Quickly go to any directory

[howardb]

I used to be able to quickly go to any directory in win9x. I can't do it in XP: Hit a hotkey (e.g., F5), get prompted for a string (e.g., I enter tmp), see a list of numbered paths that end in the string, then when I pick a number - up comes my filemanager (I use xplorer2) in that directory.

I know FARR and/or plugins can do this, but I do not have the expertise to know how. There is a program  that almost does it, with advantages to something like locate32:  WCD creates a database of all directories in all partitions. When you feed it a string, it displays a list of possible directories, using alphabet letters (not numbers). This  gives you up to 26 possibilities. When you type a letter (e.g., d), it does to the directory corresponding to `d'. Alas this all happens in a dos or cmd.exe box. For windows xp, it generates a wcdgo.bat file f that basically executes ``cd targetdirectory''

If I can get the output list of a program like locate32 or wcd in the list box of FARR, this would be an adequate approximation. I would only get 9 choices for a  directory, but this would do. Ideally, I could write an alias that runs wcd in FARR's window, instead of a dos box. That is: wcd tmp makes farr show a list of tmp directories. I hit, say, number 7, and xplorer2 launches showing directory number 7 (xplorer2 takes a directory as an argument).

Any howto ideas?

[MilesAhead]

You might try Everything search. It only works with NTFS partitions.  It avoids indexing by hooking into the NTFS journaling. It gets updated when the file system changes without having to scan the partitions.

In the results pane you can select with the mouse and if it's a file instead of a folder you can right click to open the folder the file is in.  Not the same as numbers but it's pretty cool and good to have anyway.  Also in FARR I think there's an option to increase the number of numbered results but I'm not sure, the numberpad "go" may be limited to 9.  See the 30 days of screencasts. I know that option is shown in one of the screencasts.

I used locate32 myself across several versions of Windows.  It's a good program, but it's tough to beat file system cataloging with no indexing required like Everything does.

[howardb]

I am well aware of the capabilities of locate32 and everything, and I use them. But neither these programs nor FARR quite do what I want. I can not imagine the convenience of opening a prompt with a key, typing a few letters and hitting <ENTER> --- then boom, explorer or your file manager opens in your chosen directory -- only two keystrokes to get there. Well you can imagine, since this is what FARR does to execute files and some directories. It would be nice if I could pipe the output of wcd.exe into the FARR results list , but I do not think it can be done. I achieved my convenience with a simple batch file, wcd.cmd, which I reproduce below for any who are interested.
wcdwin32 changes to any directory in any partition or drive with one keystroke, pv.exe manipulates running processes - deletes them, puts them in forground, etc. Both are freeware:

@echo off
set /p ans=Directory:
c:\dos\bin\wcdwin32.exe %ans%
call c:\wcdgo.bat
start /max /w /b C:\Programs\xplorer2_lite\xplorer2_lite.exe /M "%CD%"
c:\dos\pv -a xplorer*

[MilesAhead]

SlickRun has autocompletion but I think it's only for stuff in the history. Otherwise it's sort of like hitting the Tab key in a cmd.exe prompt.

I would take a look on Softpedia.com.  There must be some launcher that has folder indexing to do something like that I would think.

Another resource is Sourceforge.net
If you cannot find the exact feature you may find a similar utility that may accept feature requests.

SlickRun you can set up "magic words" or aliases really, and they could be a couple of characters.  The drawback is you have to create them yourself.  A new version of it was just released and I'm not sure what enhancements were made to it.

I've been using FreeCommander for a long time.  I like to set up "Layouts" where a bunch of tabs in each pane are open to particular folders.  You save the layout to a name.  Click a layout in the list and all tabs are opened as saved in the layout.  But I think you want an auto search type thing.

One other thing comes to mind.. I don't know if you used Xtree Gold in Dos but I think there's a freeware project to do an Xtree file manager app for Windows.  Might be worth a look.  I don't recall the name but if you google the terms it should come up.

[mouser]

hi howard,
sorry it's taken me so long to reply.

this should be easy to do in farr.  you might be able to do it already with the TinyEv (everything plugin for FARR):
https://www.donation...ex.php?topic=18724.0

But.. maybe interfacing with wcd is the way to go.  In fact FARR already has a way to grab the contents of a file as a result list to display, and could shell out to wcd to get it to generate the output you want.  So it may be possible already in existing farr to just shell out to wcd to get it to write contents to a file and then tell farr to read that file as results.

However, i could also write something if i haven't already (can't remember) that shells out and captures the output of a command as pure results, to save a step.

So am i understanding correctly that wcd has a commandline tool that lets you specify a substring on the commandline and outputs a simple list of matching directories? Or does it add extra info to the output that needs to be cleaned up.

[howardb]

I think it would be a gain, if FARR could, in general, pipe the output of other programs into its number list or menu - also if it could pipe the contents of a file into its list. I don't think FARR can improve on the batch file I list within this thread, for wcd. But you ask:

> wcd has a commandline tool that lets you specify a substring on the commandline and > > > outputs a simple list of matching directories? Or does it add extra info to the output that > > needs to be cleaned up.

Read about wcd at:  http://www.xs4all.nl/~waterlan/. It is a windows program, that runs in a cmd box. It works almost exactly like FARR, only for all directories in all partitions. You enter some characters of a directory, with or without wildcards. wcd then presents a list of possible matching directories in one of three formats: a numbered list, an list numbered with letters of  the alphabet, a directory tree that you can navigate. You you hit a key, for instance, the letter c - and your favorite file manager comes up in the corresponding directory to `c'. This gives you up to 26 choices with one keystroke of a letter. The menu screen can be piped to the standard out, for inclusion in FARR. The menus need to be (easily) cleaned of their own indexes of numbers or letters, by a program like sed or grep. Then Farr could list the first 0 choices. However, wcd creates a plain ascii file that lists all directories. That file could be directly searched by any grep utility or FARR itself to produce a list of directories that match some string - which then get listed in FARR's lower list screen.

the TinyEV plugin won't help, because it requires the  everything program to be constantly running in the background. And the Everything program does not have an easy way of listing only matching directories.

Hope I was clear, if verbose!

[baiyq]

I using everything for file search and totalcommander for content search . I thinking   FARR and/or  implement content search also , but havn't find the method to done it until now. 

[ewemoa]

You enter some characters of a directory, with or without wildcards. wcd then presents a list of possible matching directories in one of three formats: a numbered list, an list numbered with letters of  the alphabet, a directory tree that you can navigate.

-howardb (October 27, 2009, 09:50 PM)

It looks like the -od command line option gives back output which would almost work for FARR's #filecontents.

So as to:

So am i understanding correctly that wcd has a commandline tool that lets you specify a substring on the commandline and outputs a simple list of matching directories? Or does it add extra info to the output that needs to be cleaned up.

-mouser

The most obvious thing that might require some massaging is that the output uses slashes instead of backslashes for the path separators.

My browsing of the man page didn't turn up anything useful in this regard.

May be someone else knows better