2xExplorer R7
A swiss army knife for your everyday file management needs
Windows Explorer is a decent entry-level file manager, capable of allowing even one's grandmother to become an instant file manager-ess. The point and click, drag & drop paradigm is very intuitive and gives access to immediate no-frills basic file management. However, for the more dedicated user who owns his/her computer for more than a month or two, and whose interactions with the machine extend beyond surfing the net, the fundamental cracks in the said explorer become apparent.
Have you ever wished the standard Windows Explorer was a little bit more efficient for the day-to-day file management tasks? Are you longing for the functionality of older file managers but can't find one that is 32-bit compatible? Do you find some applications in the explorer replacement market a bit too taxing to setup and use? Then look no further, 2xExplorer is the answer and twice as nice at that. It combines the user-friendliness of the standard Explorer with the increased efficiency and advanced features of good-old dual-pane file managers like Norton Commander. It is a package that will appeal to the power user, yet its similarity with Explorer will ensure that less experienced users will not be driven away either.
2xExplorer is a fusion between the efficient dual-pane file management format of yesteryear and the intuitive tree/content pane format of modern operating systems. It aims to deliver the best of both worlds, without pledging allegiance to either of the two prototypes. You may regard it as an explorer on steroids, with an additional pane for browsing folder contents side to side. Apart for this extra pane, 2xExplorer fills in many glaring omissions in the windows Explorer:
· Filters (wildcard based) for limiting the files displayed in a contents pane, and for controlling the selection of items.
· Keyboard shortcuts for nearly all commands, an indispensable feature for efficient everyday use.
· Briefcase-beating lightweight folder synchronisation engine.
· Notepad-thrashing internal simple yet powerful text editor and RTF/Hex viewer.
· Improved Find Files tool offering more control over the search criteria.
· Automatic Batch file (*.bat) generation that can be used for delicate management operations, as the mass renaming of files.
· Complete file date information (modified plus created and last accessed) is both shown and used for various operations throughout the program.
· Proper sorting for file type using the filename extension alphanumerically; no more ".INI" files before ".BMP" ones like in the confused explorer.
2xExplorer offers a host of powerful commands found in heavyweight file managers like Norton Commander, yet it is not poised to reproduce faithfully the original item. The author makes no apology for departing from the traditional looks and modus operandi that some NC purists would regard compulsory for any file manager braving a comparison with the founder of the dual pane scene. For example, there seems to be little justification for two sets of toolbars (i.e. drive buttons, status bars, etc.) - one for each pane. Despite this external dissimilarity though, you'll soon realise that 2xExplorer is every bit as efficient, useable and addictive as NC. In fact it surpasses the master in providing all mod cons of an up to date 32-bit shell namespace browser:
· Browsing and file management in non-filesystem folders like Control Panel, Desktop, etc.
· Full drag/drop (including right-dragging) and shell context menu support.
· Multifunctional address bar for specifying folder names and visual filters, plus running (executing) DOS or windows programs.
· Bookmarks and internet-style back/next folder navigation.
· Separable tree view; one can have both the tree view and the two contents panes visible at the same time.
· Thumbnail previewer for many popular graphics formats (jpeg, gif, bmp, etc.), HTML and Office documents.
· Handy tools like the Folder Subtree Statistics and the unique Mirror Browsing tool.
All this functionality does not come at the expense of user friendliness. In most respects this is just another Windows Explorer, and whoever is familiar with that, will feel immediately at home using 2xExplorer. The look is not far off the standard Explorer either; one will even see the same "animations" in copying/deleting operations. Descriptions of commands are readily available in the form of explanatory text on the status bar and tooltips popping out of toolbar buttons. Dialog windows have embedded brief instructions of use - with complimentary icons too. 2xExplorer is capable of making instant power users out most people, regardless of their level of experience.
All the features of 2xExplorer are supported for all 32-bit windows platforms, from win95 all the way up to the latest win2000 (i.e. 95/98/NT4/2000/Me). The code is fairly stable and you shouldn't experience many mysterious program crashes and blue screens of death. Keep in mind that 2xExplorer works at a very low level, hence crashes cannot be ruled out altogether, especially for systems that are heavily tweaked.
Last but not least, 2xExplorer offers all this increased functionality whilst retaining a "small" executable file size. Half-megabyte programs would be regarded monstrous 10 years ago, but with all these COM and user interface features nowadays 500 kB is at the low end of the market. Still don't let that fool you, there are heaps of functionality efficiently packed in this lightweight outfit. The file size was kept in check by sensible program flow design, taking advantage of many C++ language features for the maximum level of code reuse possible. This same feature explains in part the speed of the program, too.
Dual Pane Layout
Anybody that has ever worked with a dual pane file manager will surely attest to the one thousand plus one different uses that the extra contents pane can be put into, for increased efficiency. In 2xExplorer the contents of two folders are visible at any given time. Each of the two panes behaves similarly to the right hand side pane of the standard Explorer, and can be configured completely separately in all property departments (e.g. view style, sorting method etc.).
However, the dual pane layout is much more than the sum of its parts. It's not the same as merely placing two explorer windows side by side, since the panes can communicate with each other. Here are some manifestations of this functionality:
· One stop copy/move operations. Perhaps you find the separate "copying" followed by "pasting" too big a fuss to endure; perhaps you want to see for yourself and verify where your files end up to. 2xExplorer covers all these issues. The presence of two panes provides straightforward target and source folders for these operations. The active pane (be it the left or right one) is always the source folder. The target will usually be the "other" (opposite) pane; however, an alternative folder can be specified if necessary. Hence a copy or move operation can be carried out with a single keystroke.
· Folder synchronisation. The panes can compare their respective contents and mark all files that are missing or different, so as to bring the two folders in perfect harmonisation. For more information refer to the synchronisation section below.
· Mirror browsing. Assisting the synchronisation/comparison of whole directory subtrees, this is a world-first feature delivered by 2xExplorer. When turned on, the inactive pane will mirror the hierarchy navigation applied to the active pane. Let us consider an example: initially, "C:\Documents\Project" is shown in the active pane (A) and "A:\" in the inactive pane (I). With mirror browsing, moving (A) down into "C:\Documents\Project\Resource" will result in the (I)-pane automatically switching to "A:\Resource", should such a folder exist. If you hit <Backspace> to go one level up then (I) will go one level up too.
· Synchronised scrolling. Activating this option results in tracking the focus cursor ("selected" item) movement in the active pane and trying to match it in the inactive pane. The match aims to locate items with the same name that can be thus individually compared head-to-head. Turning both panes into the Details view mode will maximise the usability of this feature, since 2xExplorer will even try to align both items horizontally, if possible.
The team work between the panes goes even further with commands that load the same folder into the inactive pane, using the <Alt> modifier (see Efficient Folder Navigation section below) to force-feed its address, and so on. Once you've sampled the advantages of the dual pane format, there's no going back to half measures any more.
File Management
2xExplorer is a beast of burden ploughing through all your day to day file management needs. You can do all the usual operations like copying, moving, deleting and renaming, with either the mouse or the keyboard, just like the standard Explorer. No need to reconfigure your mind and/or take special training courses there. However, the similarity stops here. 2xExplorer is capable of taking on large folder hierarchies and efficiently managing large amounts of files. It will allow you to get swiftly where you want and increase your productivity once you get there.
There are two main concepts that facilitate managing large scale folders: visual filtering and a multitude of item selection mechanisms. 2xExplorer uses filters to constrain the number of items displayed in each pane. Traditional wildcard patterns are recruited for this, using the special characters "*" to match any number of any characters and "?" to match any single character, like in the good-old command line days. Multiple patterns can be easily specified in a comma separated list, e.g. the filter "*.cpp, *.h" will result in showing all files having 'cpp' or 'h' extensions and nothing else.
For even greater control, it is possible to exclude certain kinds of files, by specifying a leading minus '-' character in some substring. For instance "*.cpp, -a*" will select all 'cpp' files except those whose names begin with 'a', and "-*.txt" would select all files except those with 'txt' extensions. This comma-separated list concept is a great efficiency boosting gadget that is used throughout the application, solving all sorts of problems.
All the file management operations require selected items to act upon. 2xExplorer comes in handy in this department too, with its virtual selection engine. Items can be picked individually if clicked with the mouse (possibly while holding down the <Ctrl> key) or with the <Ins> key. Larger selections are possible with <shift>-clicking, lasso selection and all the other means supported by the standard explorer. As you'd expect there's more on offer, in the form of selection criteria:
· Filters may be used for selecting and unselecting items out of those that comply with the visual filter specified earlier. The comma-separated filter list is applicable here too. Note that selection filters are totally independent of visual ones.
· Using the range of synchronisation commands (see next section) items can be selected if found to differ among the two panes shown.
· Items can also be marked if found to be containing some user-supplied text. Although not a full-blown grep (familiar to UNIX users) equivalent just yet, the command accepts a large degree of tweaking with options to control the case sensitivity of the search, for excluding binary files from the scan, etc.
Complementing these selection/unselection methods are various small touches like inverting the selection, storing the selected names for later use, specifying whether subsequent selections will be added on top of the present one, and more. Ingenious use of these small building blocks will tackle any arbitrarily complex selection formula - limited solely by the user's imagination.
Folder Synchronisation
Personally, I have suffered so many devastating blows during my long-term symbiosis with computers, that have developed a nearly-psychotic tendency to backup every piece of important working file. Note that I am not referring to once a month - or even weekly - backups; if some dark cosmic eventuality causes my losing even one hour's worth of work I feel gutted. It is the well known universal law of the sod that things will pack up the very moment that absolute reliability is at a premium. The text editor will delete the thesis you were working on, the developer studio will crash and corrupt your C++ source files, even the operator himself is liable to malfunction after long hours and do the daft thing. These are all too familiar sights that are capable of driving even mother Teresa through the wall, if under pressure.
The answer to these kinds of hiccups is to do frequent "backups" onto a floppy disk, at a rate inversely proportional to your insecurity factor - that's every 10 minutes if your name is Nikos. For that purpose you need a very efficient and fast tool that can automatically detect the files you've modified and quickly copy them to their secure haven. Well, you've guessed it, 2xExplorer does just that with a variety of synchronisation commands.
You don't have to share the author's paranoia to appreciate the synchronisation features. Any person that works in a couple of different locations will need a means of keeping the contents of the two computers in sync. If you want to continue your labours at home after a long day's work, you'll have to transfer your project files via a floppy disk. Given the sluggishness of file transfer to/from floppy media, the capability to detect and copy only modified files is invaluable. 2xExplorer does not suffer from the same limitations as the Windows Briefcase which is badly constrained by binding to two specific fixed folders. The synchronisation of any two folders can be examined in a flash using the following palette of commands:
· Plain synchronisation. Common as garden grass, this is a very quick way to detect modified files, by looking at the date stamp information of all filenames that exist in both panes (new files that exist only in one pane are straightforward subjects for synchronisation). A later date will result in this file considered more recent and thus marked by 2xExplorer. Note that the files are only marked as suggested for copying; it is up to the user to decide what to do with them. Copying would be the sensible option but nobody could stop you from deleting or performing any other sensible action.
· Contents synchronisation. Sometimes the date stamp information is inadequate for comparing file versions. For instance, copying files from a windows PC to a UNIX computer messes up the modification dates; FTP transfers may suffer from the same symptom. In such cases the last modification date is not a reliable indicator, and the contents synchronisation comes to the rescue. This is a slower method since files have to be physically opened and their contents read in memory to determine their differences or otherwise. Moreover when two files are found to differ, 2xExplorer has no means of telling which one is the most recently reviewed version, therefore only files in the active pane are marked. It is the user's responsibility to discern which version to keep and which to junk. Despite these inevitable shortcomings, content synchronisation can be invaluable when the going gets tough.
2xExplorer offers lightweight synchronisation as opposed to full-blown backup services. The emphasis is on efficiency and user control of what's being transferred, as this feature is meant for very frequent use. Only the contents of the two folders that are shown in the active/inactive panes are considered each time. Still, subfolder synchronisation can be assisted by the mirror browsing feature mentioned earlier.
Internal Editor/Viewer
With 2xExplorer, the contents of each file can be examined without resorting to the default associated application, by either viewing or editing it as "text" (naturally the double-click mechanism is still supported). This feature in a sense provides a second "association" for each file. Since the editor is embedded in 2xExplorer, it provides access to the file contents much faster than e.g. using Notepad. The Notepad-beating capabilities are not limited to speed though. It features drag/drop editing, word wrapping, printing, unlimited size editing, plus it sports a handy toolbar for frequently used commands.
Although it won't substitute your main editor (say for writing your source code), it is nevertheless a very compact quick'n'dirty utility to be appreciated by programmers and lay users alike. The key objective is efficient everyday use, facilitated by the following main features:
· Keyboard shortcuts for most commands
· Powerful search and replace, including command history and cyclic search
· Font selection, colour customisation and tab settings
· Hexadecimal viewer for binary files - for the hacker within oneself
· Rich text format (RTF) viewer in read only mode
Especially for programmers of all shapes and languages, the following added items would surely prove handy:
· Indentation control
· Brace matching, including HTML angle brackets <>
· Goto line # command
· Line/Column indicator
The internal editor is also available in standalone version, for people that want to permanently associate all text files with it. Just visit the website and download 2xEditor.
Integrated Find Files Command
The standard windows Find Files utility is just beginning to catch up with the functionality offered by the 2xExplorer's internal item - and not in all departments. Still, you don't have to splash out for the latest version of Windows 2000 to have a decent file search utility, when 2xExplorer provides all these features for all earlier win32 platforms (9x/NT4 etc), too:
· Multiple file filters (file types) to locate.
· Many search "root" folders can be specified to look in.
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