Migrating from Total Commander

[Jefffy]

I'm thinking of moving from TC to S as TC just isn't Windows-friendly enough and S seems much more so. For example, it seems to be completely impossible to right drag in TC which is important to me as I use several third party extensions which place themselves into the right drag menu. It also has lots of other problems which if you do things the "windows way" (eg. via explorer) the problems don't occur. TC also seems to be non-friendly with Vista. I suppose this is because it is (or seems to be) single author and author doesn't have Vista?

Anyway, I'm missing some things I'm used to in TC and wondering what the easiest way to get them in S would be:

ALT+SHIFT+ENTER - Calculates size of directories in current directory and lists the sizes. Very useful to see how much space is being taken up by dirs in a certain sub-dir.

Compare by content - S kind off has this as a plugin, but it doesn't have the edit feature which TC has. The edit feature is useful when you are merging changes from two files together.

Synchronize Dirs - another useful feature. Can immediately tell me what files are newer between two dirs, progressing into subdirs. Double clicking a file launches "Compare by content".

[zarevak]

Hi Jeffy,
welcome to Salamander

Directory sizes
The ALT+SHIFT+ENTER keypress is probably Ctrl+Shift+F10 - it will calculate the directory sizes and display them in the Size column. There is also Ctrl+Q hotkey, which will calculate these fizes for only selected directories and also displays report with the result.

Compare by content
a) there is File Comparator plugin which by default uses Ctrl+Shift+C hotkey and compares two selected files in one panel or acros panels. Sometimes it takes a while to calculate the differences, but it supports Unicode text files and binary comparisons. There are no editing features though.
b) you can install third party comparison software and put it into User Menu, which is displayed with F9 hotkey. You can setup the arguments to use the "Comparison mode" file selection - when editing the User Menu item click the small arrow button and select some of the Comparison file name variables from the Advanced section.
Example: - how to setup open source WinMerge from http://winmerge.org
Command: C:\Program Files\WinMerge\WinMerge.exe
Arguments: "$(FileOrDirToCompareActive)" "$(FileOrDirToCompareInactive)" - the quotes are required because the path could contain spaces...

Synchronize Dirs
sadly this is one feature missing in Salamander. We can compare only one level of files using Ctrl+F10 hotkey - it will select different/newer files and subfolder, which contain differences; you can then filter out the unselected files (Menu: Edit > Advanced > Hide Unselected Names - this command can also be put on the toolbars, but it doens't have any hotkey ) and compare the selected one using File Compararer. You can probably work around this using the UserMenu as described in the prevous section.

[Jefffy]

Excellent! Thanks!

I've been using Beyond Compare to compare files and I know it can do directories too. I wonder if it supports parameters. If it did, that would solve all the problems

[Knowledge is power]

For example, it seems to be completely impossible to right drag in TC which is important to me as I use several third party extensions which place themselves into the right drag menu

It "seems" like your knowledge about TC is rather limited:
If you have activated left mouse button selection mode in TC options, you can right drag&drop as usual.
If you have activated right mouse button selection mode in TC (default setting), you have to hold down Shift before starting the drag&drop operation.

Maybe it would be a good idea to invest some time to learn some basics first?

[Ether]

Maybe it would be a good idea to invest some time to learn some basics first?

The bacics should be IMO the same as in Windows Explorer and configurable to be different, not the other way around. I could even get over the fact that right-dragging is selecting files by default, but you can't even right-click to get the context menu, and that's bad.

[Knowledge is power]

The bacics should be IMO the same as in Windows Explorer and configurable to be different, not the other way around.

This is true only from a marketing perspective, to give interested users coming from Explorer a warm feeling. From the usability perspective it makes no sense to set the less powerful LMB selection mode by default. From the timeline perspective it makes no sense as well, because Windows (now Total) Commander was born before Exploder.

I could even get over the fact that right-dragging is selecting files by default, but you can't even right-click to get the context menu, and that's bad.

This is again a lack of basic knowledge about TC: In RMB selection mode you have to hold down the right mouse button for half a second to popup the context menu.

[Ether]

This is true only from a marketing perspective, to give interested users coming from Explorer a warm feeling. From the usability perspective it makes no sense to set the less powerful LMB selection mode by default.

Where did you get the feeling that the RMB mode is superior to the LMB mode? I do know how to select files using my mouse in the LMB mode.

From the timeline perspective it makes no sense as well, because Windows (now Total) Commander was born before Exploder.

There's no reason to refuse innovation coming from current applications, even when they're made by Microsoft.

I could even get over the fact that right-dragging is selecting files by default, but you can't even right-click to get the context menu, and that's bad.

This is again a lack of basic knowledge about TC: In RMB selection mode you have to hold down the right mouse button for half a second to popup the context menu.

Sorry, that was my lack of knowledge indeed, but half a second is a long delay and it makes RMB mode less powerful in my eyes.

All I want to say is that it's subjective. You prefer RMB mode, I prefer LMB mode. But the default settings shouldn't require re-learning of basic tasks from the user.

[Knowledge is power]

Where did you get the feeling that the RMB mode is superior to the LMB mode? I do know how to select files using my mouse in the LMB mode.

Of course you also know that you have to keep Ctrl pressed while doing multiple selections, otherwise you'll lose your precious selection with the next LMB press. In TC RMB selection mode you don't need the keyboard for doing multiple selections, and your selection is sticky.
You also know that there is a permanent danger of moving or copying selected files, if you don't start selecting from a free area but drag and drop an already selected file by accident.

There's no reason to refuse innovation coming from current applications, even when they're made by Microsoft.

Of course, but LMB selection is not an innovation, it's a usability degeneration to which millions of users had to adopt only because they had no choice/alternatives.

Sorry, that was my lack of knowledge indeed, but half a second is a long delay and it makes RMB mode less powerful in my eyes.

There are several ways to call the context menu without a delay also in RMB selection mode but you will fight these as well, I am sure.

But the default settings shouldn't require re-learning of basic tasks from the user.

What about F5? Remap to Refresh instead of Copy? I mean, hey, all the Explorer puppies should not have to relearn stuff. No more steep learning curves for newbies, bow down to the mighty Explorer!

[Ether]

Of course you also know that you have to keep Ctrl pressed while doing multiple selections, otherwise you'll lose your precious selection with the next LMB press. In TC RMB selection mode you don't need the keyboard for doing multiple selections, and your selection is sticky.
You also know that there is a permanent danger of moving or copying selected files, if you don't start selecting from a free area but drag and drop an already selected file by accident.

What about F5? Remap to Refresh instead of Copy? I mean, hey, all the Explorer puppies should not have to relearn stuff. No more steep learning curves for newbies, bow down to the mighty Explorer!

Of course I know. And of course I don't have the slightest desire to do such complicated selections by mouse, regardless of the selection mode. If it's *that* complicated, I use the keyboard and have the files selected much faster. My experience is that newbies always try to use the mouse and experienced users know how to operate faster using the keyboard. So that's the reason I believe mouse commands should be newbie-friendly (Explorer) and keyboard commands should be productivity-friendly (NC and similar).

Of course, but LMB selection is not an innovation, it's a usability degeneration to which millions of users had to adopt only because they had no choice/alternatives.

There are several ways to call the context menu without a delay also in RMB selection mode but you will fight these as well, I am sure.

Try me. I really want to know if this design doesn't fit me at all or if I just don't get it right.

[Knowledge is power]

Try me. I really want to know if this design doesn't fit me at all or if I just don't get it right.

Nope, thanks, I tried and failed. I don't have the slightest desire to find arguments for people who only pretend to be interested in a feature. Telling me that you are using your keyboard anyway for selecting stuff, regardless of mouse selection mode, because newbies use mice and pros use the keyboard, is just not the appropiate reaction to my answer on your concrete question.

Good luck, I am outta here.