First off, getting your source control out of your IDE should be a top priority. Managing the files you want to be protected by source control should be a totally different operation then working with code.. Different mindset, different jobs, it’s like organizing your bookshelf and reading, do you read inside your bookcase? MAYBE if you’re really little, but I doubt it.

Secondly, putting files in source control needs to be a single operation. If VSS doesn’t want to take one of my files because the path is too long, besides not understanding that, I really shouldn’t have to worry about what files made it in and which ones didn’t after that. VSS should boot them all out because I’ve now broken the build, and it has nothing to do with anything I can do as a developer.

Thirdly, it’s slow. Really slow. Maybe you’re always on the local network, which still isn’t real fast, but lets think about it, it’s 2007 and VPN’s are pretty commonplace. Do you work somewhere that doesn’t have a VPN? Probably not if you’re a developer, or at least a developer working on anything maintained by a team of more then 3 old men this century.

Fourthly, which I don’t even think is a word, it just takes too long to manage the idiotic structure and workflow VSS forces you into. It shouldn’t be hard to move things, if I want to move a file or project, I should just be able to move it. Why can’t I edit a file, oh it’s not checked out? Lemme check it out, 30 seconds later, oh it’s already checked out? I already forgot what I wanted to change anyway so nevermind..

Sorry for the rant but my company recently made a partnership with another organization that uses VSS, and it’s my responsibility to be the “gatekeeper” between our SVN and their VSS. And it hurts. Badly. I’m a developer, not a code librarian, but VSS forces me to be both. Thankfully our SVN repo doesn’t require a librarian, our developers can just, well, develop.

Enter rubydoes.net, a new site I’m starting dedicated to, well, ruby doing .net I have a couple people that will be joining me, and we have some good plans and thoughts on where we could bring the site. Stay tuned, but posting here my slow down as posting there goes up

Two paned file managers add a number of productivity advantages over the built in bunch. The most productive, for me at least, is the wealth of keyboard shortcuts, that have stayed relatively constant throughout time and product lines. In most two paned managers: tab to switch panes, F5 copy, F6 move, F7 mkdir, F8 del etc. Other shortcuts change from product to product, but most offer keyboard shortcuts to enter a path, multi-select files, shell out, and other various commands. Most two paned managers also make it very simple to open a pane to a remote file system, either through FTP, SSH, or samba (windows shares).

I’ve settled on a two pane file manager in osx, windows, and linux. I’ve tried more then a few, but certainly not all of them. Below are five that I have or do use extensively, and think are worth checking out.

mc/Midnight Commander (*nix,osx,windows)

I have mc on most of my machines, even though I rarely use it. Although it’s fantastically capable, it’s also very aged. It runs in a *nix shell, so compiling/installing on linux and osx is cake. On windows you could install a ported version, or I use the cygwin version. mc is a classic and should be in everyone’s toolbox.

forklift (osx $29.95)

Forklift is a new favorite of mine. Although it’s not as feature rich as most other two paned managers, it does have most of the important features. What it lacks in features it makes up for in look and feel, and responsiveness. Forklift is fast, very fast. Forklift has taken over most of my file management duties.

muCommander (*nix, osx, windows)

muCommander is an open source java based two paned commander, with a very full suite of features. muCommander supports pretty much every feature imaginable for a file manager with a very well thought out interface. muCommander development is very active, and well worth checking out. My only complaint with muCommander is it’s responsiveness, which is probably due to it being a java app. It’s not slow, but it’s not as responsive as native options.

FreeCommander (windows)

FreeCommander is a closed source freeware commander for windows. It’s very full featured, and very fast. FreeCommander development is not as active as muCommander, but it’s quite stable, and my preferred file manager on Windows. The UI is a bit clunky at times, but well worth the download.

GnomeCommander (*nix)

GnomeCommander is an open source X based two paned manager. GnomeCommander stays very close to the commander roots, and is very full featured. The UI is basic yet functional, and slightly customizable. GnomeCommander also supports plugins, although I haven’t found many, nor the use for any. GnomeCommander is very fast, and a pleasure to use on my ubuntu desktop, which is comprised of older hardware.

There are tons of other options out there for file managers, and I certainly haven’t tried all of them, but these are four that I have used pretty extensively and been very happy with, and except for ForkLift are all free.

For example, if you wanted to search ebay for optimus prime, and who wouldn’t, you could simply type ebay optimus prime into the search bar on yubnub.org. Want to search wikipedia? Try typing wp optimus prime into the same search bar. The basic idea of yubnub.org is it provides a number of commands that you can pass arguments too, just like any other command line.

Yubnub gets more compelling when you bake it right into the browser. I have replaced the default behavior of my address bar in firefox to direct my query to yubnub.org, so I can easily type (apple-l OR alt-d), enter in wp optimus prime, and be directed to the wikipedia search results. Doing that always causes those around me to gasp in awe, at least in my head. More importantly, it saves me time, mostly the time it takes for the target site to load, me to click in their search bar, and then initiate a search.

The commands that yubnub.org supports are added by the very active community, so most sites you would want to use are already supported. One of the most useful yubnub commands is ls, which provides a list of commands that include your search term. For example, typing ls del.icio.us returns 3 pages of commands. ls google returns 29 pages of commands.

This is a big of a curse as well. Although there are 3 pages of del.icio.us commands, many of them do the same thing, or are only very slight modifications that people have added. Another issue I have found is people have added commands that you may not agree with. For example, I may want to google for osx irc client, but someone along the way made the osx command point to a less useful site then a mac-centric search.

Yubnub provides a number of ways to install itself. I prefer hijacking my address bar, but there is a search bar, multiple widgets, quicksilver, dedicated applications, and more.

Some spin offs have appeared lately, most notably yeahway and sugarcodes. yeahway offers private commands which in itself could be a very compelling reason to switch so I can easily override the behavior of any command I want, and finally have osx irc client go where I want.

Other yubnub links

Most used commands

“Golden Egg” selected commands

del.icio.us/popular/yubnub

tecnorati.com/tag/yubnub

This blog is about building, and destroying that passion. I make software, I love software, and the dirty truth is most software is hacked together with pieces that were hacked together themselves. Hackstacking. Love it or hate it.