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Author Topic: Free Magellan!  (Read 23236 times)

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Offline pVC

Re: Free Magellan!
« on: February 18, 2011, 07:00:55 PM »
You have to remember that Magellan2 is much more than just a file manager. It replaces whole desktop and thus brings lots of other functions too.

For example icon positioning: you can draw areas where icons will appear on desktop and give priorities to them. Like "appicons go there and when it's filled they go there, while drive icons appear here".

Very configureable startmenus to launch everything. You can have multiple instances of them and positioned anywhere. As well as user configurable screen pulldown menus.

Global hotkeys which work everywhere, not just when program itself is activated. You can do anything with them, not just filemanagement things. Launch apps, scripts, internal functions, anything.

Windows in icon mode are improved from Workbench ones (better scrolling, caching, font styles etc), as well as icon information windows etc. You don't have to use zillion patches & commodities like with WB.

Better background image settings with randoming, scaling etc.

Very comprehensive function editor makes possible to do anything with consistent way no matter if you want it happening with pulldown menus, startmenus, button banks, hotkeys, double clicking, context menus, automated script on certain event (disk insert for example). Drag&drop works almost anywhere if you want to copy functions to different places etc. Drag site from ftp address book for example to starmenu or hotkey for easy connecting.. no problem.

Extensive arexx and modules system lets you expand the program endlessly and there's tens if not hundreds 3rd party modules available to add all kinds of features. For example copy/cut/paste functionality known from Windows for files.

And of course filemanagement itself and lister handling options are way more comprehensive than with anything else on Amiga at least. In-line editing for example. You can edit filenames, dates, times, protection bits, comments etc just in the lister just like you'd be in the text editor (even go up/down without having to select new files) <3 Good file find and string search options. Pattern renaming. Recursive attribute applying. Nice internal hex viewers etc. Internal ftp and archive browsing. File name or path copying. And lots of other stuff which would need more time to write, here's just couple came in my mind :)


Magellan2's integration on the desktop makes it really unique. You don't use separate program, you just use your solid system without needing to give a think for it. You have the freedom to open as many listers as you want and resize them for each need. No need to browse back and forth and swap dirs constantly like on two view managers. You can even copy from one source to several destinations at once. I feel pretty claustrophobic with static two view managers nowadays.
« Last Edit: February 18, 2011, 08:30:42 PM by pVC »
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline pVC

Re: Free Magellan!
« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2011, 10:51:07 AM »
Quote from: brownb2;616545
Windows users can do that with shortcuts on the desktop. You can also have quick launchers for explorer locations in Windows.


This conversation is bit difficult as you apparently haven't used Magellan2 ever and aren't familiar with terms and behaviour of it. So, we're getting misconceptions on almost every point, because you try to adapt terms in Windows/Linux features.

Double clicking in desktop meant that you'll get device list window opened whenever you double click any empty point at desktop. With device list you get quick access to any mounted volume or any defined assign. So, predefined shortcuts won't do the same thing as they don't automatically adapt with removable media and changing mounts/assigns. Not to talk about getting it opened anywhere when visible screen area changes with opened windows etc.

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You can also do this or even choose to use Webdav instead. (Quick how to if you're really interested)


On Magellan2 ftp isn't statical mounting or mapping. It's more like comprehensive ftp client integrated in the file manager. You don't have to keep sites mounted longer than you need them at the moment. It has good addressbook with versatile per site options. I for example have around 130 sites defined on it (ok I used to trade a bit). You can integrate site opening easily everywhere in the program. And you can open new sites just by typing the url in the lister's location string. File management functions adapt to ftp use and for example file attributes etc work differently than on standard Amiga filesystems, but still you handle everything same way no matter if it's ftp or local dir. You also can see on site messages etc. So it's good compromize between separate ftp client and mounted ftp.

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But it's only providing basic functionality - playing a better than VGA video, copying a DVD or anything requiring buffering is going to take a long time.


Those aren't filemanager's issues. It depends of on what system you are using it and what external programs you configure in the manager etc. Of course it's not limited to only low end machines even if it _can_ be used. I use Magellan2 with 1.5GHz Mac mini and 1GB memory and it's extremely fast.


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Ubuntu provided button swapping functionality for single double etc. You can even change the handiness of the mouse and I suspect Windows also allows this.


It wasn't at all about button swapping. It was about configuring the program to do different things when you click file with different ways.

Like if you double click a jpeg image, it opens it on certain viewer. And if you right click it, you get more features to open it on editors or whatever. Or how it is processed when you drag&drop it on other location. Or if you double click it with control or some other qualifier key pressed. It can be made to open yet different programs or even make it to do some image processing events automatically for it then or whatever your imagination allows.

All can be configured easily and you can even define configurations for certain file type groups. For example some functions are available for all images, but then some more detailed functions just for png images etc.

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but when it comes down to getting a modern workload done fast (converting DVDs, preparing multiple GBs of files for an MP3 player, streaming HD video etc) I'd rather do it with that machine!


Magellan2 is just perfect for those! Aren't we talking about the program, not the platform you run it?

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As mentioned it's great to see things like "Very configureable startmenus" (on Windows - toolbars, Gnome probably has the same)


On Windows they aren't that configurable for the user. You can't have total control of them in same way. And how they are consistent and cooperative with other components of the system.


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"Very comprehensive function editor" (on Gnome perl, python etc etc all industry standards, and at a push can install Rexx too) etc come to Amiga OS. I'm in no doubt the last point is good specifically for the Amiga file managment as compared to using perl but I really wouldn't want to have to learn a proprietry(?) new function editor just to manipulate files automatically based on decisions.


Again some misconception with terms. On dopus function editor is used to tell what program does on certain event. It's basic methods and options selected on the event. Those scripting languages are options what function editor then tells to execute. So they're deeper level things and I didn't mean them. Everyone knows what they can be used then.

In function editor you can define what commands (internal, amigados, workbench, script, arexx) are executed in what order and what data is provided to them. Do they need some output options, do they need to be executed asynchronously, do they need more data with different type of requesters (string, secure string, file/dir requester etc), what info of the files or environment are given etc etc. It just gives you possibilities to do everything you can imagine without needing to think any external tricks or scripting language knowledge etc.

And this function editor is used for all actions like those filetype definitions, startmenus, hotkeys, automatic script launching, button banks, lister functions, pulldown system menus etc, giving the consistency I've mentioned earlier for the whole system.

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we've found newer and somewhat better ways of doing the same things which are available in other OS but I'm very happy that this sort of stuff is getting open sourced on the Amiga.


I haven't found anything similar although I've used lots of different systems for my work and fun.
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline pVC

Re: Free Magellan!
« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2011, 02:18:10 PM »
Quote from: brownb2;616575
Guilty as charged, I assumed it was a suped up DOPus 4/5 with desktop integration. Was I far wrong?


Well, DOpus 4 has very little to do here and Magellan2 is the last incarnation of DOpus 5.

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It was my belief that file associations, right click Open With et al would replicate this behaviour.


That's more like filetypes on DOpus. It also has similar "Open With" feature, but it's just minor feature among the others. It's too clumsy to use compared to other methods (just as clumsy as on Windows too).

But the talk was about "startmenus", which are similar hierarchial menus like you have on windows on lower left corner (by default). But instead you can have many of them anywhere you want and they're all very configureable both visually and functionally. Mostly used as program/location launchers like on Windows too, but can be used for anything else like all components of Magellan2 like I've been trying to explain.

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Okay I see your point, you'd need extra programs to do this in other OS - but I imagine they are available.


Even if there were for some parts, they wouldn't give the same consistency throughout the system.
« Last Edit: February 19, 2011, 08:35:15 PM by pVC »
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.
 

Offline pVC

Re: Free Magellan!
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2011, 07:47:08 AM »
Quote from: XDelusion;616680
It's the idea of not having to have any icons that I really like, though that's not to say I don't have a couple short cuts to games sitting there. :)


Yeah, I actually don't have any icons on my main A1200's desktop. Not even single drive icon.

I've found it much quicker and easier to access locations through doubleclick on desktop, dedicated drive button bank or startmenus. Icons are messy and always hard to reach behind some window. And they only open one location per icon, which is a waste as you could open different location with mmb or rmb for example :)
Daily MorphOS user and Amiga active.