I tried the UP edition and it was just way too much for me - it has everything and the kitchen sink!- I spent about 2 hours removing stuff (especially stuff that seemed to be in czech?) then decided I was too much of a "no clutter" person. I love the idea of everything integrated (that is "low clutter") but when you have to scroll 2 screens on the "network connections" page to find your drives below all the "stuff" then that is clutter.
I think it was a major shame that the "network connections" is the place where all extensions can be added - it does create clutter and does not allow for much orgaisation. Almost everything ends in there and you end up removing useful things just because they are in the way too often - they are useful now and then but they push the stuff you use every day down the list and that is a pain. This is of course a TC design decision, not TCUP's fault.
I did like the way certain things were integrated, a lot, but too many things were integrated and it was not easy enough to remove them. So I noted down the programs I liked best and will try to integrate them myself, looking at the code etc.
It did remind me how customisable total commander is, although it also brought another point to me: that i havent bothered to learn any software extension syntax in ages. Not even when I have niggles and "i wish"-es which I am sure some scripting in some of the software I own could help. The problem is, which one. There are so many, they all claim to be wonderfully extensible and configurable (and yet experience tells me most will fall short), they all have a very clumsy "language" (why does almost every developer think he can create a "language"?)
Every tool nowadays seems to come with its extension syntax, your file manager, your editor, your email program, your browser, your utilities, your games etc etc etc. As a result, in the end, I end up not trying to figure out a single one - too many, too different, and which to choose, usefulness too uncertain. So in the end I bother to learn none. Not total commander extensions, not ahk, not the modified javascript in wirekeys etc etc etc.
And the same seems to go with frameworks and new languages. I tend to shrug them off and think "if it is still here in 2 years maybe i'll pay attention". Maybe it is that so much that gets raved about turns out to be not-much-new when looked at closely. I'm turning into a cynical old coder, pretty soon I'll be quirping "LISP had this already in the 60s" anytime someone mentions something new (although first I should really properly learn and understand lisp... on my todo list since... well... not the 60s but it feels forever anyway)
Oops, this is turning into a rant and doesnt belong here. Maybe I'll post a rant in a new thread later
Anyway I am very grateful to TCUP for refreshing my memory as to how to fix/modify my total commander, and making me discover aimp2
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