-=> Quoting paul marwick to Bat Lang, [31 Aug 99  10:05:40] <=-

 pm> Hi Bat

Howdy, PM!  It's been a while. {^;

 pm> Replying to a message of Bat Lang to John Thompson:

 pm> Anyhow, I've just completed an extensive review of OS/2 file managers.
 pm> The results will be on my Web site within the next couple of weeks
 pm> (just being proof-read and having graphics added).

Please drop a note in here when it's ready. File Managers, Editors and
Viewers are of =more= than passing interest to me.

 pm> OS/2 Commander was one of the programs that I tried. I liked it a good
 pm> deal, but found a number of annoying bugs (failure handing files with
 pm> long filenames and FILES.BBS entries, failure to read most
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How long? I never found that problem, but then I didn't try to see how
long was too long. {^; So long as it never faulted on those that I
encountered of others creation (I continue to be satisfied with 8.3 for
most any that I create).

 pm> self-extracting archives, odd behaviour after viewing files within
     ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I have that same problem, and mentioned it in here. The selfex' that it
will read are few and far between. Virtually none of those that I dnld
from IBM. }^: When I did bring it up, JS downplayed that failing. Thanks
for that support. {^; I am able to test those using an F2 entry that
calls unzip -t-M [%P]\[%F], but better still is a small batch file from
the command line followed by ^ which pastes in the selfex name.
That batch file which I call UNT.CMD (UNzip to Test) looks like:
@echo off
d:\util\unzip -t-p %1 %2 %3 |hv

Which uses a pipe to HV (or your choice) to display the entire STDOUT
for scrolling, or whatever. This will enable you to read the contents
and even copy a filename to the clipboard (for a one file extraction).
Unfortunately, I have not been able to paste any of those to the OS2C
command line. }^:

 pm> archives, etc..). Having got no replies at all from the author, I
 pm> wasn't prepared to register it.
 pm> I looked at a number of other options as well. Including MC. While MC
 pm> is very like OS/2 commander (text-mode, exteneded Norton Commander
 pm> clone), its fairly painful to set up (and the docs aren't real clear
 pm> on what has to be done either..). The fact that its free helps, but
 pm> not enough...

I too struggled with that one. I never could get the version I have to
even execute. It would just quit with an error msg. Emails with that
author did not resolve the problem. Particularly the error about 'Not
Powerful Enough'? (P200 w/80mb ram) or 'couldn't determine my operating
system' or some such? This was with MC4562BI.ZIP. It seems like the
author writes presuming a complete knowledge of *ix, of which I have
next to zero.

 pm> If I ever get MC set up completely, I may be able to compare it. For
 pm> the moment, the amount of work involved in getting it to do what I
 pm> want has put me off.
 pm> Other programs that I looked at:

 pm> FileFreedom - PM, now free, but a bit limited, and not an NC clone

 pm> Ztree - text mode, but I always hated Xtree, so I'm not real taken
 pm> with Ztree.

We are again on the same wavelength. I too never liked Xtree, preferring
QFiler (strictly for DOS).

 pm> EFCommander - PM, NC clone, broken in a number of respects and goes
 pm> _way_  beyond being simply annoyware - its a _real_ turkey.

 pm> Larsen Commander - PM, NC clone, nice, but still beta, no price yet.

 pm> FC/2 - text mode, NC clone, _very_ few bugs, still under active
 pm> development, also has a Win9x version should you need it. A bit
 pm> cheaper to register than OS/2 Commander. Commander has a few things I
 pm> need, but without bug fixes, I'm not prepared to spend any money on
 pm> it.

I can certainly identify with that. What it does do, it does well! Mine
is already registered. I think the author's last act was to cash my
registration, then headed for a desert isle. {^;

 pm> So far, my vote is overwhelmingly for FC/2. Current version is
 pm> FC2_211.ZIP, should be available in lots of places. Home is:
 pm> http://silk.apana.org.au/pub/fc2/index.html

It might be mine too at this point, as a recommendation, but having
registered OS2C, I continue to prefer it to FC/2, but that could change
in the future. Thanks for the comeback, and let us know when that review
is ready.  Good Modeming!  /\oo/\


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