[release]yet Another Explorer Replacement

[vneumann]

Hey guys,

I've been browsing aqua-soft for quite a while but this is actually my first posting.

I know that recently we have a flood of finder clone / explorer but I have started

coding this program before it all started so I decided to release it anyway.

Hope someone likes it.

Here is the screen shot.

***Features

- Making shortcuts can neverr be easier. Just drag a directory from the folder view and drop onto the shortcut box. A dialog box will pop up to ask the shortcut name and an icon file to use for the shortcut. If you don't assign an icon file, the icon that is assigned by the system will be used. (Not a generic icon, computer icon for my computer, drive icons for drives etc.)

- You can edit a shortcut afterwards just by right-clicking it. The same dialog box pops up. You can also delete or move up and down the shortcuts by right click.

- Not based on a web browser so 3 different view modes are supported. (Right now, icon, detail, thumbnail view. If there are requests I may implement a 3 panel view)

-Skinnable. Not using a custom skin engine, so the skinning is scratchy. It is very much like Felix 8. Probably you can use Felix 8 skins with just a little modifications. The color used for transparency is RGB(0,0,0) (BLACK) . All the buttons and background are skinnable. But you should strictly use the defined sizes for images. Refer to the images supplied.

-Memory efficient and lightweight. I guess the resource usage is the smallest among finder clones. It starts with 8MB and stays below 20MB after using for hours. (It may be different for you so I need your feedback to catch memory leaks.) No 3rd party DLL is needed and the program itself without skin is 200KB.

-Drag-n-Drop, Copy and paste work. The right-click menu is the same pop-up

menu used in the explorer. So you can use almost all the shell features that is installed.

-The splitter position between shortcut box and the folder view is drag adjustable.

- search box works as an address bar in an explorer (If most people think search function is more useful, I will change it in the next release)

***Features that's not implemented but will be...

- Short cut keys for the folder view ( delete, Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V, ...etc)

- Separator in the shortcut box.

- Skin engine

Released

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

I am also looking for someone else to host it for me. My website has a small daily bandwidth.

Thank you guys. Hope you guys find it useful.

[Daxziz]

Hmm looks very good. Seems to have a nice skin function, nice icons and the features in it sounds good.

Using listview too, are we ? If so I'm glad to say we think alike.

May I ask what language it's developed in ?

-Daxziz

[alilm]

Looks good,

but

It is very much like Felix 8. Probably you can use Felix 8 skins with just a little modifications.

Please dont, you'll be breaking copyright.

I can host this for you if you wish

[SSgui]

wow, looks amazing looking forward to try it!

[alexmak]

damn...

this sh*t is hot!

[Felix]

Is it me or the brushed skin looks a little bad :/

But everything expect that looks fantastic, I mean, the shortcut bar :woot: and the shorcut keys.... YAY

and yes you should implement the 3 panel view

[silencedge]

Very nice. I guess we are all spoilt for choice now.

[thadude]

cant wait to try it... :naughty:

[Louie Mantia]

is this #6?

-Lou

[Autumnmist]

Thank you thank you for allowing different view modes. I'm not on my own computer right now, but I'm definitely going to give this a try. I guess we can't set different view modes per folder though, right? (Would be nice to be able to browse my mp3 collection in list mode, but wallpapers, for example, in thumbnail view.)

As a side note, would you be willing to send me your icons for Visual.net, MATLAB, and FORTNER? Thanks. wincey 11 -at- yahoo dot com (spambotkilling-ifyed)

Question, why are you using RGB black for transparency instead of hot pink?

[Louie Mantia]

Originally posted by Autumnmist@Apr 5 2004, 11:42 AM

Thank you thank you for allowing different view modes.  I'm not on my own computer right now, but I'm definitely going to give this a try.  I guess we can't set different view modes per folder though, right?  (Would be nice to be able to browse my mp3 collection in list mode, but wallpapers, for example, in thumbnail view.)

As a side note, would you be willing to send me your icons for Visual.net, MATLAB, and FORTNER?  Thanks.  wincey 11 -at- yahoo dot com  (spambotkilling-ifyed)

Question, why are you using RGB black for transparency instead of hot pink?

who said he was using black?

EDIT: Found it, my bad...

-Lou

[contrasutra]

Originally posted by alilm@Apr 5 2004, 08:48 AM

Looks good,

but

Please dont, you'll be breaking copyright.

I can host this for you if you wish

I don't see how this is breaking copyright. He can't distribute your skins with his program, but there's nothing stopping him from making his "engine" compatible with yours.

Plus, if people make their own skins, it's great that they'll work on multiple programs.

[alilm]

Originally posted by contrasutra@Apr 5 2004, 05:03 PM

I don't see how this is breaking copyright. He can't distribute your skins with his program, but there's nothing stopping him from making his "engine" compatible with yours.

Plus, if people make their own skins, it's great that they'll work on multiple programs.

I don't see how this is breaking copyright. He can't distribute your skins with his program, but there's nothing stopping him from making his "engine" compatible with yours.

Plus, if people make their own skins, it's great that they'll work on multiple programs.

Its like porting visual styles. You dont 'rip' a visual style and put it on another system without permission.

[bzeitler]

Originally posted by alilm@Apr 5 2004, 12:06 PM

Its like porting visual styles. You dont 'rip' a visual style and put it on another system without permission.

I don't think he meant that he would release youre skins with his.. but people could do it for personal use. BTW alim.. your preview looks incredible. Keep up the great work.

[carbonfiber]

lookin Good (Y)

[alilm]

Originally posted by bzeitler@Apr 5 2004, 05:11 PM

I don't think he meant that he would release youre skins with his.. but people could do it for personal use.  BTW alim.. your preview looks incredible.  Keep up the great work.

Obviously Im not going to be able to stop people using modded skins for personal use, and I have no problem with that. But if skins are going to transferred for different use etc, its best we dont get into big things about whos the real author etc.

[Magnus Wild]

Originally posted by alilm@Apr 5 2004, 05:18 PM

Obviously Im not going to be able to stop people using modded skins for personal use, and I have no problem with that. But if skins are going to transferred for different use etc, its best we dont get into big things about whos the real author etc.

yeah, the defult skins made for felix, is for felix only, I will not give premission to anyone for use as a defult skin for any other app, nothing more to say.... and I dont ceare if that was what he ment or not, but now it's said!!

[vneumann]

Sorry, guys . I didn't mean to cause copyright problems. I hope not many people are upset with my careless remark. I will definitely not include any modified Felix skins with my program.

Please don't modify and release Felix skins without permission of the original author.

I wanted to include many good skins with this release but I'm bad at skinning so I will just include two crappy skins. I need some help from good skinners

Anyway, I'm going to upload it in a few hours. Thanks for your interest.

[PlaysK]

it's better to first see the release of the app and it seems to be a very good finder version from what I see.

[vneumann]

Hi, Guys. Finally the first beta version is now here.

DOWNLOAD IT HERE!

--Some notes for skinning:

1. I changed the transparent color to Magenta (or Hot Pink , RGB(255,0,255))

2. The search bar is not yet included in the skin directory. It's in the main directory and still use black mask.

3. If background.bmp is not in the skin directory , the program uses default color defined in the visual style.

4. Other than buttons, the skinning mostly depend on your visual style or windows blind theme. If you are a very godd skinner, you can make the program look very much llike the finder in Mac.

-Some questions

1. What do you think is the better use for the search box? Address bar or real search function?

2. Do you think it's necessary the program has its own skin engine like other finder clones? It can make the program use more resources.

-There may be some glitches in the graphics, especially the search box. I will correct it soon.

- The setting is saved in the registry. It should be under \\HKCU\\Software\\NeXplorer . When you first run the program, it uses the default settings.

- I focussed more on performance and usability than aesthetics, so if it runs slowly or is hard to use, please tell me.

-Please track resource usage and report it to me.

- If you find any weird behavior, also report to me.

Hope you guys enjoy my first program published in aqua-soft.

[Kite]

(Y) Very beutifull job vneumann I like it very much. Keep them updates coming

(man i wish i could make stuff like this )

[hax0r_foX]

OMG, this is my favorite app. I love how customizable it is and the iPod theme works really well with guiPod which is currently on my pc, can't wait for final release! :rock:

[Felix]

omg its great, I love the Shortcut bar, its simply amazing

Im testing all its full atm, ill post more feedback soon

ok im gona post some bugs

The shortcuts on the shorcut bar, well the icons get a little blurry, well jaggy

Shortcut keys dont seem to work (Delete, ctrl+c, ctrl+v)

Sometimes when we change the view in the view change button, it gets magic pink around him

Suggestions

Add a little dot in the seperator between the Shorcut bar and the finder, if possible the "Drag hand" cursor when moving it

make the search box functional as a Search box, I think thats all for now

[rooskee]

This is simply incredible. no other words can discribe it. The only issue i see is that when you click the right view button, the transparent color becomes untransparent.

[vneumann]

Originally posted by Daxziz@Apr 5 2004, 12:37 PM

May I ask what language it's developed in ?

-Daxziz

It is developed in C++ with WTL(Windows Template Library). WTL rocks!

It enables C++ programmers to make very lightweight programs without even MFC libraries.

-- I have some more questions for you

1. Do you think "directory up" button is needed?

2. Do you think other shell options like "show hidden files" should be accessible from the program?