FAR manager
| FAR manager
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 Screenshot of version 1.80 |
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| Basic data
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| developer | FAR Group (until 2000 Yevgeny Roshal ) |
| Current version |
3.0.5577 ( March 27, 2020 ) |
| operating system | Windows from 2000 |
| programming language | C ++ |
| category | File manager |
| License | BSD license |
| German speaking | Yes |
| farmanager.com | |
The FAR Manager (for English File and Archive Manager , "File and Archive Manager ") is a clone of the MS-DOS program Norton Commander for Windows . As a file manager in the traditional two-window mode, it allows the convenient copy, delete, rename, edit, or find files and directories on Win32 - console window .
history
The program was written in C ++ from 1996 by Yevgeny Roschal , who had previously created the RAR file format and the associated RAR and WinRAR packers . From the year 2000 the further development was taken over by the FAR Group . Versions prior to 1.80 are shareware and can be used free of charge by citizens of the former Soviet Union for non-commercial purposes. Since October 26, 2007, the source code of the subsequent version 1.80, which was later renamed to 2.0, has been available as open source under the BSD license .
Versions 1.75 and 2.0 were maintained until 2011. Since then, version 3.0 has been up-to-date, which does not support version 2 plugins. Here the Unicode support of the basic program has been completed, there is an additional 64-bit version and it can also handle the user account control introduced since Vista . After Build 2798 (September 2012), essential parts of the API for the plugins were changed, so that many FAR-3 plugins no longer work without adaptation. With Build 2851, which appeared shortly afterwards, the macro language was changed to the Lua script language .
features
The integrated viewer and editor supports UTF-8 and other Unicode encodings as well as numerous other code pages , including IBM EBCDIC - and Macintosh - character encodings . Depending on the lock status, many files opened for writing by other programs can be opened in the viewer and editor of FAR. For example, if a log file is opened in the viewer and you navigate to its end, the next time you expand it, the system will automatically scroll. Files of almost any size can be viewed with the viewer as only portions of the file are loaded into memory at a time. Files over 4 GiB are no problem and the view is immediately available. As a concession to this speed, it is not possible to navigate according to line numbers (which must first be counted by the program), but by searching for strings and regular expressions and absolute and relative (+/-) specification of the file position in percent or offset. In older versions, it was not possible to search the entire file with a mixed one or two character encoding (UTF-8) and a correspondingly set view, but it was possible when viewing in OEM or ANSI mode (where umlauts appear as two special characters). When the line break is switched off, the line length in the viewer can be between 100 and 100,000 characters, depending on the setting, until a forced break is carried out (up to version 2.0 it was unchangeable 2048 characters).
The built-in screen switching makes it possible to open any number of instances of the viewer and editor at the same time, saving space, and to quickly switch back and forth between them and the file manager. An integrated macro recorder allows keyboard sequences to be recorded and played back. Configurable links to file extensions make it easy to integrate external programs such as viewers, packers and others into the interface. The ability to create symbolic NTFS links is also remarkable .
The functionality of the program can be expanded with numerous plug-ins . The scope of delivery includes a full-fledged FTP client, a network browser, print management and a process list (as an alternative to the Windows task manager ). Additional installable plug-ins enable, among other things, extremely powerful syntax highlighting in the built-in editor, mail clients, editing of the registration database , editing of ID3 tags , etc.
Versions prior to 1.80 came with two translations for the user interface and help texts in English and Russian. In the so-called Far PlugRinG , a collection of FAR plug-ins maintained by independent developers, additional language files could be downloaded. From version 2.0 translations for German, English, Polish, Russian, Czech and Hungarian are included. There is both a 32-bit and a 64-bit version.
In the 32- and 64-bit version of FAR 3, only the corresponding plug-ins work. Plugins for FAR 3 work - although there was a major API change with Build 2798 (September 2012) and some previously produced plugins no longer work - and some plugins for FAR 1, these only with ANSI support. That is why there are further developments and 64-bit versions for some FAR-1 plugins.
For example, for the versatile MultiArc plug-in, which can integrate additional formats, be it by parsing the text output of command line programs called in the background whose parameters were specified in an INI file. In the basic version of FAR it was replaced by ArcLite, which does not support so many formats when unpacking and is limited to the 7z and ZIP file format when packing . There is also the Observer, which supports some container formats such as MSI , ISO, UDF or Vdisk and can also be expanded with WCX modules from the Total Commander . A MultiArc-replacing project NewArc has not been further developed for a long time.
The settings of FAR 3 and the corresponding plug-ins are saved by default in the APPDATA directories provided by Windows in the SQLite databases. Alternative locations for a portable installation can be specified. Old plugins save their settings in the Windows registry as usual .
compatibility
The FAR Manager works ( apart from some image viewer plug-ins) as an interactive console application with a character-oriented user interface in text mode and therefore works like a PC-compatible DOS program, but cannot run under MS-DOS. It works in the console window , which is rarely used by application software , in which, for example, the 32-bit programs cmd.exe or Midnight Commander also run. As a 32-bit program, the FAR Manager has access to long file names , the Windows recycle bin , the clipboard and more.
Individual evidence
- ↑ The far manager Open Source Project on Open Hub: Languages Page . In: Open Hub . (accessed on July 14, 2018).
- ↑ From the License.xUSSR.txt valid prior to version 1.80 . ( EULA for citizens of the former USSR), item 2 September 16, 2009, archived from the original on March 28, 2013 ; Retrieved March 28, 2013 (Russian).
- ↑ From the news on the official website.
