Modifying and Improving the ROX-filer

[Pizzasgood]

When I want to select stuff I just press the ctrl key, or do the lasso with the middle button (aka scroll wheel) to select/deselect things. (Clicking with the middle button, OTOH, is equivalent to left clicking the file and then closing the window.)

I am aware that it's preference. I was making a joke.

[aarf]

The next thing that annoys me about ROX. also to do with file names. an we are nowhere near the end of the annoyance list yet.
In my storage armada I have variously formated partitions these being FAT, ext3, ext2 and reiserfs. each partition type chosen for various reasons at various past times. so now I want to backup data from one partition type to another, and this is where the next annoyance comes about. FAT, being write-able from windows, supports file names written in non-English characters. I have these non-English file names littered through my various systems from past backups and distant past usage. do i need to go on? some of the linux file systems or rox itself will not transfer the non-English file names correctly and so i end up with large numbers of errors in the file transfer dialog window which i the have to wade through to weed out the problems. gradually i am removing the problem files through time and persistence but for those whose primary language is not supported this makes ROX virtually useless

[disciple]

Odd.
I've never had any problems actually dealing with foreign characters using Rox, although a tooltip does say that they are not valid UTF filenames and I should rename them. I wonder if your FAT partitions are mounted differently.
What I do have problems with is renaming a file on a fat partition and changing the case of letters, or even moving a file to the location of one that was just deleted and had the same name but in a different case. Usually in either of these cases the case of each letter ends up the same as in the original file.
But then for all I know this could be fixed in newer versions of Rox.

[mikeb]

I thiought that was more to do with puppy not using unicode and then some characters do not transfer well from windows to linux such as $ (Moving $AVG meant it was trying to copy the partition rather than the folder (since $AVE for linux meant "") but that was using cp. Another quirk is that the case often changes even going from ntfs to fat32.

More serious to me is whilst making a backup of a clients windows system using cp I wanted to look in a folder to see what needed copying and rox + rox pinboard crashed...fortunately the copy continued unharmed but once again involving rox and large file systems seems to fall in a heap...puppy 4.12 running from CD with plenty of ram. And having rox crash like this is not an isolated incident....fortunately the client did not see it. If it don't work for me they certainly ain't gonna want it.....

mike

[Q5sys]

supports file names written in non-English characters. I have these non-English file names littered through my various systems from past backups and distant past usage. do i need to go on? some of the linux file systems or rox itself will not transfer the non-English file names correctly and so i end up with large numbers of errors in the file transfer dialog window which i the have to wade through to weed out the problems. gradually i am removing the problem files through time and persistence but for those whose primary language is not supported this makes ROX virtually useless

Ive experienced the same with foreign characters. I have a hell of a time with french accents.
If that along with a proper 'back' button and the lack of a 'cut' 'paste' could be addressed, id like rox.
Sometimes I accidently hit the home button and of course cant hit back and go to where I was... no i have to re-navigate back to whatever folder I was in with a dozen or so clicks.
Also the lack of a cut/paste feature baffles me. Yea I know you can rename things to another directory... but you can only do that 1 file at at time, if you're trying to cut multiple things... it gets tedious.

And come to think of it... where is the force feature for overwriting things? I know you can quiet most processes... why cant you quiet that one? If I can over-ride the dialog question for deleting things, why cant I over-ride the dialog question for overwriting them?

[DemostiX]

Developers and sys admins care about permissions. Most nobody else (anybody?) needs to have permissions, type, permissions, owner, and group dominate the list display.

[Pizzasgood]

Also the lack of a cut/paste feature baffles me. Yea I know you can rename things to another directory... but you can only do that 1 file at at time, if you're trying to cut multiple things... it gets tedious.

There's no need to rename things to move them. Just select a bunch of stuff and drag them to where you want them (with the left button). By default ROX will pop up a menu asking if you want to copy, move, or link them.

Personally, I don't like ROX asking me. So I set the default action for left-drag to be "Copy", and I set the default option for middle-drag to be the menu.

(ROX does not support right-drag, only left and middle (where "middle" refers to the scroll wheel on most mice)).

[Bligh]

Rox was strange at first, now I really like it. For moving or copying files I usually have two windows open. When I wanted to move all of my data files from numerous sources to a larger usb data drive I used 431 live and rox. really quick and the drive icons were helpful. I have learned to use rox as it is. ymmv.
Cheers
I have a folder with two sm bookmark files on 431 desktops.

[rjbrewer]

Rox was strange at first, now I really like it. For moving or copying files I usually have two windows open. When I wanted to move all of my data files from numerous sources to a larger usb data drive I used 431 live and rox. really quick and the drive icons were helpful. I have learned to use rox as it is. ymmv.
Cheers
I have a folder with two sm bookmark files on 431 desktops.

Yes; the 2 window method is handy.
When I try a new puppy version on new partition, I copy the .mozilla
file from the first window to same place in second. Bookmarks, mail,
etc., is all ready to go on new pup.

[Bligh]

@rjbrewer
Does that work? I have always set up the mail client in the new os then copied the old files over.
Cheers

[rjbrewer]

Yes; I just copy the old .mozilla folder to the new one (merge).
Beats the heck out of setting up mail each time.

Haven't tried it between different varieties of browser though.

Did a test of upgrading (full install) from 4.1.2 to 4.3.1 (same kernel)
recently and that also saved all the old stuff to new.

[Bligh]

I may try that if I setup the same version. I have used Netscape since Navigator was on dos. I have been using Communicator since it was introduced. Then mozilla internet suite, now Seamonkey or Iceape. I have copied the mail folder for years. I have a working version of 4.8 on win98, the mail file will work in current Seamonkey. Firefox and Opera bookmarks are more sophisticated, but sm bookmarks can be opened in any browser.
Cheers

[efiguy]

Hi Group,
I was very glad to find this topic. It's taken me a year (with lot's of forum support) to find common Explorer like work arounds for the file handling aspects of Linux (Mostly trial and error - more errors ;). I miss the ability to size a file, disk, or directory by mouseover, plus the ability to copy paths into other apps, (theres lots more).

Reading through this link, Want to ask the question, or pose a type of (hopefully simpler) immediate solution, that uses a helper Application that is capable of mimicing XP explorer - collecting tasks and feeding them to - say a console command -
or internal ROX commands - Some of it might behave like the partition application "collecting and then appyling"

One thing Windows gets right - is the ease of internal file handling, I believe the mainstream Linux Guru's are so acclimated to command structure that they overlook what Noobie's and the Microsoft disinfranchised are expecting (searching, looking, for as alternatives, and the Guru's are basicly the only ones that can remedy this.
I would offer as examples, Avira, and Bit Defender rescue disks using Knoppix, these are excellent tools but, are cryptic to only windows experienced users, I readily admit to having problems with each and I have some Puppy experience, for instance how do you exit from Bit Defender, the wrong way damages the XP desktop (look under misc).

Puppy is the best hope of only Windows experienced users, but without a file utility to mimic windows - most will be disillusioned and discouraged about finding a satisfactory replacement.

Jay
Climbing off of soapbox ("windows guys" will get the reference ;)

PS, There was a Two Window Explorer shareware app for w98 up -
think it morphed to like this - [url]http://www.zabkat.com/index.htm[/url]
(This site lists what a good file manager should accomplish)

[smokey01]

Yes; I just copy the old .mozilla folder to the new one (merge).
Beats the heck out of setting up mail each time.

rjbrewer I like to keep the mail files outside of the pupsave file along with documents and photographs. I normally only use the pupsave file to store settings and some additional software as some of the additional software is also outside of the pupsave file.

Do you know of a simple way to link the old mail files, address and bookmarks to a fresh installation without actually copy the old files to the new distribution?

Normally I have to manually create my three email accounts in the new email client then point each account to the old location. This method works fine but is a pain when I keep changing puplets. This method also allows many different puppy distros to use the same mail files at different times. Then of course I need to manually import bookmarks and addresses.

Regards

Smokey

[abushcrafter]

Yes; I just copy the old .mozilla folder to the new one (merge).
Beats the heck out of setting up mail each time.

rjbrewer I like to keep the mail files outside of the pupsave file along with documents and photographs. I normally only use the pupsave file to store settings and some additional software as some of the additional software is also outside of the pupsave file.

Do you know of a simple way to link the old mail files, address and bookmarks to a fresh installation without actually copy the old files to the new distribution?

Normally I have to manually create my three email accounts in the new email client then point each account to the old location. This method works fine but is a pain when I keep changing puplets. This method also allows many different puppy distros to use the same mail files at different times. Then of course I need to manually import bookmarks and addresses.

Regards

Smokey

What about keeping your profile out of your pupsave? I use this script for making Firefox portable but it should work with any Mozilla based app.

The profile folder you are point it to needs to already exist!

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
#Version 0.0.2
#Put togeather by Alexander S.T. Ross (abushcrafter)
#Based on the luncher from: https://www.privacyfoundation.de/wiki/PortableLinuxApps
#Also based on the luncher from: http://portools.com/apps/iceweasel-portable
#
export app="firefox"
export version="3.6.*"

echo "Welcome to the Linux version of $app $version in portable mode. Feedback is NOT disabled."
dir=${0%/*}
if [ "$dir" = "$0" ]; then
  dir="."
fi
HOME=${dir}/profile
cd "$dir"
#Remove the "#" from the next line to disable error output.
exec ./$app -no-remote -profile "./profile" $@ #2>/dev/null

[rjbrewer]

Yes; I just copy the old .mozilla folder to the new one (merge).
Beats the heck out of setting up mail each time.

rjbrewer I like to keep the mail files outside of the pupsave file along with documents and photographs. I normally only use the pupsave file to store settings and some additional software as some of the additional software is also outside of the pupsave file.

Do you know of a simple way to link the old mail files, address and bookmarks to a fresh installation without actually copy the old files to the new distribution?

Normally I have to manually create my three email accounts in the new email client then point each account to the old location. This method works fine but is a pain when I keep changing puplets. This method also allows many different puppy distros to use the same mail files at different times. Then of course I need to manually import bookmarks and addresses.

Regards

Smokey

Sorry Smokey;

I only use full installs.

[smokey01]

Thanks abushcrafter.

jrbrewer I often use full installs too but this time I thought I would try something different.

Thanks guys

[greengeek]

I would like to see rox filer modified to include an icon (on the top line) for the "create new directory" function.

Just that one function would be a great addition (especially if using a Puppy on a tablet where rightclick is not available).

Does anyone have the skills to remake rox and add this one function? It would be a great starting point.

[amigo]

That would be a nice little project for someone learning -pretty easy to add an item to the toolbar and especially because the internal routine for create new directory is already in the code elsewhere. My fork of the old gtk-1.2 ROX-filer includes patches which do similar things -like add an 'up' button or modify an existing button.

Here's the patches which are really pretty short:

Code: Select all

Index:pixmaps/select.xpm
*** pixmaps/select.xpm	Thu Jan  1 01:00:00 1970
--- pixmaps/select.xpm	Wed Jan  2 14:23:30 2002
***************
*** 0 ****
--- 1,24 ----
+ /* XPM */
+ static char * select_xpm[] = {
+ "17 16 5 1",
+ " 	c None",
+ ".	c #000000",
+ "+	c #C5CEC5",
+ "@	c #FFFFFF",
+ "#	c #7F7F7F",
+ ".................",
+ ".+++++++++++++++.",
+ ".+@@@@@@@@@@@#.+.",
+ ".+@@@@@@@@@@#..+.",
+ ".+@@@@@@@@@#...+.",
+ ".+@@@@@@@@#....+.",
+ ".+@@@@@@@#.....+.",
+ ".+@@@@@@#......+.",
+ ".+@@@@@#.......+.",
+ ".+@@@@#........+.",
+ ".+@@@#.........+.",
+ ".+@@#..........+.",
+ ".+@#...........+.",
+ ".+#............+.",
+ ".+++++++++++++++.",
+ "................."};
Index:src/toolbar.c
*** src/toolbar.c	Wed Jan  2 13:53:48 2002
--- src/toolbar.c	Wed Jan  2 14:23:30 2002
***************
*** 81,86 ****
--- 81,88 ----
  				    FilerWindow *filer_window);
  static void toolbar_hidden_clicked(GtkWidget *widget,
  				   FilerWindow *filer_window);
+ static void toolbar_select_clicked(GtkWidget *widget,
+ 				   FilerWindow *filer_window);
  static GtkWidget *add_button(GtkWidget *box, Tool *tool,
  				FilerWindow *filer_window);
  static GtkWidget *create_toolbar(FilerWindow *filer_window);
***************
*** 133,138 ****
--- 135,144 ----
  	 toolbar_hidden_clicked, DROP_NONE, TRUE,
  	 NULL, NULL},
  	
+ 	{N_("Select"), "select", N_("Select all/invert selection"),
+ 	 toolbar_select_clicked, DROP_NONE, TRUE,
+ 	 NULL, NULL},
+ 	
  	{N_("Help"), "help", N_("Show ROX-Filer help"),
  	 toolbar_help_clicked, DROP_NONE, TRUE,
  	 NULL, NULL},
***************
*** 336,341 ****
--- 342,365 ----
  				   FilerWindow *filer_window)
  {
  	display_set_hidden(filer_window, !filer_window->show_hidden);
+ }
+ 
+ static void toolbar_select_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window)
+ {
+ 	GdkEvent	*event;
+ 
+ 	event = gtk_get_current_event();
+ 	if (event->type == GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE &&
+ 	    ((GdkEventButton *) event)->button==2)
+ 	{
+ 		collection_invert_selection(filer_window->collection);
+ 	}
+ 	else if (event->type == GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE &&
+ 	    ((GdkEventButton *) event)->button==1)
+ 	{
+ 		collection_select_all(filer_window->collection);
+ 	}
+ 	filer_window->temp_item_selected = FALSE;
  }
  
  static GtkWidget *create_toolbar(FilerWindow *filer_window)

Code: Select all

--- ./toolbar.c.00	2005-08-26 23:41:51.000000000 +0200
+++ ./toolbar.c	2007-05-17 10:23:31.000000000 +0200
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@
 /* Static prototypes */
 static void toolbar_close_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window);
 static void toolbar_up_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window);
+static void toolbar_open_previous_same(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window);
 static void toolbar_home_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window);
 static void toolbar_refresh_clicked(GtkWidget *widget,
 				    FilerWindow *filer_window);
@@ -115,6 +116,10 @@
 	 toolbar_up_clicked, DROP_TO_PARENT, TRUE,
 	 NULL, NULL},
 	 
+	{N_("Back"), "back", N_("Change to previous directory"),
+	 toolbar_open_previous_same, DROP_NONE, TRUE,
+	 NULL, NULL},
+	
 	{N_("Home"), "home", N_("Change to home directory"),
 	 toolbar_home_clicked, DROP_TO_HOME, TRUE,
 	 NULL, NULL},
@@ -326,6 +331,30 @@
 	}
 }
 
+static void toolbar_open_previous_same(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window)
+{
+	GdkEvent	*event;
+	GdkEventButton  *button=NULL;
+
+	event = gtk_get_current_event();
+	if(event->type == GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE ||
+	          event->type == GDK_BUTTON_PRESS)
+ 	        button=(GdkEventButton *) event;
+
+	if (event->type == GDK_BUTTON_RELEASE && NEW_WIN_BUTTON(event))
+	{
+		if(button->state & GDK_CONTROL_MASK)
+		  filer_open_parent(filer_window);
+		else
+		  filer_open_back(filer_window);
+	} else {
+		if(button->state & GDK_CONTROL_MASK)
+		  change_to_parent(filer_window);
+		else
+		  filer_go_back(filer_window);
+	}
+}
+
 static void toolbar_size_clicked(GtkWidget *widget, FilerWindow *filer_window)
 {
 	GdkEventButton	*bev;

I've thought about adding a TrashCan button but never took the time -you know, so you could drag an object onto the button to throw it away.

[mistfire]

If you want to modify rox-filer, the GUI design and behavior must be the same as thunar or pcmanfm specially on handling mounted drives.