Author Topic: Directory Opus 9 (Read 197656 times)

zridling · « **Reply #75 on:** April 24, 2007, 09:48 AM »

[DonL]: If DOpus is Godzilla then XYplorer is T. Rex — it always depends what suits you best for your current task.

Oh man, that's the best quote I've seen in a long time. ha!! There are some categories that have a lot of good software choices, and this is definitely one of them. These two programs are distinguished, however. I've got to use that quote in future reviews from now on, thanks Don.

cthorpe · « **Reply #76 on:** April 24, 2007, 10:09 AM »

Abterix,
I think what the Directory Opus web site is telling you is that if you lose your serial number that unlocks USB functionality in the program, be prepared to beg the authors for it to be re-issued to you. (Which doesn't make sense to me. As long as you can prove you purchased it I don't see why you would have to 'beg' for something you legally own).
-Innuendo (April 24, 2007, 09:02 AM)

I don't think it was serious about begging. Note the little smily face. I thought it was common knowledge that the smilely implies joking after a statement like that.

AbteriX · « **Reply #77 on:** April 24, 2007, 10:20 AM »

Abterix,
I think what the Directory Opus web site is telling you is
that if you lose your serial number that unlocks USB functionality in the program,
be prepared to beg the authors for it to be re-issued to you.
(Which doesn't make sense to me. As long as you can prove you purchased it
I don't see why you would have to 'beg' for something you legally own).
-Innuendo (April 24, 2007, 09:02 AM)
I don't think it was serious about begging. Note the little smily face.
I thought it was common knowledge that the smilely implies joking after a statement like that.
-cthorpe (April 24, 2007, 10:09 AM)

Thanks for the support.
My problem is not the 'beg' eMail.
I ask for the technically background how this USB-Licence is implemented.

Q: is the licence bundled with hardware related properties
like drive number of the file system or like this?

Or enables this USB-licence just the possibility to store the settings into the xml file?

Nudel · « **Reply #78 on:** April 25, 2007, 05:46 AM »

General Opus 9 news

The Opus 9 manual in PDF format is available to download now to let people read it ahead of Friday's release:
http://www.gpsoft1.c...9ReferenceManual.pdf
Greg @ GPSoft mentioned that there will be more features added in free updates after 9.0, for things that required large changes that there wasn't time for in the end (given that people need a Vista-compatible update yesterday already):

I dont know if this is already answered somewehere else but this is the official dopus 9 topic so:
Is the copy queue implemented in the new version ?
-Delphier

No. We had this on the list but it involves a very deep fundamental design change so it did not make this version.

We have to draw the line somewhere with new versions and the Vista changes et al caused several delays.

But it and several other advanced features are planned for the next update in a few months (which currently is planned to be a maintenance 'update' not an upgrade and hence free of charge.)
-Greg
There's a new German translation of my Opus 9 intro (translated by Haage & Partner, GPSoft's distributors in Germany):

http://www.haage-par....de/dopus/tutorial2/

Replies

Shout if I've missed something that needs a reply!

Q: is the licence bundled with hardware related properties
like drive number of the file system or like this?

Or enables this USB-licence just the possibility to store the settings into the xml file?
-AbteriX

I'm still under NDA about Opus 9 and I'm not sure how much GPSoft would want me to say about how the licencing/copy protection stuff works but what I can say is that GPSoft have erred on the side of "not making life hell for paying customers" rather than "doing everything possible to thwart pirates". There's nothing to worry about in this area.

: If DOpus is Godzilla then XYplorer is T. Rex — it always depends what suits you best for your current task.
-DonL

As we've seen, though, the memory usage of the two programs is very similar and nobody so far has mentioned a way in which Opus is slower than XY.

If it's significant that Opus uses a few meg more of HDD space then I must be living in a different era of computing to everyone else.

Otherwise, I don't get the analogy. Which isn't to say that the two programs don't have their own unique strengths and weaknesses, I just don't see how Opus have a heavier footprint, beyond a few meg of disk space that nobody cares about in 2007.

but if I want something to stay in an archive an extended amount of time on my hard drive then I use the far more robust RAR format
-Innuendo

The problem with RAR is that RARLabs do not licence the format, or a library, or the ability the call into WinRAR (if it's installed) via any kind of API. The only API they give anyone is unrar.dll which is what Opus already uses for read-only RAR support.

I believe TC creates RAR archives by calling WinRAR on the command-line and I'm thinking about writing an Opus plugin which works in the same way. Seems a giant pain in the arse, though, and I wish RARLabs would be more sensible about licensing their format/algorithm/API for use in other tools instead of the idea that anyone who wants to create a RAR should be forced to use WinRAR or FAR. :-( (WinRAR is fine by itself but the idea that you shouldn't be able to create a RAR in anything else is just silly.)

If there was a proper RAR API available to licence then Opus would already have read/write RAR support. I'm not really looking forward to the fun of generating command-lines and parsing the text output of another program, plus the potential issues with Unicode filenames etc., but if nobody else is going to write the plugin then I guess I'll have to. :-(

7zip etc. are still so rarely used that it doesn't seem a big deal to me that you can't browse them in Opus but, as I've said, I'll look at writing a 7zip plugin myself during my sabbatical from my day-job if nobody has written one by then. (A couple of people started writing plugins but haven't finished them yet.) Since 7zip provide a proper library it will be easy to make a read-write plugin.

Darwin · « **Reply #79 on:** April 25, 2007, 08:47 AM »

Quote from Nudel:

Quote from: DonL
: If DOpus is Godzilla then XYplorer is T. Rex — it always depends what suits you best for your current task.
As we've seen, though, the memory usage of the two programs is very similar and nobody so far has mentioned a way in which Opus is slower than XY.

If it's significant that Opus uses a few meg more of HDD space then I must be living in a different era of computing to everyone else. Otherwise, I don't get the analogy.

I took Don's analogy more in the spirit of XYplorer and DOpus are both at the top of the food chain in their respective niches and that he was basically saying "different horses for different courses". If he had likened DOpus to a Brontosaurus and XYplorer to T.Rex, then my readig would the same as yours...

Thanks for the link to the manual for DOpus 9 - I hadn't noticed that being available. And abterix, as to the licensing, I've never had a problem moving my DOpus' licences from machine to machine so imagine that doing the same with a USB licence will not present any issues, either.

Anyway, Nudel, nice to see you posting here, and in other threads. Welcome to donationcoder!

Nudel · « **Reply #80 on:** April 25, 2007, 06:29 PM »

I took Don's analogy more in the spirit of XYplorer and DOpus are both at the top of the food chain in their respective niches and that he was basically saying "different horses for different courses".
-Darwin (April 25, 2007, 08:47 AM)

That I can dig. Maybe I was being too defensive on Opus's behalf.

Thanks for the link to the manual for DOpus 9 - I hadn't noticed that being available.
-Darwin

No problem! It only just got finished/released.

And abterix, as to the licensing, I've never had a problem moving my DOpus' licences from machine to machine so imagine that doing the same with a USB licence will not present any issues, either.
-Darwin

Yup. By the way, when the USB mode was first being discussed in the closed betas I had the same worries/questions about how it would work. The way it works in the end is fine and shouldn't cause any problems at all.

Anyway, Nudel, nice to see you posting here, and in other threads. Welcome to donationcoder!
-Darwin

Thanks! There's lots of interesting stuff being discussed here.

I'm trying to ration my time spent venturing outside of this thread to the weekends to avoid not doing anything else but chatting here.

Darwin · « **Reply #81 on:** April 26, 2007, 12:02 AM »

Quote from Nudel:

I'm trying to ration my time spent venturing outside of this thread to the weekends to avoid not doing anything else but chatting here.

Sound thinking! I should probably try to do the same, but am hopelessly addicted to being here, even if I lurk most of the time.

AbteriX · « **Reply #82 on:** April 26, 2007, 02:02 AM »

Thanks for the answers boys

Darwin · « **Reply #83 on:** April 26, 2007, 10:36 PM »

All right. I am a patient man and with a five year old and a three year old, I need to be, but my patience is being tested. By my reckoning, it has been April 27th in Brisbane for at least eleven hours and yet I am still taunted by the flash animation on the DOpus website, coquettishly promising that that wait is just about over. Puhlease! HELLO! It's April 27th already. Do the calendars go backwards in Australia, too? Did I miss the 27th already?

Hysterical in Courtenay.

Hirudin · « **Reply #84 on:** April 27, 2007, 01:00 AM »

Welp, it's out.

Darwin · « **Reply #85 on:** April 27, 2007, 01:18 AM »

Yeah - I've downloaded it and busy backing up my system. Of course, it's now getting on for midnight here (west coast of Canada) so I don't know if I'll get it installed before bed or not... OK, I will. Just messing with you...

Hirudin · « **Reply #86 on:** April 27, 2007, 01:31 AM »

HEHEH... I'm about to download it myself. I've already paid for my upgrade. Decided to go with a 2 license upgrade this time, $17 more.

By the way, the Donation Coder discount code still works!!
Brings the price of a single license down to $64.00 AUD ($52.82 US)

zridling · « **Reply #87 on:** April 27, 2007, 02:43 AM »

[nudel]: ...nobody so far has mentioned a way in which Opus is slower than XY.
________________________________________________
Except for XYplorer has advantages in:

installation speed and ease
(free) portability to any device
quicker and vastly simpler customizations and program configurations
easier to save and load your configurations, and backup options
folder size calculations are done on the fly, in the background, and significantly faster than DOpus in large folders with lots of files (>10,000, for example)
licensing and maintenance costs; also ONE (Lifetime) license and ONE download, along with the fact that XYplorer doesn't presume registered users to be thieves and pirates
access to almost all of Windows System folders are all one click away
XYplorer is anywhere from 5% to 8% of DOpus's total install size, depending on what various parts of DOpus you install or purchase, if you can keep up with all the options, that is
a variety of configurably refresh options, from (superfast) thumbnails to network drives to file operations
distinctly faster, more comprehensive, and easier to use search options
renaming options for multiple files are one keyboard shortcut away

That's a start, at least. Download the latest beta; see first-hand!

tomos · « **Reply #88 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:05 AM »

Any takers for the DOpus advantages short-list ?

Nudel · « **Reply #89 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:24 AM »

[nudel]: ...nobody so far has mentioned a way in which Opus is slower than XY.
________________________________________________
Except for XYplorer has advantages in:
installation speed and ease
(free) portability to any device
quicker and vastly simpler customizations and program configurations
easier to save and load your configurations, and backup options
folder size calculations are done on the fly, in the background, and significantly faster than DOpus in large folders with lots of files (>10,000, for example)
licensing and maintenance costs; also ONE (Lifetime) license and ONE download, along with the fact that XYplorer doesn't presume registered users to be thieves and pirates
access to almost all of Windows System folders are all one click away
XYplorer is anywhere from 5% to 8% of DOpus's total install size, depending on what various parts of DOpus you install or purchase, if you can keep up with all the options, that is
a variety of configurably refresh options, from (superfast) thumbnails to network drives to file operations
distinctly faster, more comprehensive, and easier to use search options
renaming options for multiple files are one keyboard shortcut away

That's a start, at least. Download the latest beta; see first-hand!
-zridling (April 27, 2007, 02:43 AM)

Most of which is irrelevant to the question I asked. Most of which is BS as I've already pointed out. I feel like I'm banging my head against a brick wall here.

Any takers for the DOpus advantages short-list ?
-tomos

Exactly! I don't have all day to list the things Opus does that XY (or anything else) doesn't. Like I said in my original, huge reply, programs don't follow each other down a linear path to "feature completness".

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #90 on:** April 27, 2007, 03:45 AM »

Thanks for modifying your reply - disagreement isn't a problem but lets try and keep civil folks.

Hirudin · « **Reply #91 on:** April 27, 2007, 04:26 AM »

I am luckily not the one who has been given the job of defending DO against zridling's nonsense, but I think I'd have a hard time keeping my reply to a post like the one above civil...

Installation speed? Give me a break!

XYPlorer doesn't do dual panes does it? End of story for me.

Does XYPlorer do FTP? If not, DO is way faster than XY when it comes to FTPing.

tomos · « **Reply #92 on:** April 27, 2007, 05:02 AM »

Any takers for the DOpus advantages short-list ?
-tomos (April 27, 2007, 03:05 AM)

Ooops,
I didn't mean to stir things up any more than already shaken/stirred

I did want to say,
but for some reason didn't in last post, was -
to be fair, while the DO developers may have an unhelpful approach at times towards liscencing/attitude towards the public at large, I dont think it's fair or helpful to say they "presume registered users to be thieves and pirates".

I was actually seriously interested in hearing the advantages of DOpus from someone who knows both programmes. (of course maybe I should just go back reread the thread $:-\$ )
I'll probably get the DO upgrade eventually (or sooner!) but I think it's about equal the cost of XY so...
But as Hirudin says without dualpane...

Dirhael · « **Reply #93 on:** April 27, 2007, 05:31 AM »

I'll see if I can write up a list sometime during the weekend. I own licensed copies of both programs (+ Total Commander... yes, I'm a file manager addict

) so it shouldn't be to much of a problem making a comparison.

Nomadin · « **Reply #94 on:** April 27, 2007, 06:52 AM »

I'll see if I can write up a list sometime during the weekend. I own licensed copies of both programs (+ Total Commander... yes, I'm a file manager addict ) so it shouldn't be to much of a problem making a comparison.
-Dirhael (April 27, 2007, 05:31 AM)

I'm with you Dirhael. Hi my name is Nomadin and I am a file manager addict (FMA). I probably need FMAA.

It is really a sad affliction that ultimately costs me money, but none-the-less, I still enjoy playing with the programs. It goes way back to the Amiga days with the Amiga versions of Directory Opus.

I suspect that I will still register DO and it is possible that I will adopt it as my main manager. There is much to like and it is so tweakable. We shall see...

Darwin · « **Reply #95 on:** April 27, 2007, 08:22 AM »

My name is Mike and I am a File Manager Addict... I have licences for DOPus (9 now... the heart is willing but the flesh is weak), XYplorer and DiskJockey FileViewer Deluxe. I ALSO have licences for AccelMan and Frigate 3 courtesy of giveawayoftheday. Of all of them, I only have DOpus and XYplorer installed at the moment as the others are not in the same class, IMNSHO. There is a lot to like in both of them... Unfortunately, I am really familiar with DOpus but have yet to seriously explore XYplorer (no pun intended!).

mrainey · « **Reply #96 on:** April 27, 2007, 10:24 AM »

I bought Disk Jockey two or three years ago based on a rabidly positive mention by John Dvorak - it was so buggy the developer agreed to refund my money. My feelings about the program were later confirmed in a PC Mag review.

Darwin · « **Reply #97 on:** April 27, 2007, 12:30 PM »

I bought Disk Jockey two or three years ago based on a rabidly positive mention by John Dvorak - it was so buggy the developer agreed to refund my money. My feelings about the program were later confirmed in a PC Mag review.
-mrainey (April 27, 2007, 10:24 AM)

Heh, heh... hence my no longer having it installed. I didn't find it buggy, but it's ROUGH and largely counter-intuitive. Support isn't great, either. Check out the discussion forum, which is hosted by the developer, and where the developer will go for up to six months without responding to queries. Having said that, when I've e-mailed support it was prompt enough. Still, I wish I'd had the wit to ask for a refund! I at one time thought I'd run it on my wife's machine and DOpus on my own. I wound up springing for a second Dopus licence - DOpus is that much better than DJDE.

On other fronts: it may just be me, but DOpus 9 seems much quicker than 8. Also, and I'm very pleased about this, they've cured an issue that plagued DOpus 8 with more recent releases of the Stellent Viewers. Overall, very pleased with the update. I'm still not sure about the new icon set, but it's incredibly easy to switch to DOpus 8's icons if you're really not happy with them. The new ones are growing on me.

Edit: added link to DJDE discussion forum.

Darwin · « **Reply #98 on:** April 27, 2007, 12:38 PM »

P.S. That Dvorak review was what hooked me, too!

Nomadin · « **Reply #99 on:** April 27, 2007, 12:51 PM »

On other fronts: it may just be me, but DOpus 9 seems much quicker than 8. Also, and I'm very pleased about this, they've cured an issue that plagued DOpus 8 with more recent releases of the Stellent Viewers. Overall, very pleased with the update. I'm still not sure about the new icon set, but it's incredibly easy to switch to DOpus 8's icons if you're really not happy with them. The new ones are growing on me.
-Darwin (April 27, 2007, 12:30 PM)

I don't think that it is just you. I must say that I am pleased with the performance of the new version. I also like the improvements/streamlining of the configuration dialog. There are still a monumental number of settings, but it seems easier to navigate. The export/backup function for settings seems much cleaner too.

Now, if I can just figure out a way to maintain my backup system, I wll be set. I need to find a way to select a directory and have DO zip or RAR the directory, defaulting to the name of the directory and appending the date. So, if I am in c:\temp and I want to back up the temp directory, I would like to select it, press a hotkey (or use a context menu) and create an archive named "temp 20070427.zip". Near as I can tell, it is quite possible, but I am not sure how to do it yet.

So far I am having fun poking around with the new version.