By @Macarlo
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THE LARSEN COMMANDER COMPLETE REPORT

  Hi All.
I'm using in my OS/2 Warp Larsen Commander file manager since the first version beta and now I decided review the latest version, released this week (March 22,2000) by Leif-Errik Larsen. This new release have several improvements and simply flies on the disk. Using it in various works on my Warp 4 FP12 I loaded in few entire directories with thousands files, as you can see in the photo below:

 If you are interested in fly on the disk with your OS/2 Larsen Commander version 1.1 is the appropriate tool. Using this pure GUI file manager you can take total control in all tasks that you need perform everyday on Warp in your work.

About this new release

 Larsen Commander is a powerful GUI File Manager and Command Processor that  has a look and feel like the classic Norton Commander. The most notable  difference is that the Larsen Commander is pure GUI. Still it has a built  in command line and a scrollable console monitor.

 Larsen Commander is shareware. In other words you can use it freely only for a limited period of time which is suggested not to exceed three months. If you use Larsen Commander regularly for a longer period then you should really consider registering the product so that further development of it can take place.

 You can freely distribute Larsen Commander as long as you don't change it or sell it and as long as this readme file is contained in the distribution together with the program.

 Larsen Commander requires OS/2 Warp 3 or higher. It is compiled for usage on 80486 processors, or higher. It was developed and built using IBM Visual Age C++ 3.65 and 4.01 for OS/2. Great parts of the  Larsen Commander has been developed and tested on relative slow  computers and therefore performs very well even on relatively  weak machines.

 On power machines the Larsen Commander is flying...

 Installation

 To install the product you can follow these steps:

 1. Unzip the distribution archive file in the directory of where  you want to install the program.

 2. Run the script LCMDINST.CMD that is part of the distribution. This will create a Larsen Commander folder on your desktop.

 This is all.

 Upgrade from version 1.0

 To upgrade from Larsen Commander version 1.0 to version 1.1 you can  follow these steps:

 1. Backup all the 1.0 files, including the INI-file, in case you will experience problems with version 1.1 and you will need to revert to it version 1.0 while waiting for a fix.

 2. Unzip the 1.1 distribution  archive in the same directory as of where Larsen Commander 1.0 is installed.

 3. Run Larsen Commander. You don't have to execute the LCMDINST.CMD script, unless you want to recreate the Larsen Commander folder on your desktop.

 Features

 With Larsen Commander you can easily and safely perform all the traditional  file management operations, such as file copy, -move, -rename, -delete,  -edit and -view. In addition you have a large number of additional and powerful features. Here you have a brief list of just some of them:

 * 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 with History.
 * Scrollable console monitor, with various search and navigation capabilities.
 * Graphical bytes-per-second monitor in file Copy/Move progress window.
 * Support for Drag & Drop operations to and from the OS/2 Workplace Shell.
 * Optional fancy menues with icons.
 * Built in command to show statistic summary of directory trees.
 * Automatic filename shortening when copy file from HPFS to FAT, and the
   long filename is automatically restored when file is copied back to HPFS.
 * Filename completion (ala 4OS2) when pressing CTRL+TAB.
 * All commands are accessable by keyboard shortcuts.
 * You can run multiple commands at once in the command line.
 * Amazing multithreading capabilities: You don't have to wait for child
   programs to finish before you can continue using Larsen Commander.
 * Easy creation of Program and Shadow Objects on Desktop.
 * Smart dynamic filename search by pressing ALT+letter.
 * Directory Cache with smart CD command.
 * Command aliases.
 * User customizable shortcut keys.
 * Built on optimized C++ library that ensures low memory usage and high speed.
 * File Columns are no wider than the widest item of the respective Column.
 * Clone current program instance with all the current state and settings.
 * Built in command line commands: ALIAS, CD, CLS, EXIT, FINDDUP, HELP, HIST,
   INFO, POPD, PUSHD, REP, SET, TAG, UNTAG, WHICH, +++
 * All built in commands takes the well known "/?" and "-?" arguments.
 * Human editable resource file for language dependent texts and GUI resources.
 * Platform independent human editable INI-file.
 * User customizable toolbar.
 * User customizable menues.
 * Smart Program Launching.
 * Snappy bubble help with dynamic keyboard shortcut mnemonics.
 * Use specific INI-file with command line argument "-iniFile".
 * All scrollbars are 32 bits so scrolling huge lists are supported.
 * The .LONGNAME EA is automatically removed when renaming a file.
 * Preserves the Command and Directory History between sessions.
 * All built in commands can be disabled on a per-command basis.
 * User menu for easy launching of frequently used programs.
 * You can SET environment variables directly in the shell, and they will
   automatically be inherited by programs that you start from the command
   line of Larsen Commander.
 * Full support for volumes larger than 4GB.
 * Built in Extended Attribute Viewer.
 * User customizable icon resources.
 * Extended selection-, filter- and sorting- capabilities.
 * Full support for long filenames.

 Some of the additional features that are soon to be added
 
 * Built in text file editor and viewer.
 * Support for ZIP-files and other archive formats (ARJ, LZH, ZOO, JAR).
 * File undelete, using OS/2's DELDIR facility.
 * Association editor.
 * Tree view mode.
 * Windows 95/98/NT/2000 version.

 How to register Larsen Commander

 You can register Larsen Commander online at the following sites:

 BMT Micro, USA:                   http://www.bmtmicro.com
 BTSoftware BV, The Netherlands:   http://www.btsoftware.com
 Mensys BV, The Netherlands:       http://www.mensys.nl
 Berggreen Service, Denmark:       http://www.berggreen.dk

 For more information, see the Larsen Commander registration page at

     http://home.sol.no/~leilarse/lcmd/register.html

 The register fee for Larsen Commander version 1.1 is $39 US. This includes a free upgrade to all new versions up to, but not including version 2.0.

 Larsen Commander mailing list

 You can join the Larsen Commander mailing list simply by sending a message to "majordomo@bmtmicro.com" and put "subscribe lc-list XXX" in the body of the message, where XXX is your Internet mail address. To get off, just replace "subscribe" with "unsubscribe". To post a message to the list, use the e-mail address "lc-list@bmtmicro.com".

 Additional Information

 1. Please read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) file LCMDFAQ.HTM for more information before starting to use the Larsen Commander program on your system.

 Known bugs and problems

 1. Some programs uses the VIO subset of OS/2 in such a way that they can not be run as a child process in the console monitor of Larsen Commander. You can execute such programs by pressing ALT+ENTER rather than just ENTER. This will ensure that the program is run in a new session, completely independent from Larsen Commander.

    This is a common and well known problem not only to Larsen Commander but also to other GUI shells, such as Take Command/2 and the SHELL facility of the OS/2 EPM Editor.

    Anyway, you can always press CTRL+C to break the current child program should it operate in an unaccessible way.

    To make Larsen Commander automatically run the program in a new session, regardless if you execute it with ALT+ENTER or just ENTER, just add the program name to the list of TTY-apps in the options dialog (Options->Jump To->Commands->TTY-Apps).

 2. Some of the menu commands in Larsen Commander depends on external  programs on your system. For instance, when you choose to edit a text  file from within Larsen Commander, by default the OS/2 standard text editor program E.EXE will be launched. However, you can easily choose another program module if you like (probably you will). Just open the options menu and select "Programs...". Then, just type in the desired program module name and parameter list of each program category.

    A few of the default programs are shareware programs that you might  not have installed on you system. For instance, when you choose the menu command for comparing the content of two text files, Larsen Commander will (by default) try to launch the PM-Diff shareware program.

    "I am working on internal versions of some of those menu commands.
    Stay tuned!" -says Larsen.

CONTACT AUTHOR

Leif-Erik Larsen
Direct E-mail.....: leifel@online.no
Homepage..........: http://home.sol.no/~leilarse/index.html
Phone, private....: +47 64873223
Phone, work.......: +47 22801544
Snail mail........: Leif-Erik Larsen
 Asenvegen 32b
 1400 Ski
 Norway

@Macarlo, Inc.
@Macarlo's Shareware & Web
OS/2
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