What do you think about Rox?

Puppy related raves and general interest that doesn't fit anywhere else

What do you think about Rox?

I like it!
32
51%
I don't like it!
9
14%
workz for me
13
21%
not mad about it but will tolerate it
7
11%
i dont love it, but i can understand why people would like it
2
3%
 
Total votes: 63

Message
Author
TyroBGinner
Posts: 236
Joined: Wed 30 Mar 2016, 20:18

#61 Post by TyroBGinner »

Thanks for trying, jlst. It is nice to see from someone.

It is also good to see that people are maintaining good, popular, relatively recent programs like rox. Another example is grub for dos, which now accommodates GPT-type partitioning since being revived.

The lack of the scrollbar is an egregious oversight. It is surprising that was not the first complaint for this topic. I was also very surprised that some here claim not to use the list view in a graphical file manager. One would think that is the only view worth having. It would never occur to me to use otherwise. Different strokes, I guess...

Of course, of the three items jlst mentioned, only mine was the one rejected by jun7. Truly, I get no respect...why is competence always surrounded by incompetence.

A context menu for the copying and pasting of files is also obvious since it allows copying a group of files to the "clipboard". It is far superior to dragging and is another feature in MS Windows. The Windows file manager is hard to beat.

foxpup
Posts: 1132
Joined: Fri 29 Jul 2016, 21:08

#62 Post by foxpup »

musher0 wrote:

Code: Select all

rox / ~ /usr/share /mnt
That'll open four ROX windows on your desktop.

Really, guys, you're so-o-o-o-o fussy! ;)
Nice tric!
I sometimes miss the fixed double panel, commander style, though. Would that be possible in rox too?

Rox is really quite powerful. One should take time looking through the manual. I just took a look myself, i must admit :oops:

I was surprised my wife likes rox too, because she didn't know anything besides windows before 'our' puppy.

User avatar
bigpup
Posts: 13886
Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#63 Post by bigpup »

Roxset
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=45771
Open two Rox windows side by side.
creates two Rox windows - one with the / directory on the left and one with the /root directory on the right. The windows are placed near the top of the screen and do not overlap. This creates a much better starting platform for drag & drop work.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

Sailor Enceladus
Posts: 1543
Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#64 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

TyroBGinner wrote:The lack of the scrollbar is an egregious oversight. It is surprising that was not the first complaint for this topic. I was also very surprised that some here claim not to use the list view in a graphical file manager. One would think that is the only view worth having. It would never occur to me to use otherwise. Different strokes, I guess...
I understand what you're saying. Sometimes when you switch to list view, it cuts off the end of of the date, and you have to expand it to see the year. I would think a better solution would just be for it to correctly expand the length of the window each time (it seems like more of a glitch that happends sometimes and not others) than having a horizontal scroll bar, but having a horizontal scrollbar appear if you force the window size shorter afterwards (if the glitch is corrected) would make sense too.

learnhow2code

#65 Post by learnhow2code »

Sailor Enceladus wrote:Sometimes when you switch to list view, it cuts off the end of of the date, and you have to expand it to see the year. I would think a better solution would just be for it to correctly expand the length of the window each time (it seems like more of a glitch that happends sometimes and not others) than having a horizontal scroll bar.
this is never true.

(actually its true if you make your own file manager and just want to be weird. its never true if you want to design the interface properly.)

the reason its never true is that you dont know the size of the screen.

true story: puppy has ui guidelines. i dont know if theyre official or binding, but one (very wise) guideline half my argument rests on is that the window should never (unless the USER resizes it) be more than 800x600 pixels.

p.s. if you install pygame, the only .pet ive built has a window just over 800x600, by a handful of pixels. its a graphical window and i just found the guidelines yesterday-- and the .pet is not part of woof (its woof that has the guidelines.)

i have a small screen, plus some people may want to run puppy on a phone someday. but another matter is fonts-- you increase font size, you decrease text that fits across a straight line.

so you resize the window, and now you have to move THE ENTIRE WINDOW as a kind of surrogate, pseudo horizontal scroll.

in terms of ui design, a horizontal scroll is THE proper solution for this. YES: for site design, we both would prefer wrap, reflow, possibly even cutting off the edge (which is what rox does now. thats almost unheard of for a file manager!)

go load a 4000x4000 image in gimp, and youll see that sometimes the horizontal scroll (while a bane in a website) is the only reasonable solution. people abuse it online, but we dont ban model airplane glue just because some people sniff it. horizontal scroll does have its place in ui. it should be avoided whenever theres a reasonable alternative-- but auto-resizing the window isnt reasonable.

rox already resizes, which many of us hate-- but it doesnt resize itself off the screen, as your solution may need to do (or fail to fix the cutoff issue.) at the very least if you you turn off auto-resize, you should get a horizontal scrollbar when the window contents dont fit. when its icons, they simply wrap.

foxpup
Posts: 1132
Joined: Fri 29 Jul 2016, 21:08

#66 Post by foxpup »


Thanks bigpup! That does it allright!

An elegant solution. Reading the thread, it is not as simple as it seems at first site.
I've tried pcmanfm, worker and others before, but one always looses the functionality of Rox.

Sailor Enceladus
Posts: 1543
Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#67 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

@learnhow2code: I mean like this. Notice how when it resized this folder, it cut off the year. My 1024x768 screen definitely has enough room for it for expand the entire length. So I think it is a minor bug where it doesn't account for the length of the file.

edit: Oh nevermind, changing "largest window size" from 75% to 80% in the options fixes it. :)
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bigpup
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#68 Post by bigpup »

understand what you're saying. Sometimes when you switch to list view, it cuts off the end of of the date, and you have to expand it to see the year. I would think a better solution would just be for it to correctly expand the length of the window each time (it seems like more of a glitch that happends sometimes and not others) than having a horizontal scroll bar, but having a horizontal scrollbar appear if you force the window size shorter afterwards (if the glitch is corrected) would make sense too.
Again you have options for how the Rox windows look and operate.
Rox options allows you the change the default window size,
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

User avatar
bigpup
Posts: 13886
Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#69 Post by bigpup »

Wonder why the Rox I am using shows it this way?
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The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

Sailor Enceladus
Posts: 1543
Joined: Mon 22 Feb 2016, 19:43

#70 Post by Sailor Enceladus »

Nice idea bigpup!

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bigpup
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#71 Post by bigpup »

I just found out you can put the list columns where you want them.
Try it.
Go to list view.
Left click and hold on a column heading.
Drag it to the location you want it.
The things they do not tell you, are usually the clue to solving the problem.
When I was a kid I wanted to be older.... This is not what I expected :shock:
YaPI(any iso installer)

musher0
Posts: 14629
Joined: Mon 05 Jan 2009, 00:54
Location: Gatineau (Qc), Canada

#72 Post by musher0 »

bigpup wrote:I just found out you can put the list columns where you want them.
Try it.
Go to list view.
Left click and hold on a column heading.
Drag it to the location you want it.
Doesn't work! :(
musher0
~~~~~~~~~~
"You want it darker? We kill the flame." (L. Cohen)

mcewanw
Posts: 3169
Joined: Thu 16 Aug 2007, 10:48
Contact:

#73 Post by mcewanw »

learnhow2code wrote:
Sailor Enceladus wrote:Sometimes when you switch to list view, it cuts off the end of of the date, and you have to expand it to see the year. I would think a better solution would just be for it to correctly expand the length of the window each time (it seems like more of a glitch that happends sometimes and not others) than having a horizontal scroll bar.
this is never true.

(actually its true if you make your own file manager and just want to be weird. its never true if you want to design the interface properly.)

the reason its never true is that you dont know the size of the screen.
.
Never say never. A filemanagery (designed to do so) could detect the size of the screen and move into using horizontal scroll bar only if it needed to; could resize otherwise.

The problem with Rox fm is that it is the case that you often have to resize the window to see everything. Also, if doing lots of filemanagement from multiple directories, you have to open too many Rox windows and takes up too much screen space. A tabbed treeview capable filemanager, like pcmanfm, is then much better.

William
github mcewanw

ASD

#74 Post by ASD »

mcewanw,

Sometimes, it may help to toggle the window displays by right clicking on the minimise button(s) - per screen shot.


bigpup ,

Your excellent move a column "trick" didn't work for me though I tried to investigate why it didn't, but without success.
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learnhow2code

#75 Post by learnhow2code »

mcewanw wrote:The problem with Rox fm is that it is the case that you often have to resize the window to see everything.
thats the one. and yes, if youre happy with a window that doesnt stay at the size/location where you deliberately moved it (which i find an odd preference, but you could argue you "deliberately" told it to do that for you in the settings)--

then resizing the window (especially when theres room on the screen) suffices, technically.

but as you said, when there isnt room you will still probably want a scroll bar, and thats my point-- even if you hate a horizontal scrollbar and 90% of the encounters you have with one are unnecessary and irritating, used properly they are your friend.

id never turn my nose up at a "never show a horizontal scrollbar" setting. but it would be a lot more popular/useful on a web browser than a file manager. i miss the days when the browser could reflow practically anything, as does sailor. changes in css and design cost us that.

ASD wrote:Your excellent move a column "trick" didn't work for me though I tried to investigate why it didn't, but without success.
# md5sum /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/ROX-Filer
e7f10105ccaed843daa8fb1a8b5065fc /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/ROX-Filer

it should be 488108 bytes in size. that rox (it comes with tahr 6.0.2.) will let you move the columns.

thats actually a binary. there are several scripts that call the binary, but thats the real program. its probably not the scripts stopping you from moving the columns. you probably just need to drag the mouse a little more (or get the same binary, if it doesnt match.)

if you download the iso for tahr, you can get it by mounting the iso (in rox,) then mounting the puppy_tahr sfs file, then getting the binary from /usr/local/apps/ROX-Filer/ROX-Filer ... if you link me to the iso you downloaded for puppy, i can check the binary for you-- even run it here to see if it has the feature.

ozsouth
Posts: 858
Joined: Fri 01 Jan 2010, 22:08
Location: S.E Australia

#76 Post by ozsouth »

I prefer emelfm & spacefm.

Pelo

Rox is different, i like it.

#77 Post by Pelo »

Rox is different, i like it.

ASD

#78 Post by ASD »

learnhow2code,

Thank you very much for your most helpful move-a-column (m-a-c) reply.

Here are "my" Rox-Filer binary sizes and (m-a-c) results:

488108 bytes Quirky unicorn 6.2.1 (works)
593576 bytes tahr-64-6.0.5 (fails)
594368 bytes Precise 5.6 (fails)

619204 bytes tahr-6.0.5 (works)

If there are any further expert observations - I would be pleased to learn more about all or any other variations in the capabilities of different roxfiler versions.

EDIT:
I have now tried overwriting the Precise 5.6 Rox-Filer binary (m-a-c fail) with the working 488108 version and whilst I did not notice any obviously adverse happening; (m-a-c) didn't work.

SUBSEQUENT EDIT:
I have repeated the action reported immediately above, remastered, rebooted and now (m-a-c) is working and the md5 sum matches with the one you gave - thank you again.
Last edited by ASD on Mon 01 Aug 2016, 16:59, edited 2 times in total.

step
Posts: 1349
Joined: Fri 04 May 2012, 11:20

Re: rox columns and horizontal scrollbar

#79 Post by step »

Re: rox columns and horizontal scrollbar
The "move a column" rox trick works only if the source was patched and compiled with that specific feature. Not many puppies do. I know Fatdog64-702 does. So does jun7's rox fork.
jun7's also resizes columns automatically, in details view. But still it isn't a horizontal scrollbar, and some people find window auto-resizing annoying.
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mjaksen
Posts: 45
Joined: Fri 06 Jun 2008, 09:36

#80 Post by mjaksen »

I came to Puppy from Windows and Windows Commander, so anything that wasn't 2-paned with lots of icons felt weird. But I've been using Rox for over a decade now, and I have to say it really grows on you. I've gotten to love how minimal it is. Remove a few of the more useless icons from the buttonbar, set auto-resize OFF and use it with a mouse (not a trackpad) and it's a joy to use. Put 2 windows next to each other for a 2-pane look.

Image

Most of the real Linuxes out there are using some Thunar clone. The Thunars certainly look nice (especially with nice colorful 48x48 icons), and the copy/paste approach is much easier if you have tabs and a trackpad. But using a Thunar just feels clunky. Instead of drag-and-drop, you need to click repeatedly: on a tab, a selection, copy, a tab, paste. click click click.

Likes:
1. Bold recent listings.
2. Color coded filetypes.
3. Drag and drop (with a mouse, it's probably a bitch with a trackpad).
4. Everything is in the (shallow) context menu.
5. Multiple default apps at the top of the context menu.
6. It's compact

Contrast this with the brain-dead PCManFM or the endlessly complicated SpaceFM.

My wishlist does include editing the columns in wide-view. When user=root, do we really care about group and owner? I would like optional tabs, though 2-panes and "Bookmark/Recently Visited" can give you some of that. Other than that, I have no complaints.

I'm using Fatdog-702, but no m-a-c. I tried grabbing the ROX-Filer from tahr64-6.0.5.iso (580kb) and tahr-6.0.2_noPAE.iso (605kb) but no joy.

Marc

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