My #1 wish for Linux is Directory Opus "Magellan" (v5.6)! It's the best filemanager ever made! This is a good start though. v4.x and v5.x is VERY different! It's like two completely different programs!
v4 uses the classic two listviews and a bunch of buttons at the bottom (copy, move, delete, unpack etc).
v5 uses multiple windows that are marked one SRC, one DEST and/or the rest OFF. Activating a DEST or OFF window makes it SRC and the SRC becomes DEST. Each window has small copy, move, delete etc buttons. You can configure it 100%.. Doubleclicking an archivefile (.lha,.lzx,.zip) let you browse through it like it was a normal directory. Dragging an archieve unpacks it in the window you dragged it to. Marking some files and pressing "move" move them to the DEST window.. etc.. You can choose between text or icon view. And every single function is available through the ARexx language so you can easily create or customize your own functions.
Directory Opus v5 is the program i miss the very most on other systems!
It's basically a two paned filemanager - very similar in concept to midnight commander (not the Explorer-ised GNOME version, the console version), but with a proper GUI.
www.gpsoft.com.au have screenshots (albeit crap ones) of DOpus5 which is much better than DOpus4 anyway.
-- Chris "Ng" Jones
cmsj@tenshu.net
www.tenshu.net
Re:This is an old version ...
by
GregWebb
·
· Score: 2
v5 - Especially Magellan - is a VERY different product. Pretty much a complete new desktop with an integrated filemanager. It's a lot more powerful but I know not everyone prefers it. I use both, personally, as the effort required to make 5 perform as 4 did is substantial and 4 is sometimes faster.
Whatever, 4 is still a VERY cool product and worth looking at. I agree it may well be more than a little difficult to port due to being very Amiga specific, but it's a start. And anything that helps produce a better file manager is good.
Greg
--
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant) Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
I wondered whether this might happen, but decided to experiment a little.
I'm a Windows user:) Nothing against Linux (though I'm not a huge Unix fan), just no reason to run it for what I need. Too much effort to set it up, not enough return. I'll probably set up a *nix box of some description when I've got the space for more than one, but right now I'm a Windows user.
Anyway. I can't really test Worker out over here:) but it does look nice. So much of DOpus was in the little things it could do which I can't really comment on from screenshots but, based on what I've seen, it would appear worth looking at.
Don't let this discourage anyone from working on DOpus though. It's probably going to be very difficult to port (if at all possible - it may well prove to be too OS dependent) but it's a good program and the computing world could benefit from using is as an example. Linux and Windows:)
While I'm here, how on earth did my original post generate a 4? I mean, it's not a troll and it's fairly early, but...
I've got moderator points right now, too. Pity I can't post and moderate in the same thread - I'd moderate myself back down.
Greg
--
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant) Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
This was announced last week and, not wishing to be smug, but I submitted almost exactly this story the day it was released. Rejected VERY quickly.
Oh well...
For anyone who hasn't used this, do. It's fantastic and would be a real asset to the GNU community. Even if it means downloading UAE and using that just to try it out. This program could convince almost anyone to move away from CLIs for file management and was Amiga Format's highest rated product until Lightwave 3.5 came along - 97%.
Please, can someone port it?
Greg
--
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant) Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
Before anybody starts to port it, why not have a look at Worker at freshmeat. It's described there as follows:
Worker is a file-manager exclusive for X based on the famous filemanager "DirectoryOpus" on the AmigaOS. It is configurable on the fly without restarting Worker. Any extern program can be easily integrated in the GUI, including a button and a hotkey. Worker uses real file-recognition on file-content AND/OR file-ending, where each file-type can get an own action.
-- MartinG.
-- --
MartinG
To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz.@adgimnoprstu
How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Amiga. Sure, Amigas may have been cool at the time, but they haven't been made for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them, much less why they're still relevant to any of us.
Just because they're not made anymore doesn't mean they are dead. The life of a system is based on it's userbase, not how many corporations throw money behind it. To use another classic computer as an example - the C64. You may say it is dead, and it is commercially in my eyes. However, if you tell me that the 64 is dead based on the sheer number of users it still has, then I will laugh in your face, sir.
I can sort of understand why the story about the PET was posted -- that was a true original revolution in personal computing
And the Amiga wasn't? It was 15 years ahead of it's time (the Amiga still has bragging rights on certain capabilities that haven't happened anywhere else), the only problem it had was Commodore.
But the Amiga is a dead platform, yet Slashdot has a whole category for Amiga posts.
That's because many geeks were brought up on the Amiga, such as myself. The Amiga platform is still fairly popular if you consider how long ago Commodore filed for bankruptcy, and also the fact that when a PC is obsoleted, many people just trash them and upgrade. I can give you a list of things that the Amiga is capable of out of the box that PC manufacturers just haven't figure out how to do yet.
Doesn't anyone else here get tired of constantly hearing about Amiga?
No, I used an Amiga ever since AmigaDOS 1.2, and I was amazed at the speed and stability of the system, so amazed that even after I had sold all my Amigas (yes, I did:) and bought a PC, I still yearned for more. So now I have an A3000 sitting in my home, that does things running at 25MHz and with only 4MB of RAM that my 333MHz K6-2 can't with 128MB of RAM. So yes, I do still own an Amiga, and yes, I enjoy hearing news about it, at least it still gets some press coverage.
Rob & Co., I appreciate all the effort you put into Slashdot, but I think all of us would like stories that cover what we're interested in today.
If you're not interested in the Amiga, then pass by the article instead of trying to raise a stink. Some people actually still like the Amiga, you know. _______ Scott Jones Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
FYI, there is already a nice clone of Directory Opus, called Worker.
WRT porting Directory Opus to *nix, Amiga environment is so different from the typical *nix environment that probably it's easier to rewrite software like this from scratch.
But then, the release of the sources of Directory Opus will surely make Amiga users (and UAE ones) really happy, anyway.
This is news because Directrory Opus is one of the two reasons I kept using my Amiga even when it went way outdated, and why I could use it to feed my/. addiction even this week when my usual Linux box went down.
For those who don't know what DirOpus does, it's a file managment tool in the vein of Norton / Midnight commander, except it's everything those tools ever wanted to become. A port of it would be a Good Thing (TM).
Besides, I feel more manufacturers should set their software free when the commercial value of it has run dry. After all, that's not the only kind of value a program has. A good example is Ian Bell's release of Elite.
-- "The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
DOpus can't be judged by screen shots... GET UAE!
by
Macfox
·
· Score: 4
While I agree this might not a as news worthy as a lot of other stories, there is a large portion of/. readers who are x-amiga fans and like to see this kind of news now an then...
Three major things that Dopus was to the amiga...
1) The only file manager with a decent GUI. Back when I first met John Potter and he was coding the first version there was no API short cuts to coding a nice consistent interface. Only the horrible 1.3 WB interface existed. Hardly worth using and only if you had access to the ridiculously priced amiga developers books. Johns own GUI set the standard and I had my suspecisions that many of the WB 2 widgets appeared very similar.:)
2) Many have commented that they had a 50k file manager that did the same... Hardly... DOpus's GUI was not only most easiest and clear to use GUI, it was also very intuitive and could be customized very easily... A very rare thing to find in an program back then. These are the best points and they can't be demonstrated by screen shots!
3) Behind the GUI layed a very smart file recognition system that didn't rely on dumb file extentions, a text and hex editor, media players, and a host of WB tools that allowed the creation and modification of icons for files and folders.
Overall DOpus filled a big gap. Only after it was so successful was there a host of clones that never matched DOpus for what it was.
Something like DOpus could make X far more useable for the would be linux crowd who want to try it out, but cant figure out stuff like ls, cd, rm, cp, more...;)
I agree with the point that a complete GUI desktop environment is going to make Linux more accessible to the new or casual user. The reason is extremely simple. It is easier to recognize even infrequently used controls when they are visible in front of you than it is to remember how to access them when they are not visible. That is the entire secret to the real need for GUIs.
Let's be honest with ourselves. My average computer use has probably been around 10 hours/day for several years (down somewhat from the days when I didn't have kids and home-repair projects). I am probably around the 50th percentile among Slashdot readers. (Future poll topic?) And I am probably at least 1.5 to 2 sigmas out on the bell curve for the general population. Remembering an infrequently used command is not a problem for me. I know where and how to find the information.
The importance of a CLI however is often underrated. CLI tools lend themselves very well to scripting. That means that I can make frequently executed tasks even easier than a GUI makes them for my mother. I can reduce something that she clicks through menus to do into a shell script. I type a few characters and dozens of separate steps involving a variety of tools happen automatically, with the infinite patience and unparalleled repeatability that a computer brings to the task. I won't give up that power for all the windows, icons, menus and pointers in the world. GUIs don't speed up my interaction or make it easier a significant part of the time.
-- The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them [Amigas], much less why they're still relevant to any of us
The Amiga is relevant because it has always had a powerful-but-easy-to-use design philosphy. Linux/Unix is powerful, but can it ever be easy to use (for Joe L. User)? I know, people are working on it, but Linux's hardcore-nerd roots make it very challenging. And Windows of course is easy to use, if you want to do easy things, but difficult if you want to do powerful things. So, there is a big opportunity here, don't you think?
Certainly Amiga has had many abortive attempts at rebirth since Commodore went under many years ago, but the latest attempt looks to me like a winner. Here is a press release from jan 8:
These guys who bought Amiga have some very interesting ideas to do with an Object Oriented Operating Environment; and the underlying OS, Elate from Tao, looks very interesting too. Some highlights of Elate:
real time (important for multimedia)
object based from the ground up
easy porting to new platforms (just one part of it needs ``just a few weeks to be written'' for a new platform).
hardware independant executables
can run hosted in another OS, so it can get on peoples computers by stealth (Be seems to be doing this too). If they like it, they can install it natively.
But it's still very early days, so don't get too excited just yet.
Please someone..... port it!
by
TuRRIcaNEd
·
· Score: 2
DOpus made using a vanilla A1200 bearable (WB3.1 was far too kludgy and slow - thus negating the reasons WB was remembered so fondly!)
To finally see the kind of program that made the Amiga legend on different formats would be a real testament to the work of those that have fought to keep the machine alive over recent years, while greedy corporations fought over the rights to Amiga, purely for the GUI technology, simply to give them more leverage with MS, so the machine could be killed even more stone dead!
What makes the Amiga special is that the fundamental design and ideas behind the machine were good. The design was based around having a good machine, not one that would render itself obsolete within a few years so the company could fleece more money from the public. No adding lots of features at the last minute, no bloatware, and no need to charge big $ for major updates, simply because the system tended to work out of the box, and in the rare cases it didn't, SetPatch was free.
Anyway, got a bit OT there. Please someone port it to whatever you can (I would, but a)I don't really have the brains yet, and b)I'm a student on my year out, with every day filled with something i usually don't want to do;>) )
I say this, because a port is the only way to keep the faith until these new owners come up with something tangible. I can't deny that the technology needs a serious rethink, but still, I'd love to see the machine's name and ethos resurrected, so here's hoping!
-- - "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
Not being a DOpus user myself, I'm not sure if this really shows DOpus well. Seems a shame that all GUI aspects that are ever copied seem to be the Win95 and Mac ones. The Amiga had some wonderfully designed GUI's.
Slashdot Mirror
I've used filerunner a bit---it's quite good, too. Check it out here.
My #1 wish for Linux is Directory Opus "Magellan" (v5.6)! It's the best filemanager ever made! This is a good start though. v4.x and v5.x is VERY different! It's like two completely different programs!
.lzx, .zip) let you browse through it like it was a normal directory. Dragging an archieve unpacks it in the window you dragged it to. Marking some files and pressing "move" move them to the DEST window.. etc.. You can choose between text or icon view. And every single function is available through the ARexx language so you can easily create or customize your own functions.
v4 uses the classic two listviews and a bunch of buttons at the bottom (copy, move, delete, unpack etc).
v5 uses multiple windows that are marked one SRC, one DEST and/or the rest OFF. Activating a DEST or OFF window makes it SRC and the SRC becomes DEST. Each window has small copy, move, delete etc buttons. You can configure it 100%.. Doubleclicking an archivefile (.lha,
Directory Opus v5 is the program i miss the very most on other systems!
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
It's basically a two paned filemanager - very similar in concept to midnight commander (not the Explorer-ised GNOME version, the console version), but with a proper GUI.
www.gpsoft.com.au have screenshots (albeit crap ones) of DOpus5 which is much better than DOpus4 anyway.
Chris "Ng" Jones
cmsj@tenshu.net
www.tenshu.net
v5 - Especially Magellan - is a VERY different product. Pretty much a complete new desktop with an integrated filemanager. It's a lot more powerful but I know not everyone prefers it. I use both, personally, as the effort required to make 5 perform as 4 did is substantial and 4 is sometimes faster.
Whatever, 4 is still a VERY cool product and worth looking at. I agree it may well be more than a little difficult to port due to being very Amiga specific, but it's a start. And anything that helps produce a better file manager is good.
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
I wondered whether this might happen, but decided to experiment a little.
:) Nothing against Linux (though I'm not a huge Unix fan), just no reason to run it for what I need. Too much effort to set it up, not enough return. I'll probably set up a *nix box of some description when I've got the space for more than one, but right now I'm a Windows user.
:) but it does look nice. So much of DOpus was in the little things it could do which I can't really comment on from screenshots but, based on what I've seen, it would appear worth looking at.
:)
I'm a Windows user
Anyway. I can't really test Worker out over here
Don't let this discourage anyone from working on DOpus though. It's probably going to be very difficult to port (if at all possible - it may well prove to be too OS dependent) but it's a good program and the computing world could benefit from using is as an example. Linux and Windows
While I'm here, how on earth did my original post generate a 4? I mean, it's not a troll and it's fairly early, but...
I've got moderator points right now, too. Pity I can't post and moderate in the same thread - I'd moderate myself back down.
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
This was announced last week and, not wishing to be smug, but I submitted almost exactly this story the day it was released. Rejected VERY quickly.
Oh well...
For anyone who hasn't used this, do. It's fantastic and would be a real asset to the GNU community. Even if it means downloading UAE and using that just to try it out. This program could convince almost anyone to move away from CLIs for file management and was Amiga Format's highest rated product until Lightwave 3.5 came along - 97%.
Please, can someone port it?
Greg
Greg
(Inside a nuclear plant)
Aaaarrrggh! Run! The canary has mutated!
there is a thing called preferences, you can switch all amiga stuff off, or are you ignorant on purpose?
How is this news? I don't get why Slashdot keeps on posting stories about Amiga. Sure, Amigas may have been cool at the time, but they haven't been made for years, and with all the advances in computing technology since then, I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them, much less why they're still relevant to any of us.
:) and bought a PC, I still yearned for more. So now I have an A3000 sitting in my home, that does things running at 25MHz and with only 4MB of RAM that my 333MHz K6-2 can't with 128MB of RAM. So yes, I do still own an Amiga, and yes, I enjoy hearing news about it, at least it still gets some press coverage.
Just because they're not made anymore doesn't mean they are dead. The life of a system is based on it's userbase, not how many corporations throw money behind it. To use another classic computer as an example - the C64. You may say it is dead, and it is commercially in my eyes. However, if you tell me that the 64 is dead based on the sheer number of users it still has, then I will laugh in your face, sir.
I can sort of understand why the story about the PET was posted -- that was a true original revolution in personal computing
And the Amiga wasn't? It was 15 years ahead of it's time (the Amiga still has bragging rights on certain capabilities that haven't happened anywhere else), the only problem it had was Commodore.
But the Amiga is a dead platform, yet Slashdot has a whole category for Amiga posts.
That's because many geeks were brought up on the Amiga, such as myself. The Amiga platform is still fairly popular if you consider how long ago Commodore filed for bankruptcy, and also the fact that when a PC is obsoleted, many people just trash them and upgrade. I can give you a list of things that the Amiga is capable of out of the box that PC manufacturers just haven't figure out how to do yet.
Doesn't anyone else here get tired of constantly hearing about Amiga?
No, I used an Amiga ever since AmigaDOS 1.2, and I was amazed at the speed and stability of the system, so amazed that even after I had sold all my Amigas (yes, I did
Rob & Co., I appreciate all the effort you put into Slashdot, but I think all of us would like stories that cover what we're interested in today.
If you're not interested in the Amiga, then pass by the article instead of trying to raise a stink. Some people actually still like the Amiga, you know.
_______
Scott Jones
Newscast Director / ABC19 WKPT
Game Show Fan / C64 Coder
FC Closer
WRT porting Directory Opus to *nix, Amiga environment is so different from the typical *nix environment that probably it's easier to rewrite software like this from scratch.
But then, the release of the sources of Directory Opus will surely make Amiga users (and UAE ones) really happy, anyway.
My 0.02 Euro, as usual.
For those who don't know what DirOpus does, it's a file managment tool in the vein of Norton / Midnight commander, except it's everything those tools ever wanted to become. A port of it would be a Good Thing (TM).
Besides, I feel more manufacturers should set their software free when the commercial value of it has run dry. After all, that's not the only kind of value a program has. A good example is Ian Bell's release of Elite.
"The good die first." "Most of us are morally ambiguous, which explains our random dying patterns." --- MST3K
While I agree this might not a as news worthy as a lot of other stories, there is a large /. readers who are x-amiga fans and like to see this kind of news now an then...
:)
portion of
Three major things that Dopus was to the amiga...
1) The only file manager with a decent GUI. Back when I first met John Potter and he
was coding the first version there was no API short cuts to coding a nice consistent
interface. Only the horrible 1.3 WB interface existed. Hardly worth using and only if you
had access to the ridiculously priced amiga developers books. Johns own GUI set the
standard and I had my suspecisions that many of the WB 2 widgets appeared very
similar.
2) Many have commented that they had a 50k file manager that did the same... Hardly...
DOpus's GUI was not only most easiest and clear to use GUI, it was also very intuitive
and could be customized very easily... A very rare thing to find in an program back then.
These are the best points and they can't be demonstrated by screen shots!
3) Behind the GUI layed a very smart file recognition system that didn't rely on dumb file
extentions, a text and hex editor, media players, and a host of WB tools that allowed the
creation and modification of icons for files and folders.
Overall DOpus filled a big gap. Only after it was so successful was there a host of clones
that never matched DOpus for what it was.
Anywayz my 0.02c AUS
Rob
Area51 - We are watching...
Something like DOpus could make X far more useable for the would be linux crowd who want to try it out, but cant figure out stuff like ls, cd, rm, cp, more... ;)
I agree with the point that a complete GUI desktop environment is going to make Linux more accessible to the new or casual user. The reason is extremely simple. It is easier to recognize even infrequently used controls when they are visible in front of you than it is to remember how to access them when they are not visible. That is the entire secret to the real need for GUIs.
Let's be honest with ourselves. My average computer use has probably been around 10 hours/day for several years (down somewhat from the days when I didn't have kids and home-repair projects). I am probably around the 50th percentile among Slashdot readers. (Future poll topic?) And I am probably at least 1.5 to 2 sigmas out on the bell curve for the general population. Remembering an infrequently used command is not a problem for me. I know where and how to find the information.
The importance of a CLI however is often underrated. CLI tools lend themselves very well to scripting. That means that I can make frequently executed tasks even easier than a GUI makes them for my mother. I can reduce something that she clicks through menus to do into a shell script. I type a few characters and dozens of separate steps involving a variety of tools happen automatically, with the infinite patience and unparalleled repeatability that a computer brings to the task. I won't give up that power for all the windows, icons, menus and pointers in the world. GUIs don't speed up my interaction or make it easier a significant part of the time.
The net will not be what we demand, but what we make it. Build it well.
I don't understand why everyone keeps fawning over them [Amigas], much less why they're still relevant to any of us
The Amiga is relevant because it has always had a powerful-but-easy-to-use design philosphy. Linux/Unix is powerful, but can it ever be easy to use (for Joe L. User)? I know, people are working on it, but Linux's hardcore-nerd roots make it very challenging. And Windows of course is easy to use, if you want to do easy things, but difficult if you want to do powerful things. So, there is a big opportunity here, don't you think?
Certainly Amiga has had many abortive attempts at rebirth since Commodore went under many years ago, but the latest attempt looks to me like a winner. Here is a press release from jan 8:
Amiga Incorporated has entered into a strategic relationship with Tao Group for the New Amiga
These guys who bought Amiga have some very interesting ideas to do with an Object Oriented Operating Environment; and the underlying OS, Elate from Tao, looks very interesting too. Some highlights of Elate:
More info on Elate can be found at www.tao-group.com.
But it's still very early days, so don't get too excited just yet.
To finally see the kind of program that made the Amiga legend on different formats would be a real testament to the work of those that have fought to keep the machine alive over recent years, while greedy corporations fought over the rights to Amiga, purely for the GUI technology, simply to give them more leverage with MS, so the machine could be killed even more stone dead!
What makes the Amiga special is that the fundamental design and ideas behind the machine were good. The design was based around having a good machine, not one that would render itself obsolete within a few years so the company could fleece more money from the public. No adding lots of features at the last minute, no bloatware, and no need to charge big $ for major updates, simply because the system tended to work out of the box, and in the rare cases it didn't, SetPatch was free.
Anyway, got a bit OT there. Please someone port it to whatever you can (I would, but a)I don't really have the brains yet, and b)I'm a student on my year out, with every day filled with something i usually don't want to do ;>) )
I say this, because a port is the only way to keep the faith until these new owners come up with something tangible. I can't deny that the technology needs a serious rethink, but still, I'd love to see the machine's name and ethos resurrected, so here's hoping!
- "How do we do it? Volume!" - The Bursar of Unseen University.
Here's a screenshot
Not being a DOpus user myself, I'm not sure if this really shows DOpus well. Seems a shame that all GUI aspects that are ever copied seem to be the Win95 and Mac ones. The Amiga had some wonderfully designed GUI's.