Programmer
Leif-Erik Larsen just updates the OS/2
file manager Larsen Commander to version 0.94 Beta (lcmd094.zip,
250,5Kb). You can download it from Hobbes or directly from the developer's website. CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SECOND BETA RUNNING>@@@
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE THIRD BETA RUNNING>@@@
THE COMPLETE AND ILLUSTRATED REPORT IS HERE>@@@
The Larsen Commander program has reached its fourth public
release, which is version 0.94. Point your browser to
if you are interested in taking a look or download it.
Some facts about Larsen Commander
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Larsen Commander is a 32-Bit OS/2 Presentation
Manager based File Manager with built in command line and scrollable console monitor.
It has a default look and feel that is designed with inspiration from the grand
old Norton Commander for DOS and the great File Commander for OS/2.
* Nice, attractive and highly customizable look and feel.
* The program actually works very well, and it is quick too.
* Powerful and user friendly at the same time.
* Built in GUI Console and Command Line Prompt with History.
* All standard file management commands; copy, move, delete, etc.
* You can SET environment variables directly in the shell.
* Preserves the Command and Directory History between sessions.
* File Columns are no wider than the widest item of the respective Column.
* Platform independent human editable INI-file.
* Easy creation of Program and Shadow Objects on Desktop.
* Built in command line commands: PUSHD, POPD, R, SET, TAG, WHICH, +++
* All built in commands can be disabled on a per-command basis.
* Almost all commands are accessable by keyboard shortcuts.
* Directory Cache with smart CD command.
* Built in Extended Attribute Viewer.
* Smart Program Launching.
* Toolbar bubble help.
Changes since the previous public release
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Add: New section
"[NoneConsoleProgs]" in LCMD.INI contains a list which
programs should always be launched in a new session. See LCMD.TXT
for more info.
Add: Use SHIFT+F7
to goto the previous directory of the current file panel.
This feature makes it very snappy to jump between two "working" directories.
Imp: The standard
message box of LCMD now shows the message text in a multiline text entry field with
a vertical scroll bar so that all the text can be seen (by scrolling it) in case
it is too long.
Imp: Rewrote
some parts of the program launcher code. Larsen Commander is now, at least in theory,
ready to support launching and management of more than one child process at once.
I will, however, limit the number of active children to only one until further notice.
This is mostly due to the extra risks for serious unknown bugs as a consequence
of the relative complex code.
Imp: System command
interpreter no longer assumed to be CMD.EXE. Is now
fetched from the COMSPEC environment variable as it should.
Imp: The "Choose
Drive" dialog is now much more snappy to pop up after
the first time it has been used.
Chg: Now compiled
for the 80386 processor rather than for 80486. This has no
practical effects to the speed of Larsen Commander at all, but it caused the size
of the EXE-file to be reduced by about 10 KBytes before compression.
Chg: The ALT
key must now be released before 250ms after it was pressed to get the menu bar activated
by keyboard. This used to be 500ms until now.
Chg: Some cosmetic
changes on the size of the three dialogs: Command History, Directory History and
Directory Cache.
Chg: Changed
the icon on the MOVE button of the toolbar. I think this new one
is a bit more intuitive. The old one looked like an icon for creating a shaddow
object.
Fix: Enlarged the
stack of the filename reader thread of the file panels to prevent a "stack
overflow" that sometimes did occur upon startup on some systems.
Fix: In some very
rare situations the toolbar buttons did execute their respective command when mouse
button was released even if the button was initially pressed on some other window
than the Larsen Commander window.
Fix: The "Free
Drive Space" item in the INFO panel was almost never updated within a Larsen
Commander session. Now updates upon every directory reread.
Fix: Did not react
when user tried to adjust the height of the file panels by dragging the bottom frame
of the panels in full "screen" mode.
Fix: Sometimes
crashed due to insufficient stack space when showing an error message during a copy
or move progress.
Fix: When move
or copy only the current selected file or directory then the selection annoyingly
changed to the file just obove the originally selected.
Fix:
Finally fixed the serious bug that Larsen Commander did not prevent the user from
trying to copy or move a parent directory into it self or any of its descendant
subdirectories. (read down)
Fix: Some of the columns in
the FULL mode sometimes was calculated to be to narrow.
Fix: Some PM programs
was unable to start from the command line, including
the Larsen Commander executable it self.
Fix: Could not
view (F3) or edit (F4) a file while a child program was being
run from the command line, until the child program terminated.
Fix: If a program
was launched by pressing enter on a program file object in
a file panel when a child program was still executing in the command line, then
the command line did not restore back to its normal color when the child program
finished.
Fix: Tab characters
was not expanded in the console monitor.
Fix: Text "Flat
Toolbar Buttons" in options dialog View->Style was cut on some screens.
Fix: If the console
minitor contained any selected text then the selection was annoyingly extended whenever
any new text was appended to it.
Fix: Only the first
mouse click was handled by the toolbar buttons if mouse was not moved between two
or more clicks.
Fix: Removed som
painting bugs from the toolbar window.
Fix: Failed to
edit (F4) or view (F3) files that was contained in a directory which name contained
one or more spaces.
Fix: "Calculate
Dir Size" sometimes did never say "Finished!" if multiple file and
directories was tagged.
Fix: The exception
dump in the console munitor that alwas occured the first time an external program
was run from the command line, is now removed.
Fix: Sometimes
crashed when selecting "Previous Command" from popup menu of command line.
The serious bug now fixed
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From - Mon Dec 7 15:44:52 1998
To all members of the Larsen Commander mailing list
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On friday, 4 Dec 1998, I received a report mail from
a Larsen Commander 0.93 beta user that did experience
a very negative happening when using LC to move a
directory into another. LC did not make it, and a
number of files was unhappily deleted. Thanks to Phoenix,
that user was able to recover all the deleted files.
I was very, very sorry to hear that such a bad thing
could possibly happen when using LC, but after all it
shows that it is always more or less dangerous to use
any beta software, including LC.
I have used all the weekend trying to find out how this
was possible to happen at all. And, yes, I did indeed
find the source of a problem that can possibly be the reason
for such a nightmare. I don't know if what I did find actually
corresponds to what that person did do when the nightmare
did happen, but here you can read about the serious bug
that I did find.
...
If the left file panel points to a direcory C:\XXX and the
right file panel points to any child directory of that
directory, for instance C:\XXX\CHILD1.
Now, if the left panel is the active panel and you select
the child directory CHILD1 (which is active in the
opposite panel) and tries to move it (using the
rename/move - F6 - command) to the directory of the right
panel then LC will not make it at all.
The kernel of the problem is that you can not move a parent
directory into its child directory. But LC should
automatically recognize situations like this and prevent
the user from trying to do it.
When I try to do this on my system then LC either
traps or hung the system. It has not happened to me that
any files or directories was actually 100% deleted from
the system, but I guess this bug is serious enough that
such a thing can possibly happen.
...
Please do not try to do this on your system with any
current release of LC. I will fix this as fast as possible
and upload a new public release on my home page as soon
as possible during the next week.
