Command your machine
As a democoder you often have to move around on your harddisk heavily. Taking this picture from the downloaded files, this backuped file to overwrite some bugged code, something here and there etc.
As I know quite a lot of people try to do this with a "tool" we know as "Explorer". Well, actually this is some kind of a bad joke. Nobody can say that you can work with that. I for myself as an old DOS-freak (well, I'll abandon DOS as demoplatform now, but not my tools!!!) of course have a solution for you: the Norton Commander. Yes folks, this outdated oldskool textmode-tool from times when people still used something called keyboard. Alternatively you also can use the Windows Commander, which is a clone (now guess) for Windows. I use both. Windows Commander has some additional features, others are missing. I prefer the NC. But as the commands are roughly the same you can learn for both. At least the Windows Commander is usable with the keyboard. Linux users can choose the Midnight Commander.
In the following article I'm gonna show you why you should use those tools for serious work and how you do it.
(I did several proofreading-passes on this text to avoid erros. It still might be possible there are some especially due to the enormous mass of hotkeys. If there are any errors I'm really sorry.)
Chapter One. Leaving the mouse behind us.
At first of all you should say goodbye to your mouse. It's too slow for us (no, also your super-elitish M$-optical mouse is too slow). Using the keyboard is the fastest way to command everything (also Windows btw.).
Let's go with the basics. First of all, what do we see after starting up our Norton Commander? We have the screen split into two windows. Both are independent of each other, which simplifies work a lot. Apart from that we have a "Menu" in the bottom line. This is more or less just a reminder for you how keyboard-commands work. There's also a menu in the top line, but I recommend you to switch it off as you won't need it too much. With F9 you can switch to it and use the arrow keys. The arrow keys are also your basic moving keys. Not much to say I guess. Important for fast moves are the "Page Up/Down" keys to scroll whole pages. To get to the top or end of a directory use the "Pos1" and "End" keys. Another very important key is the "Tabulator" one. With it you can switch to the other window. Cool, eh? And when you switch back NC sets the cursor on that file or directory it was before.
You should try to work a lot with those basic features and you'll become very fast. (VERY fast...for more infos write to ctulhu@head-crash.de with the subject "how fast is styx with the norton commander ?" :) )
A very useless key which is implemented anyway is F10. It quits the NC, actually something you only should do in an emergency case. =)
Chapter two. More basics and configuring our tool.
So you checked out some moves? Nice. I guess you already don't miss your Windows Crapplorer anymore.
Now let's first configure our NC for our purposes. (Btw, I own the german NC so it might be that my translations of menu-entries are not always correct.)
First of all press F9. Now either use the keys or (in an emergency) the mouse and select "Right". Select the window-mode "Full". It will give you all the information like date, size etc. of files. The next block of modes gives you the possibility to change the sorting mode. Do what you like, I sort my files by name, which is probably what most people choose.
Apart from that you can re-read your directory, e.g. if you inserted a new flopyy-disk and the view is still showing the old one. (Floppies are those small plastic-pieces with a capacity of 1.44 MB. Not very useful for MP3'z, Warez and Gamez.) Besides that you can use a filter on your directory view (never used it...) and switch the drive. But more about that later. Now do the same configuration for the other window.
Another menu entry is "Files". Useless, everything can be done with the keyboard. Next is (erm) "Media"?? (Datentraeger in German... you know, Floppies etc.) Here you can format floppies and give them names etc...
The last entry is "Commands". This one features some things which are important for us. Most again can be applied using the keys. At first choose the last entry, "Configuration".
Screen options: Select your favourite color scheme (nowadays called skin... please don't try to use your favourite WinAmp-Style-Skin...). I guess Scheme 1 is the best. Nice colors, blue rules.
Things you should activate are:
Prompt (in the command line; like in DOS, Linux etc)
Function keys
Fullscreen (half-screen sucks like hell (half-life too...))
Clock (if you like and/or need it...)
You also can activate the Top-Menubar if you like to.
Window options: Depends on your needs. You should activate the "Show hidden files" mode because we are elite users and elite users need to see everything (although Windows wants to avoid that users get to see anything).
"Ins moves down" is quite nice. Pressing "Ins" marks a file, when you enable this option additionally the cursor will move to the next file.
The Ministatus-Bar is quite useful, too.
Screensaver, Printer, Mouse: Nothing to explain I guess.
Editor: Well, you should see for yourself. The NC-editor is not bad and features some cool stuff, but I still love my EDIT.COM. If you like not to use the internal editor choose "External".
Confirmations: I enabled everything. You ESPECIALLY should enable the confirm of delete-actions. Some years ago I deleted my whole day's work cos I used the wrong hotkey. (Now I'm so elite that I never use the wrong hotkeys...*hehehehe*)
Compression: I actually don't use the NC-Compressing. For compressing stuff the Windows Commander is really better.
After all that select the entry "Editors" in the "Commands" menu. Here you can define an external editor. This editor is the one used when you press F4. More on that later. If there's no editor-link, create one with F6. As ending I chose *.* so that I can edit everything. My command is "EDIT !.!". That means that all files are opened with EDIT. Now for some very cool thing which is quite common in Windows but not in DOS: the linking of certain file extensions to a program. I e.g. linked the ending .PAS to Turbo Pascal 7.0 (elites, please, NO discussions about coding languages... I use C). Therefore choose the entry "Edit Extension-file" (or something like that). You can define as many entries as you like. Let's just say you want to link all PAS-files to TP7. Therefore create a new entry and set the extension to PAS. The command is "TURBO !.!". Of course your Turbo Pascal must be in the path for that... When you now put the cursor on a .PAS file and press ENTER it will be opened with the Turbo-Pascal IDE. Neat, isn't it?
Chapter three. The user-menu.
Now let's go for the most ruling feature of this tool. User menus are shittily implemented in the Windows Commander, that's why I prefer NC.
Press F2. Now an empty menu should open. You can insert nested menus or commands. Think about it before you start, this is the point to implement a great hierarchy of submenus and commands to simplify work a lot.
Let's for example say you want to put your compilers in one submenu and your tracking tools also. At first press F6 and choose "Menu" to insert. You have to give the submenu a hotkey. This is usually a number between 0 and 9, but you also can use any other key. After you created something you should always press F2 to save your menu. Then switch to the newly created submenu either by selecting it with the cursor keys or via your defined hotkey (which is the fast thing about all this stuff...). Now you can put in your compilers or whatever. You can't include more submenus. Press F6 and give the first compiler a hotkey. Now put in the name under which it will appear in the menu. I use this syntax for the names, just if you're interested:
"=>" before the name means, that no program is executed but the window is switched to the main directory of this entry. Very useful to get to the main-dir of a project or whatever.
"=>X" means that a program is eXecuted.
Now edit the commands. For a simple but effective dir-switch use this:
x: (where x is the drive where the stuff is located - useful because you can
also go there when you just browse a CD or a floppy-disc)
cd\ to return to c:\
cd <full path> to go to where you want to go today
If you additionally want to execute something just put it at the end of the batch. E.g. FT2.EXE to execute FastTracker II.
Do that until you're pleased. Save your work and voila, now you can say that you work effectively.
Another thing which can be interesting is the use of local menus. Select the entry "Commands" in the Top-Menu and then "Edit Menu-File". You'll be asked whether to edit the Main- or the Local Menu. Select "Local". Now you can define a special, local menu which is only valid in this directory. In all other directories the main-menu will be opened on F2, but here the special local one. NC will save the local menu in a file in that directory.
Chapter four. Hotkeys until your fingers burn.
As we now know the basics let's look how to work with files. All you need are the two windows and some hotkeys.
View a file: move the cursor on it and press F3. The NC-viewer views all files and also loads HUGE files (not like Editor or EDIT which are fucked up after 64k).
It loads the Interrupt-List of Ralf Brown (5.3 MB) in about 0.1 seconds... just to mention that...
In the viewer there are some useful hotkeys:
F4 for Hex-view
F7 to search a text
F8 for other view-modes
F9 to print
ESC to quit
The viewer also supports some basic types like PCX (only 16/256 colors).
If you view a file and can't see anything you have to change the view-mode to plain text (see F8).
Edit a file: F4. Uses either the internal or your defined editor. For the use of the NC-editor check out the help. (F1)
F2: user menu
F9: Top-Menu
Copying files: basically F5.
Here you can use the two windows very effectively. In one of them select your source directory, in the other one the destination. Switch to source window, select file(s) and press F5. Additionally you can apply filters and stuff.
With SHIFT+F5 you get the possibility to enter which files to copy, e.g. *.TXT.
RULE: COMMANDS WHICH COPY, MOVE OR EXTRACT FILES WILL ALWAYS USE THE ACTIVE WINDOW AS SOURCE PATH AND THE OTHER ONE AS DESTINATION. (You get used to it and will never wanna miss it.)
Now it's time to learn how to select files. To apply something on a single directory/file just put the cursor on it. You also can select it by either using the right mouse button (blah) or by pressing "Ins" when the cursor is on the file. To select all files press the "*" button on your keypad. Actually this is the key to invert your selection, but when you selected nothing it'll select all. This does not affect directories btw. Select them additionally. To select certain files press "+" on the keypad and enter the mask (e.g. *.TXT). "-" allows you to invert that selection.
Move/Rename files: F6
Same use as Copy. This one sux a bit in NC. To rename a file you have to select the same directory in both windows. You also can use SHIFT+F6 and delete the destination path and insert the new name. Btw, never forget the ending, it isn't automatically applied on the new file.
Create a directory: F7, then enter a name :)
Delete a file: F8
Deletes the file under the cursor or the selected ones. Be careful with that one, the files are deleted DAMN fast. =)
Exit: F10, useless key
Some more useful shortcuts:
CTRL+\: return to topmost dir (C:\ usually).
It's enough to use the key, where "\" is on. On German keyboards this is the key for a strong "s" and the "?", actually I'm not sure whether this is an international norm.
CTRL+R: read directory new
CTRL+F1: switch on/off left window
CTRL+F2: switch on/off right window
CTRL+P : switch on/off inactive window
CTRL+O : switch on/off all windows, useful to see outputs from programs
With the CTRL-key you also can select the sorting.
CTRL+F3: by name
CTRL+F4: by extension
CTRL+F5: by date
CTRL+F6: by size
CTRL+F7: unsorted
CTRL+F9: print selected file, only usable on a single file
CTRL+F10: split file
Also the ALT key features cool stuff. Most important of all is the drive-switch.
ALT+F1: select drive for left window. You can select all mounted drives, usually Floppy (A, maybe also B), HDD (C, or more), CD-ROM (D, or E, F...).
ALT+F2: same for right window
If you want to have the same view in both windows here's a little trick: go to that window the view of which you want to apply on both windows. Now select the drive for the OTHER window and choose the drive you're just working on, e.g. C:. Now you've got the same view.
ALT+F3: light-version of the viewer. Displays plain text, you can only search in the text and nothing else.
ALT+F4: uses always the internal editor
ALT+F5: Compress selected file(s) ALT+F6: De-Compress selected archive
You can choose the method. If you do not use the NC-packer the packing program you use must be in the path. I use ARJ, but usually I pack my stuff with the Windows Commander or directly with the respective programs.
Btw, you can view archives like ZIP/ARJ etc. like a normal directory by pressing ENTER when the cursor is on them.
Pressing F3 on a ZIP or other formats displays the content (in that way I found out, that the NOEXIT.PAK of Nomad's NO EXIT demo is really a .PAK and not just any file which got that ending).
ALT+F7: search files. You can enter standard search-options and text it should contain. To search only the file leave this line empty.
Select where to search, either whole drive or only the given dir(s). Additionally you can select the drive to search and some more options like date, size...
You can easily switch to the position where the file is located (when you found what you were looking for).
ALT+F8: command batch. Like "up" and "down" keys under DOS, but more comfortable. When both windows are switched off you can use the DOS-way. When windows are enabled also CTRL+E and CTRL+X work, but that sux a bit.
ALT+F9: EGA-mode, 50 lines. Small, more overview. If your eyes are good use it. Very elite. Makes you about 2° C cooler.
ALT+F10: Directory tree. Mighty tool to find a certain directory very fast or to move around fast. I love it.
Phew. Quite a lot of stuff, eh? But once you get used to it you WILL love it. Btw, later versions of the NC also support huge filenames and Drag n' Drop, where the latter is useless because you need a mouse. Anyway, even in those days of "this text is called xyz and so is the file.doc" filenames I still follow the 8+3 convention.
Chapter five. This and that.
Towards the end some small infos. <ü> When moving the mouse to the upper right corner the screen-saver will be activated immediately.
By pressing CTRL+"Page Up" you can move one directory up until you reached C:
With ALT+"any character" you can fast-search for files. The cursor will move to the first file starting with this character and then you can input the whole filename.
With ESC the stuff you wrote in the command line is erased.
Chapter six. Windows Commander, Midnight Commander.
I don't wanna talk too much about WC. It's quite the same in many cases. Usually hotkeys suck a bit. The user menu is shitty like hell, you have to use CTRL+ALT+"Function key" to get what you want. Packing/unpacking is easier. With SHIFT+F6 you easily can rename files. Better than with NC.
Linux users can choose the Midnight Commander (just enter MC). This one is so much like the NC that you easily will be able to use it. You can't expect all the potential you have with the command line (just to talk about searching files) but it's e.g. very handy to change the attributes of files. The internal editor of MC btw. is very much like EDIT. If you are used to that one, you'll be happy to hear that.
Chapter seven. The end.
I hope this article opened your eyes that everything else than those three tools (well, anything else than NC/MC :) is a ugly waste of time. You even can use WC in parallel (as I do) with the "Windows key" on your keyboard. Actually this is the only sense this key has, because usually you always hit it unintentionally and are annoyed. (e.g. you're just running a vesa-demo and can't return to it).
Well well. For even more hotkeys and stuff refer to the help. But the rest of the functions is usually really crappy to use with the keyboard, we don't need to be too extreme. =)
Anyways, have fun. And never forget:
NORTON COMMANDER RULEZ !
StyX/HeadcrasH
loves blue-screens as long as they come from the NC
loves cologne, but does not live there
to locate me on demoparties follow the blue light to its source.
@ Morpheus: pure command-line rules too, but don't tell me you're as fast as me *hehe* :)