ANN: 'twander' 2.29 Released

[Tim Daneliuk]

ARRRRGH ^ 2

A nasty bug got by all the beta testers and me, so another
version is forced (I *really* hope this is it).

'twander' 2.34 is now on the web site with these changes:

- The [SELECTIONS] variable is now getting populated.
   Previously, it returned nothing.  (So much for testing.)

- The Built-In Variables no longer append a path separator
   (\ or /) when returning a directory name.  This change
    was mandated to make things like 'cp' work properly.

- The default keyboard "Execute File" key has been changed
   from Control-Space (which never made sense) to Enter
   (which is consistent with other similar programs.)

ARRRRRGH * ARRRRRGH * ARRRRRGH

Tim Daneliuk wrote:
> 'twander' 2.29 is released and available at:
> 
>        http://www.tundraware.com/Software/twander/
> 
> What Is "twander"?
> ------------------
> "twander" is a Filesystem Browser which runs on both Unix-like systems
> as well as Win32 systems.  It embraces the best ideas of both similar
> GUI-driven programs (Konqueror, Windows Explorer) as well as
> text-based interfaces (Midnight Commander, List, Sweep).
> 
> Why Is "twander" Different?
> ---------------------------
> While the "twander" interface is graphical, all the major navigation,
> selection, and execution commands can be entered from the keyboard,
> not just the mouse.  This means Power Users who are strong typists can
> minimize dependency on the mouse and materially speed up their
> interactions with the system.
> 
> Moreover, unlike the other programs, "twander" does not have a
> built-in set of commands (which typically cannot be changed).
> Instead, "twander" supports a rich macro configuration language for
> virtually limitless user-definition of commands.  The configuration
> language provides a simple mechanism for communicating the list of
> items currently selected in the GUI to the user-defined commands.
> 
> Each user is thus free to configure a command set unique and
> appropriate to their needs.  As with the navigation commands,
> user-defined commands can be invoked with either the keyboard (a
> single keystroke) or the mouse (a menu selection).
> 
> 
> Who Might Like "twander"?
> ------------------------
> 1) People who type well and find the mouse a distraction when working.
> 
> 2) People who want to customize the commands available in their file
>    browser to do things *their* way instead of the way the browser
>    wants to do things.
> 
> 3) People who wish to provide their less technical colleagues with a
>    tool that has a limited set of "canned" features.  For instance, it
>    would be trivial to use "twander" to automate ftp transfers for use
>    by non-technical administrative staff.
> 
> 4) People interested in the inner workings of a Python/Tkinter
>    program.  The entire program is written in Python using the Tkinter
>    GUI modules and is extensively commented throughout.  Additional
>    program documentation is provided in Unix 'man' format, PostScript,
>    html, and plain text.
> 
> 5) Oddly, and as an unintended side-effect of the original design,
>    "twander" will serve the visually-impaired very well.  Colors, font
>    type, size, & weight, and window size can all be trivially set on
>    the "twander" command line.  So, for instance, it is quite easy to
>    run the program with very large fonts, thus improving readability.
> 
> 
> Program Requirements
> --------------------
> "twander" runs on Unix-like systems (FreeBSD, Linux) as well as a
> variety of Win32 systems.  It requires the presence of Python 2.2
> (or later) and the associated Tkinter support for the target
> system.  These are freely available from:
> 
>          http://www.python.org
> 


-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Daneliuk
tundra at tundraware.com