Author Topic: XYplorer File Manager (Read 296,230 times)

mwb1100 · « **Reply #75 on:** September 05, 2007, 06:40 PM »

Just any FYI for anyone who may be considering XYPlorer but have not yet purchased: Don is planning to change the licensing after September 2007 such that a license with lifetime upgrades will cost more than it does today; there will also be a non-upgradeable license option at lower cost. This (way long) forum thread has details:

http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?t=1722

I'm not sure if the future pricing is finally decided yet, but if you want a lifetime of upgrades on XY you may want to get the purchase in this month:

http://www.xyplorer.com

ad-min · « **Reply #76 on:** September 09, 2007, 08:06 PM »

Thank you for the tip

I just bought XYplorer and I'm absolutely happy with it.

I think you really can't make much wrong to buy a lifetime license for such a great price (no more update costs every two or three years and I can install it on more than one computer).

I also have licenses for Directory Opus and Speed Commander and I really like these applications and always prefered the dual-pane approach. But as I had to learn by giving XYplorer a try the multi-tabbed interface is far more than a simple substitute. In correspondence with the catalog feature it's really fantastic.

XYplorer doesn't have all the features of DO or SC but most of them I only use once or twice a year. For everyday file management it has all I need, is very simple and intuitive.

Don seems to be a very enthusiastic dev and releases a new version almost every day

So, thank you again, without this board I would have missed this excellent product

mwb1100 · « **Reply #77 on:** September 09, 2007, 11:23 PM »

Quote from: ad-min on September 09, 2007, 08:06 PM

Don seems to be a very enthusiastic dev and releases a new version almost every day

Indeed - and those new versions nearly alway have enhancements, not just bug fixes. He's a madman in cranking out updates (and discussing what enhancements should be made on the forums).

DonL · « **Reply #78 on:** October 21, 2007, 03:58 PM »

The latest BETA of XYplorer brings a major new feature to your homes and vacation sites: User-Defined Commands! Happy are those with a license!

Look here: http://www.xyplorer.com/xyfc/viewtopic.php?p=16354#16354

luc · « **Reply #79 on:** November 03, 2007, 07:16 PM »

XY Explorer might just be the king of the hill if Donald would not be too proud (because somebody else invented it ??) to implement a dual pane mode. I cannot imagine working without the great overview over files one gets with dual panes - despite all the other enticing developments seen with XY explorer.

DonL · « **Reply #80 on:** November 03, 2007, 07:32 PM »

Quote from: luc on November 03, 2007, 07:16 PM

XY Explorer might just be the king of the hill if Donald would not be too proud (because somebody else invented it ??) to implement a dual pane mode. I cannot imagine working without the great overview over files one gets with dual panes - despite all the other enticing developments seen with XY explorer.

XY is single-pane, and multi-instance! Just open two (three, four, ...) of them and you have all the enticing developments twice. I'm half-joking because I know you die-hard dual-paners and your fixation all too well... No, I'm not too proud to steal. It's just that I don't dig dual pane. And when I see the growing numbers of people that are happy, very happy, with XY, I know I'm not the only one.

Darwin · « **Reply #81 on:** November 03, 2007, 09:27 PM »

Crap, Don. Now you've got me drooling over the notion of a secondary monitor again - AND I JUST GOT OVER THAT ONE! Drat... It would be soooooooooooooooooooooooooo sweet to have two XYplorer windows open, one on each monitor and move stuff aro... Enough! (Darwin gives his head a good shake).

Seriously, XYplorer's implementation of tabs is awesome and extremely easy to use. I'd LOVE to see dual-pane support as well, but respect that Don's not interested in going there. What he's achieved with tabs is just as powerful - it just requires the end user to "re-learn" how to perform some file operations...

tinjaw · « **Reply #82 on:** November 04, 2007, 02:12 AM »

Don,

I applaud you for sticking to your guns as a developer. You have a vision of what you want XYplorer to be, and if you try to water it down to be everything to everybody, well, you know what happens.

mwang · « **Reply #83 on:** November 04, 2007, 11:55 AM »

I tried XYplorer a while back, liked it very much, and almost paid for it before settling for Directory Opus. (My apologies if I sounded not too enthusiastic for DOpus. It's great, in fact, but it's a little too pricey for me -- especially considering cost of upgrades in the future.)

XYplorer had almost everything I wanted except one minor flaw, but that minor flaw killed the deal for me.

No, it's not the dual-pane thing everyone talks about. It's the lack of unicode support. I've endured the inconvenience of working with several East Asian languages in an ASCII-centric environment for 20+ years and I cope and manage as best as I can. But in this day and age, a file manager that can't handle unicode file/path names properly is simply unacceptable to me, no matter how great it otherwise is. (It's the same reason why I've never tried Total Commander, another highly respected FM.)

I almost took the plunge for the $30 lifetime license a few weeks back before Don raised the price. Didn't do it for I wasn't sure when, if ever, Don was going to solve the issue. The new UDC thing and other improvements all look very promising, but I can't help but think that unicode support really isn't high on the to-do list.

DonL · « **Reply #84 on:** November 04, 2007, 01:42 PM »

Quote from: mwang on November 04, 2007, 11:55 AM

No, it's not the dual-pane thing everyone talks about. It's the lack of unicode support.

Yes, it is lacking indeed. But not totally. Just to make sure what part of unicode support is lacking, let me point out that files/folders with e.g. Chinese characters are displayed correctly, can be moved, copied, deleted, and batch-renamed. You can preview them, time-stamp them, and so on ... I can put it shorter: it's only one thing that you currently cannot do with unicode-named files: you cannot type/edit their names, simply because I still don't have a unicode-capable edit box. This means you cannot type such file/folder names into the Address Bar, and you cannot rename them by typing a new name into the Rename box. That's all.

Or have I forgotten anything, mwang?

mwang · « **Reply #85 on:** November 04, 2007, 11:49 PM »

Quote from: DonL on November 04, 2007, 01:42 PM

Or have I forgotten anything, mwang?

I don't remember the specifics anymore, sorry. I removed XY when the trial period expired, and I'm not sure if I could try again. (It's my impression that trying to test drive a shareware program for a second time usually doesn't work.)

I vaguely remember some issues when dealing with files whose paths contain unicode characters, and some with mixed languages (e.g., Japanese and Chinese). There's also a line in my file manager comparison note (when I was comparing XY, DOpus and X2) that says "no unicode in address bar", though I'm not sure what that really means anymore. (It's done a few months back.)

If you want to address the issues someday, I'm happy to help debugging.

DonL · « **Reply #86 on:** November 05, 2007, 07:04 AM »

Quote from: mwang on November 04, 2007, 11:49 PM

Quote from: DonL on November 04, 2007, 01:42 PM
Or have I forgotten anything, mwang?
I don't remember the specifics anymore, sorry. I removed XY when the trial period expired, and I'm not sure if I could try again. (It's my impression that trying to test drive a shareware program for a second time usually doesn't work.)

You mean technically or psychologically? Technically you don't need to worry with XYplorer: it does not use the registry, so there's no trace of it on your computer, so you can try it again without any problem.

Quote from: mwang on November 04, 2007, 11:49 PM

... "no unicode in address bar" ...
If you want to address the issues someday, I'm happy to help debugging.

Yes, that's what I said: no unicode in address bar or any other editable controls.
I will tackle this sooner or later, so thanks for your offer of debugging help.

mwang · « **Reply #87 on:** November 05, 2007, 08:58 AM »

Quote from: DonL on November 05, 2007, 07:04 AM

Quote from: mwang on November 04, 2007, 11:49 PM
(It's my impression that trying to test drive a shareware program for a second time usually doesn't work.)
You mean technically or psychologically? Technically you don't need to worry with XYplorer: it does not use the registry, so there's no trace of it on your computer, so you can try it again without any problem.

Technically, of course. Many shareware programs would refuse to run when re-installed after the trial expires. At least that's my impression. Good to know XYplorer doesn't do that. I'll pick it up again, then, when I see anything unicode-related in your beta announcements, which I do monitor every now and then. Good to know it's on your to-do list. Thanks!

DonL · « **Reply #88 on:** November 05, 2007, 01:41 PM »

XYplorer 6.50 is out! Here's a quick impression of the new User-Defined Commands (UDCs):

http://www.xyplorer.com/product.htm#udc

cheers,
Don

Darwin · « **Reply #89 on:** November 05, 2007, 01:54 PM »

Thanks for the head's up, Don. Your committment to your product and your customers is OUTSTANDING!

Armando · « **Reply #90 on:** November 11, 2007, 01:12 AM »

I think I'm soon going to take the plunge and invest in an real explorer replacement -- don't know which one yet. But XYplorer's features AND license are attractive.

I was looking at my notes where it's written that last time I tried XYplorer (6 months ago) I had problems with vertical and horizontal scrolling (touch pad). Anybody had problems of that order with it?

KenR · « **Reply #91 on:** November 11, 2007, 01:20 AM »

Hey Armando,

I use it (and Directory Opus) on a laptop with a touchpad and I have not had ANY problems of that nature.

Hope this helps and good luck with it,
Ken

tinjaw · « **Reply #92 on:** November 11, 2007, 02:59 AM »

I have used XYplorer on my laptop, using the onboard touchpad without any problems.

sri · « **Reply #93 on:** November 11, 2007, 05:09 AM »

Perhaps the developer should create a poll (if he hasn't already) as to how many people want the dual pane feature. $:-\$

Lack of it is what's keeping me away from an otherwise good file manager.

Grorgy · « **Reply #94 on:** November 11, 2007, 07:08 AM »

Perhaps since he is the developer and doesnt like dual pane file managers, he'll just go on developing the worlds best single pane tabbed file manager

sri · « **Reply #95 on:** November 11, 2007, 07:27 AM »

Isn't it prudent for a commerical software developer to bring changes that the users (the majority of them) want and not what he/she wants in the product?

(I am not saying that the majority of users want dual pane, it's not known yet and hence my recommendation for a poll on the matter)

DonL · « **Reply #96 on:** November 11, 2007, 08:23 AM »

Quote from: sri on November 11, 2007, 07:27 AM

Isn't it prudent for a commerical software developer to bring changes that the users (the majority of them) want and not what he/she wants in the product?

I don't think so. A (good) software is not a collection of features whose presence is determined by their popularity. Such a crowd pleasing development strategy would likely result in a corrupt product that won't satisfy most users (although it might sell well for a while because it boasts all the buzz features).

luc · « **Reply #97 on:** November 15, 2007, 02:33 AM »

A dual pane layout is, in my eyes at least, not exactly a buzz feature. Has been around for quite a while - and not just by accident.
It is bit hard to understand how the option of a second pane would destroy a good file manager (despite many, many posts on XY's own board) - and nobody could force the author to actually use it himself. $:-\$
Anyhow, there are sooo many good file managers out there and necessarily they all have their own idiosyncrasies; some have larger ones (the lack of the buzz feature for example) and the others have many smaller idiosyncrasies. Still looking for the perfect one for me, though.

sri · « **Reply #98 on:** November 15, 2007, 04:44 AM »

It's hard to understand why providing an option (of dual pane) is termed as a 'crowd pleasing' tactic. We are asking for dual pane as an extra choice that the user can toggle on and off. Why insist that a user use the program as you see fit? Provide him the choice and everyone's happy.

It's a different matter if the logic behind not willing to provide the requested feature is difficult to implement or takes up too much development time. But being in your own shell by not thinking out of the box and terming dual panes as a useless buzz word isn't true. I use it everyday. I know I am more productive with it and am sure many others think the same. Agreed, you don't use it and am not asking you to, but why not provide it to those who want it? Conduct a poll, I say (again), and see how many people are for it.

Quote from: DonL on November 11, 2007, 08:23 AM

Quote from: sri on November 11, 2007, 07:27 AM
Isn't it prudent for a commerical software developer to bring changes that the users (the majority of them) want and not what he/she wants in the product?
I don't think so. A (good) software is not a collection of features whose presence is determined by their popularity. Such a crowd pleasing development strategy would likely result in a corrupt product that won't satisfy most users (although it might sell well for a while because it boasts all the buzz features).

DonL · « **Reply #99 on:** November 18, 2007, 05:00 PM »

Quote from: luc on November 15, 2007, 02:33 AM

A dual pane layout is, in my eyes at least, not exactly a buzz feature. ...

Thanks for the hate review at snapfiles. It won't increase the chance for DP in XY, but you probably feel better now.

(If you are not luc0815: ignore this post.)