need to get right?
-urlwolf

You can try one of these solutions:
1. Configuration -> Operation -> Quick Search -> Letters - with search dialog;
2. check if you've got any command binded to Ctrl+S and change it;
3. assign your own shortcut to cm_ShowQuickSearch

And how do you take advantage of the file associations?
-urlwolf

Under Files menu you've got Internal Associations (Total Commander only) item by default. You can also create button with cm_InternalAssociate command.

The only mod I have is the "English with extended menu (wcmd_ext1_eng.mnu)" just in case it matters...
-urlwolf

Yes it does because your menu file might not contain all new options.

You should correct your MNU.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: TucknDar on April 16, 2009, 03:58 PM
That's a new feature in the install process. Before it used to just go with the default menu and language, but now it'll read your previous settings and not change anything, just do the updating part.  :up:
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on April 16, 2009, 04:02 PM
Thanks fenixproductions. MNU corrected. Associations set.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 04:09 PM
That's a new feature in the install process.

I don't think it's new. I've just checked with 6.5 and all my settings are there unchanged. It could be related to installation directory thought.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Fedorov on April 16, 2009, 04:26 PM
Nice post! Was maybe going to skip beta 1 but now I've read your post some of those new features are too tempting to miss!!! :)
Thanks
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 04:43 PM
Nice post! Was maybe going to skip beta 1 but now I've read your post some of those new features are too tempting to miss!!! :)

Why skip? Because it might be unstable?

7.5 had eighteen private betas and was tested really hard. One of the testers did superior work finding very extreme bugs out. "Extreme" because it was even very difficult to reproduce them (many strange steps to take).

TC 7 was in public beta for long too but there were only few (if any) serious bugs within IIRC.
Title: ZTree
Post by: widgewunner on April 16, 2009, 06:48 PM
Yes, Total Commander is a very good file manager. But I'm hopelessly addicted to ZTreeWin (http://www.ztree.com/) and simply could not live without it. :^)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: jdmarch on April 16, 2009, 07:51 PM
Thanks for the heads-up, fenix. TC remains indispensable. The new Quick Search is superb!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 16, 2009, 09:14 PM
2widgewunner
I understand being addicted ;)

You might check TC's options to:
- have vertical panels,
- with tree in one of them and files list in second.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: TucknDar on April 17, 2009, 12:38 AM
That's a new feature in the install process.

I don't think it's new. I've just checked with 6.5 and all my settings are there unchanged. It could be related to installation directory thought.
-fenixproductions (April 16, 2009, 04:09 PM)
Really? OK, there's something new in the install process though, there's a no-questions-asked option. That's what I was thinking of. But previously I always had to switch to my preferred menu setup after an update...
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: xbeta on April 17, 2009, 02:19 AM
Great TC and great review.
And, I'll write something for TC7.5 this evening, in Chinese.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 17, 2009, 04:38 AM
2urlwolf
You might want to take a look on this:
http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/TcMenu_en_750.html

Edited:
LOL Ellipsis in URL above replaced just one letter.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 17, 2009, 09:06 AM
I've added "beta warning" due to new bugs discovery. None of them are super dangerous yet  but it always good to be aware :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on April 17, 2009, 09:42 AM
When I delete a file/folder, TC loses focus and goes back to the last window I was using.
Is that a new feature? If not, I may have activated it by accident. I'd like my old behavior better :). I prefer to stay in TC...
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 17, 2009, 10:33 AM
2urlwolf
Delete in foreground or background?

IIRC there was some discussion about it. I will take a look for it.

Edited.
Hm. Can't find it. Also it does not happen here and I've tried many files different in size and locations.

Can you provide more info? It would be nice to give step by step instructions including what applications are in foreground. Some movie would be the best.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on April 18, 2009, 06:27 AM
ok, more info.
It happens after ANY popup window occurs (move, delete, etc). Instead of returning focus to TC, it goes to some other window, my guess is the last with focus before TC, often FF. It's really annoying. This is windows server 2008, so it might be that.

Step by step: press any shorcut that produces a pop up (e.g., F6), finish the operation, see how TC loses focus.

Should I post it to the main TC forum?
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 18, 2009, 06:50 AM
Should I post it to the main TC forum?
Yes and I see you've done it already :)

Still I can't rerpoduce that but official board is better place for bug reports.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 23, 2009, 07:33 AM
2all interested

I've contacted an author about discount and he couldn't agree for that but... he offered 10 free licences for DC members instead.

I think some kind of contest will start with the beginning of May :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: cranioscopical on April 23, 2009, 08:38 AM
2all interested

I've contacted an author about discount and he couldn't agree for that but... he offered 10 free licences for DC members instead.

I think some kind of contest will start with the beginning of May :)
-fenixproductions (April 23, 2009, 07:33 AM)

Well done, fenix.
And thanks to the author for such a generous gesture.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: TucknDar on April 23, 2009, 08:43 AM
2all interested

I've contacted an author about discount and he couldn't agree for that but... he offered 10 free licences for DC members instead.

I think some kind of contest will start with the beginning of May :)
-fenixproductions (April 23, 2009, 07:33 AM)
Wow, 10 licenses is great! Good work, fenix and thank you mr. Ghisler!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Darwin on April 23, 2009, 08:58 AM
Excellent work, fenixproductions  :Thmbsup: I have a licence and can highly recommend TotalCommander. The beta is working fine with Vista Ultiimate-64 as well...  :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on April 23, 2009, 11:32 AM
2all interested

I've contacted an author about discount and he couldn't agree for that but... he offered 10 free licences for DC members instead.

I think some kind of contest will start with the beginning of May :)
-fenixproductions (April 23, 2009, 07:33 AM)
he's pretty generous, isn't he.  First, his license is remarkably flexible as far as using it on multiple computers.  Second, it's a real lifetime license.  Third, the program is already pretty cheap.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 23, 2009, 11:51 AM
2all
Thx.

2superboyac
IMHO right person on the right place :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on April 30, 2009, 10:27 AM
Total Commander 7.50 PB2 is out!

About 70 bugs from previous public beta have been fixed and few things added.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22142
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on May 05, 2009, 05:19 AM
anyone getting the built-in file association rules working cares to explain how to do it?
I've tried associating vim to ini files, but TC ignores it.

Thanks
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 05, 2009, 07:19 AM
2urlwolf

No problems here with:

[Associations]
Filter2=*.ini
Filter2_open=D:\totalcmd\tools\config\INIeditor\INIEdit.exe "%1"
Filter2.icon=D:\totalcmd\tools\config\INIeditor\INIEdit.exe

Double click loads INIEdit application.

Or, perhaps, you don't want it for Enter / Double click but for F4?
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on May 05, 2009, 10:00 AM
hmm, it doesn't work for me; I had to remove the entire associations section, otherwise I'd get "file not found" popups.
That's ok, it kind of works now. no port. assoc. but at least I can do work.
I wonder when tweaking apps would stop being useful, and it must be about now :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: jdmarch on May 05, 2009, 10:07 AM
FWIW I tried doing an "Internal Association" from the dialog in the file menu, but AFAICT it had no effect. But I did not (and still do not at present) have time to look into it in detail.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: raindew01 on May 06, 2009, 07:17 AM
Thanks for the mini-review; I love finding out about good file managers. That's fantastic about getting 10 copies. If you decide to give any out to other DC members (who haven't done coding snacks or written reviews) then I'd love to be entered.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 06, 2009, 07:29 AM
2raindew01
I don't think it's an option. It would be the best to give licences to people who participate here a little bit more. That is why it could be the best for you to take your time and write review of your favourite software. It doesn't mean another TC description.

You are free to write about almost anything. If you think you are using excellent tool with nice features... and you are sure someone else can find it useful, then write about it. It is "May offer" so you have about three weeks to do so. I think there is plenty of time even for lazy people ;)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tomos on May 06, 2009, 07:57 AM
It would be the best to give licences to people who participate here a little bit more. That is why it could be the best for you to take your time and write review of your favourite software. It doesn't mean another TC description.

You are free to write about almost anything. If you think you are using excellent tool with nice features... and you are sure someone else can find it useful, then write about it. It is "May offer" so you have about three weeks to do so. I think there is plenty of time even for lazy people ;)
-fenixproductions (May 06, 2009, 07:29 AM)

so, is that official then fenix? (competition)
would probably be good to start a new thread to announce it
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 06, 2009, 08:15 AM
2tomos
I will post something in Reviews section later.
Short info: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18207

I think it would be nice to give 5 licences to "May reviewers" (randomly selected). That way DC can gain an information about good software and maybe break someone's laziness.

The rest of them are up to mouser's decision / ideas.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tomos on May 06, 2009, 08:30 AM
Short info: https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18207

I think it would be nice to give 5 licences to "May reviewers" (randomly selected). That way DC can gain an information about good software and maybe break someone's laziness.

The rest of them are up to mouser's decision / ideas.
-fenixproductions (May 06, 2009, 08:15 AM)

sounds great :up:
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: jdmarch on May 06, 2009, 11:04 AM
Thanks for the mini-review; I love finding out about good file managers. That's fantastic about getting 10 copies. If you decide to give any out to other DC members (who haven't done coding snacks or written reviews) then I'd love to be entered.
The giveaway is a nice touch, but the TC lifetime registration fee is a real bargain! I have never regretted it.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: kartal on May 07, 2009, 01:32 PM
The beta did not sort folders based on date, is this a bug? Ideas?
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 07, 2009, 01:34 PM
2kartal
Have you tried?

Configuration -> Display -> Sorting directories -> Like files (also by time)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: kartal on May 07, 2009, 02:01 PM
Hmm I did not know that, that is for sure I will check it out. I have been an happy Xyplorer customer, but I can entertain a good dualpaner as well.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 14, 2009, 04:04 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB3 is out!

About 60 bugs from previous public beta have been fixed and 9 new features added.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22363
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Darwin on May 14, 2009, 07:12 PM
I have been an happy Xyplorer customer, but I can entertain a good dualpaner as well.

A dual-pane version of XYplorer is in beta as I write this... http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=4&start=0&sd=d
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 14, 2009, 07:35 PM
2Darwin
It's always good to keep an eye on competitors ;)

BTW Do you really find it better to read newest posts first?
Fix for it: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?p=32589#p32589
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Darwin on May 15, 2009, 07:57 AM
BTW Do you really find it better to read newest posts first?
-fenixproductions (May 14, 2009, 07:35 PM)

I have the page setup that way because I monitor beta development via a bookmark in FF, which I check two or three times a day. This way, when I open the page I get the latest post at the top when the page opens. Dunno... works for me (bland way of saying that it is what I am used to)!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 15, 2009, 08:16 AM
2Darwin
As I thought, you fit into "acceptable behaviour" group ;)

I understand using such approach for very dynamic feeds or very short discussions (in e-mails). For longer ones it was always better (for me) to follow the natural reading order*.

*) I've never heard about any language where you have to read from bottom to top.

EOT
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Darwin on May 15, 2009, 09:42 AM
In general, I agree with you, fenix! It's just that as I read the XYPlorer at least two or three times a day, it is more convenient for me to have the latest posts in that thread appear at the top of the page when I open it, rather than having to scroll down to the bottom of the page.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on May 15, 2009, 09:48 AM
I have been an happy Xyplorer customer, but I can entertain a good dualpaner as well.

A dual-pane version of XYplorer is in beta as I write this... http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=4&start=0&sd=d
There's nothing about dual pane there.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 15, 2009, 11:14 AM
<OT>
I've been looking for "dual pane" option in beta and no success here :(

BTW Preview panel gives me "XPCom not initialized!" error for SVG files.
</OT>
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: mwb1100 on May 15, 2009, 12:33 PM
There's nothing about dual pane there.
It's not really a "dual pane beta" - it's that the current flow of XYplorer beta releases (which are usually about each day a new one) have started to contain changes that are the underpinnings of the dual pane support that Don is working on.

To put it another way, Don is working on Dual Pane for XYplorer and is right now releasing betas that contain the underpinnings.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Darwin on May 15, 2009, 01:51 PM
mwb1100 is correct. When I posted the link I hadn't tried out the beta, so I wasn't aware that there isn't yet an actual dual-pane option implemented as yet. However, Don has inidicated that he hopes to get a dual-pane release out this month.

BTW DP = dual pane :D
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 28, 2009, 12:45 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB 4 is out!

About 50 bugs fixed and 5 new features added.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22559
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on May 28, 2009, 04:40 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB 4 is out!

About 50 bugs fixed and 5 new features added.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22559
-fenixproductions (May 28, 2009, 12:45 PM)
Damn, fenix.  You sure like TC!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on May 28, 2009, 04:55 PM
Damn, fenix.  You sure like TC!

That's true but something is more important: I wrote review of beta version so I feel this is a right thing to do to inform "followers" about fixes. It is normal that beta versions may contain some bugs so updates are important to anyone who tries them. I also think that there are some DC members who are not watching official TC board so I "have to" keep 'em in touch :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on May 28, 2009, 05:40 PM
Cool!  Keep it up.  I love the passion.  I love TC also.  One of the first "poweruser" programs I started with back in the day.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: urlwolf on May 28, 2009, 05:55 PM
Thanks Fenix.
The installer fails for me (windows server 2008) ... it says cannot open file TOTALCMD for writing (!). If I kill the process, it still doesn't work. UPDATE: it does. Weird. Well, testing time :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on June 11, 2009, 12:15 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB 5 is out!

34 fixes and 6 addons.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22725
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on June 25, 2009, 12:57 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB 6 is out!

30 fixes and 11 addons.

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=22922
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Innuendo on June 27, 2009, 10:12 AM
Every time a new version of TC is released I get all giddy. :)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on June 27, 2009, 10:22 AM
2Innuendo
Yep. One sad thing in this case is: these builds are fixes oriented. It would be awesome if TC has major updates more often :)

However one thing changed: quick filter has been extended thanks to the public tests and now it supports external DLL for better work. One user took adventage and created his own tcmatch.dll with regular expressions, similarity matching and filter patterns. And now this is just f* great.

P.S. Link to mentioned add-on: http://www.totalcmd.net/plugring/Google_like_QS.html
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on July 16, 2009, 02:29 PM
Total Commander 7.50 PB 7 is out!

13 additions and 27 fixes.

Announcement: http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23148
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on July 30, 2009, 03:26 PM
TC 7.50 pb 8 available

Official announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23304
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: cranioscopical on July 30, 2009, 09:41 PM
Thanks fenix!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: TucknDar on August 13, 2009, 04:37 PM
Total Commander 7.50 RC1 released:

http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23468

(complete list of changes in TC: http://www.ghisler.com/history750.txt)
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Innuendo on August 14, 2009, 11:01 AM
Showing the progress on the Windows 7 taskbar for foreground tasks is a most welcome addition.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on August 27, 2009, 04:14 PM
Total Commander 7.50 RC2 released!

Announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23656
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tranglos on August 27, 2009, 04:34 PM
Showing the progress on the Windows 7 taskbar for foreground tasks is a most welcome addition.

Is this Windows 7 only? Sounds cool indeed!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Innuendo on September 08, 2009, 05:13 PM
Is this Windows 7 only? Sounds cool indeed!

Yes, it is a new feature for Windows 7. It's really handy....so handy I turned off TC's minimize to tray option.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on September 09, 2009, 04:37 PM
Total Commander 7.5 final has been released!

Official announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=23832
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tranglos on September 09, 2009, 05:18 PM
Total Commander 7.5 final has been released!
-fenixproductions (September 09, 2009, 04:37 PM)

Yay! Thanks for the heads-up!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Innuendo on September 10, 2009, 09:01 AM
Total Commander 7.5 final has been released!
-fenixproductions (September 09, 2009, 04:37 PM)

And looking over the changelog & seeing the obscure bugs that were fixed for this release really gives one an idea of how solid Total Commander really is. Now the official forum can move on to pestering poor Christian about what should be in v8.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tranglos on September 10, 2009, 09:32 AM
Now the official forum can move on to pestering poor Christian about what should be in v8.

Except for "file collections" (a la DOpus), I can't imagine what I would want to add! Especially now that TC has directory breadcrumbs and the optional as-you-type filtering of the file list.

So I'm a hopeless fanboy, but TC is that rare kind of program whose author seems to always be a step ahead from me in his designs. Usually you wish for a feature, request it and maybe see it implemented in a later version. With TC it's been the opposite: when I thought it needed a particular feature, I looked and most of the time it was already there.

Minor wishes, maybe. Here's a great concept that TC might steal from DOpus: as-you -type selection with the colon key: The : key opens the Lister Search field in selection mode. In this mode, all files and folders that contain the entered search string are selected. For example, to quickly select all text files, press :.txt and then return. To cancel the selection press escape.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: superboyac on September 10, 2009, 10:26 AM
Minor wishes, maybe. Here's a great concept that TC might steal from DOpus: as-you -type selection with the colon key: The : key opens the Lister Search field in selection mode. In this mode, all files and folders that contain the entered search string are selected. For example, to quickly select all text files, press :.txt and then return. To cancel the selection press escape.
I did not know that!  Way cool!
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: tranglos on September 10, 2009, 10:48 AM
Minor wishes, maybe. Here's a great concept that TC might steal from DOpus: as-you -type selection with the colon key: The : key opens the Lister Search field in selection mode. In this mode, all files and folders that contain the entered search string are selected. For example, to quickly select all text files, press :.txt and then return. To cancel the selection press escape.
I did not know that!  Way cool!

It is. DOpus has a few other keys that initiate these special modes, some of them to assist in executing commands, but TC already does those other things, and in general I prefer TC's command-line to the DOpus implementation. (See "Navigation by Keys" on page 71 in DOpus Reference Manual PDF).

As for file selection, TC has Alt+Num Plus, which selects all files with the same extension. This is often good enough, but using the DOPus way you can select files matching any string you type.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: Innuendo on September 10, 2009, 04:01 PM
It is indeed true that the things that can be added to TC is truly becoming a small list. In addition to 'collections' the only things that I can think of that have any major rumblings in the official forum are virtual file panels and cd/dvd burning.
Title: Re: Total Commander 7.50 public beta 1 - mini-review
Post by: fenixproductions on September 24, 2009, 02:58 PM
Total Commander 7.50a final is available now!

Lots of small fixes for bugs found in latest final.

Official announcement:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=24115