source code

[commander bond]

Got tired of waiting wrote my own commander:

http://www.hcsoftware.co.uk/software/commanderbond/launch.jnlp

webpage:
http://www.hcsoftware.co.uk/software/commanderbond/index.html

screenshot:
http://www.hcsoftware.co.uk/software/commanderbond/screenshot1.png

If you get the 'Linux' zip it includes the source (GPL2) as well.

Not that many features yet, but supports the basics..

[Guest]

hi,
links don't work ;-(.

bye

[Guest]

Nice, thanks! Why not make an sourceforge project?

[commander bond]

Will do (or on java.net) if people want to contribute..

it's quite easy to manage a few files if you're the only one working on the code

[Guest]

I definitely would contribute! I already like it a lot (replaced Finder and muCommander!) but am missing some features. (i.e. Configurable Keys, Zip Support, other selection modes and other stuff ) I will have a look into the sources next week.

[commander bond]

That's great to hear! I have requested a java.net project, which should provide CVS, a wiki and forums(!)

Email me at the address in the about box of CB and I will let you know when the site is up and running (assuming the request is granted)

[FenchGuy]

Great, i would like to contribute.
Inform us when the CVS project was OK.

bye

[commander bond]

Project set up at:

http://commanderbond.dev.java.net/

CVS access should be available + wiki etc.

Cheers

[sky_halud]

You might want to take a look at JCommander at http://jcommander.sourceforge.net.

It is open-source and built on the Eclipse plug-in framework.

We are actively developing it and warmly welcome contributors.

[commander bond]

Interesting - I like the native integration! tried it on windows and it had the explorer-style right click menu; which is nice.

Look and feel seems quite similar to Total Commander, with directories in square brackets and terminology like [system] and Partitions

Not sure about the eclipse style workspaces, views and 'fast views' though, or the scrollable menubar or the 'Manage Configuration..' dialog

First impression though is very professional!

[sky_halud]

Hi. Thanks for the words of appreciation! I also like the questions raised. Let me try to give an explanation for these.

The Eclipse style workspace and views give us a lot of options in structuring the user interface. What exactly don't you like about these? The look, the feel or something else?

By the scrollable menubar I think you are referring to the Bookmarks Control. I agree, it is far from finished. It's just a skeleton which misses a lot of features. Want to contribute?

The plugins of the Eclipse runtime we use provide us several elements: various property pages and dialogs. We did not make a final decision on which features to include and which to skip. Manage Configuration would be a nice tool if it would be properly implemented inside Eclipse first of all. The bad news is that we do not plan to provide our own implementation, but for the Eclipse 3.2 runtime this will most probably change (we are using the Eclipse 3.1.1 runtime).

I hope these are proper answers to your doubts. In fact I would like to invite you all to the forums section of JCommander to tell us all that you like and don't like about it:

http://sourceforge.net/forum/?group_id=35271

And, who knows, maybe muCommander and jCommander could become a joint effort some day... Maxence, are you reading this?

[hritcu]

Nice to hear that there are Free Software commanders that run on the Mac (other than Krusader, which does not run flawless though). If there is a lesson you can learn out of this maxence, it is: "Release Early, Release Often". When the community has the need for a project like yours and would like to contribute to it, it's not a good idea to put them on hold for 4 years while you make up your mind. This is just bad for the project (there was not much development in the last 4 years, was it?) and bad for the community (they had to start their own projects from scratch, and it appears that they still didn't get it right). Do you think that Linux would even exist today if Linus had decided that he needed some more years before his first release?

[Nicolas]

Before ranting on for a bit, I'd like to mention that Maxence doesn't share any of the views I'm about to express. That being said...

Not much development in the last 4 years? Have you even checked the site before posting this? Did you not download the latest build? Did you not see that the nightly build has been updated almost on a daily basis for the past month and a half? Did you not read the latest readme file and see the *huge* feature jump since the latest release?

If there's a lesson to learn from this, it's that however much efforts and personal time you devote to trying to make your users happy, some of them will always find reasons to bitch and moan. Read through the forum, you might pick up on an interesting trend: the whiners tend to be the ones asking for the source code.

I'm surprised you feel that Maxence owes you anything. His software. His time. His efforts. His rule. Being an arrogant prick is not going to change our mind about waiting for 0.8 final to release the source code. If anything, it makes my case against releasing the sources that much stronger.

[hritcu]

Sorry for upsetting with my post Nicolas. It was not in my intention to bitch about anything. Today was the first time I ever used muCommander, so I don't know much about the project (other than what I read on the web page and on this thread), but I find it quite nice. That's why I came to this forum in the first place.

Before ranting on for a bit, I'd like to mention that Maxence doesn't share any of the views I'm about to express. That being said...

Not much development in the last 4 years? Have you even checked the site before posting this? Did you not download the latest build? Did you not see that the nightly build has been updated almost on a daily basis for the past month and a half? Did you not read the latest readme file and see the *huge* feature jump since the latest release?

The answer is no. Sorry for speaking about things I don't fully understand (muCommander). But there are things I do comprehend, and that is free software and open source and how the community works. That is why I thought of sharing my views. Sorry again if I did this in an offending way.

If there's a lesson to learn from this, it's that however much efforts and personal time you devote to trying to make your users happy, some of them will always find reasons to bitch and moan. Read through the forum, you might pick on an interesting trend: the whiners tend to be the ones asking for the source code.

Nicholas, some people only use Free Software and nothing else. They care about Freedom more than about utility or price. Not only will they not contribute to muCommander if it's not Free Software, but they won't use it at all. And while I don't share such extreme views, some of these people have my admiration for their contributions to the community.

I'm surprised you feel that Maxence owes you anything. His software. His time. His efforts. His rule. Being an arrogant prick is not going to change our mind about waiting for 0.8 final to release the source code. If anything, it makes my case against releasing the sources that much stronger.

No Nicolas, Maxence does not own anybody anything (I didn't even imply that). I just felt that his project could have benefited from more developers. If that is not the case then, well ... what is the reason you are going to open source it anyway?

[Nicolas]

Mm. I did rather loose my temper there, didn't I? Let me try and answer that in calmer fashion.

Nicholas, some people only use Free Software and nothing else. They care about Freedom more than about utility or price. Not only will they not contribute to muCommander if it's not Free Software, but they won't use it at all. And while I don't share such extreme views, some of these people have my admiration for their contributions to the community.

Agreed on all points. You'll notice that muCommander *is* free software (not Free Software, but still, software that is free).

Anybody that wants to use muCommander is welcome to it. If they'd like to see more features, we're glad to hear about it and do our best to take such requests into account.

If, however, someone were to say "make it open source or I won't use it", well, the only answer we can give is "don't use it". Maxence will make it open source, hopefully in the near future, but in the meantime... we don't get paid for working on this. We use the software ourselves, are happy to learn that other people are enjoying it, but we're not going to sacrifice any more of our private life to fulfill requests that we don't think reasonable.

Notice how I say "we"? Yeah, my mistake. That's, again, my opinion, not Maxence's. I've always told him he was too much of a nice guy :)

No Nicolas, Maxence does not own anybody anything (I didn't even imply that). I just felt that his project could have benefited from more developers. If that is not the case then, well ... what is the reason you are going to open source it anyway?

To answer your later question first: because you guys are asking for it :)

Quite honnestly, I'm against it, and Maxence and I had long talks about it. It's very much his project though, he gets to put his foot down and decide, so you *are* going to get the sources.

The reason why I'm against releasing the sources is easy. Once that happens, if the software is popular enough - and it is quite popular, if our download logs are to be trusted - then we'll be spending more time managing the project than writing the code. Project management is what I do for a living, and while I enjoy it, it's not what I want to do for fun when I get back home. I do however rather enjoy writing code, especially for software that I'm personaly using.

So basically, the day we go open source is the day muCo stops being fun and starts being work. Yes, it will be better for the project. Yes, it will gather more community recognition. It'll also stop being exciting. And, of course, it'll give people more reasons to start demanding things of Maxence. You know, the "why wasn't my patch incorporated in the main build, come on mate, it's been 2 hours already!" kind of demands.

As for the bit where I haughtily told you to bugger off, we don't owe you anything? Apologies about that, I don't think you deserved it. This whole thread is going way out of hand, some of the posts a shocking show of bad manners, and I suppose I was having a go at the whole thing rather than at you personaly. I promise I'll try to be more civil in the future :)