Anyone tried SpeedCommander?

[DRP535]

I've just had reason to have a look at the SpeedCommander website. I was browsing ShareReactor and I caught mention of another file manager program described as having the tried and true split screen, two window interface called SpeedCommander.

Curious I headed on over to the SpeedCommander website to have a look. Sure enough they have screenshots - it looks *very* similar to TC.

Just wondering if anyone's tried it out or not. I know Christian himself is open to discussion on this board of the TC competitiors, so does anyone have an opinion on it?

DRP

[SanskritFritz]

Read this first:
http://www.ghisler.ch/board/viewtopic.php?t=1266

[pdavit]

I have used it for a wile just because I tend to do a little research on other file managers and look for powerful elements a can suggest for TC. SpeedCommander is the second in my list of the best file mangers (behind TC of course with Frigate and Servant Salamander 3rd and 4th respectively) and it is indeed "frighteningly" similar to TC in some features (ref: Multirename tool).

Its killer looks are a plus point in comparison to TC but this comes with a speed sacrifice and as a result my preferences go with TC. This is not an ideal world and you just cannot have the best of both worlds.

Based on the information we currently have about the great number of new features of the upcoming v6.0 of TC the gap in quality between TC and SC will become IMHO even greater!

Remark: SpeedCommander comes with German ONLY help file so as the official forum. That's a minus point as well.

[lzvk25]

I have tried it and besides what PDavit says, it's FTP client is very weak. I often need to upload and download files to an old 3390 IBM Mainframe and TC can do it with no problems, while practically anybody else fails.

[JohnFredC]

2pdavit

Its killer looks are a plus point in comparison to TC

Well almost all of the competitors LOOK better, even much much better (SpeedCommander, Salamander, DOpus are really quite beautiful as software goes) but as the man says looks aren't everything, and with the promised enhancements soon to come to TC, it will continue to rule.

Still, I too wish it "looked better"...

[Horst.Epp]

SpeedCommander only provides a very poor command line util for directory synchonization, it has no file descriptions and its support for viewers are bad compared to the list of viewers you can have in TC.

[JohnFredC]

Yeh, you wouldn't want to use SpeedCommander for anything more than casual navigation file copy/move...

Good things about SpeedCommander:

- Its handling and display of search results is superior to TC. But wait for V6, I think.

- Its built-in graphics viewer is nice.

- You can rearrange, show/hide columns using a column chooser.

- Its implementation of tabs and file "containers" is very functional.

- It has a nice display layout facility to save named panel configurations and restore them with a click (TC has nothing like that).

- Each file panel can have its own tree independent of the other.

- Its confirmation dialogs are in some ways better, too, offering navigation tools, etc.

Bad things about Speed Commander

- No synchronizer

- No menu editing

- No thumbnail view (inexcusable these days)

- Directories get sorted same as files (I can't find a toggle for that)

- It hangs and crashes frequently

- You must explicitly save many config changes

- And the most serious downside of all, (and this applies to EVERY TC competitor) it doesn't have the TC plugin architecture capability which absolutely RULES!

[Sven]

SpeedCommander only provides a very poor command line util for directory synchonization, it has no file descriptions and its support for viewers are bad compared to the list of viewers you can have in TC.

You are right, SC9 has inbuild viewers for only 80 file formats. The very poor command line util for directory synchonization has only 25 switches and support for simple scripts...

[JohnFredC]

2Sven

The very poor command line util for directory synchonization has only 25 switches and support for simple scripts...

So sorry for posting an inaccuracy. SC DOES have a synchronizer (via an external program and command line switches). I don't read German, so hadn't looked at the Help file at all. It is documented at the bottom of the Help index.

Apparently there is additional functionality documented there that is not obvious from the SC GUI.

... can't find the SC scripting documentation, either.

[R.Nausedat]

John,

SC has no scripting support. Sven meant that the synchronizer understands simple scripts.

Rainer

[norfie]

[Sven]

The interface of SC10 is remarkable slower than TC on old machines (I testet on PII/400 MHz, 128MB RAM with W98).

SC10 is designed for today's mainstream computer. On my testing machine (Celeron 850, 256 MB, XP) it works fine. If you want to have a modern app, you can't expect that it runs extremely fast on an old computer.

A complete list of all internal keyboard shortcuts is available now.

@JohnFredC: Complete scripting support via ActiveScript is planned for the next major version. You will have access to the SC object model and to all installed scriptable COM modules too.

[JohnFredC]

Hi Sven

Complete scripting support via ActiveScript is planned for the next major version. You will have access to the SC object model and to all installed scriptable COM modules too.

Well now, that is some news!!!! I will watch your website for an update.

(Not only news, but a lot of work on your part, too!)

[icfu]

If you want to have a modern app, you can't expect that it runs extremely fast on an old computer.

Well, TC runs extremely fast on my old computer. So TC is antique in your eyes? Interesting.
The same goes for Opera, lots of options, extremely fast, what an old app...

Is there any possibility to disable the skin in Speed Commander? That is one of the reasons why SC is so incredibly slow, it has to paint optical gimmicks I have absolutely no use for.

Edit:
I have disabled menu animations, I have set design to Windows XP but still the menus are slow and have pics in them.
Where is the option "disable all designs"? I want pure, grey, text only menus!

The menu responsing "speed" reminds me of PSPad which is one of the worst apps I have seen till now. BUT, after disabling the option "XP menu style" its menus are nice and fast, just like I am used to on my old machine which I will not update just because some developer decides that I have to look at fancy skins without any reason.

Icfu

[Clo]

2icfu
Hi Jeff !

So TC is antique in your eyes? Interesting.

• Like a French proverb says : "The good soup is made in old pots ! "
• I thought to give a try to SC, BUT :
1. I didn't see anything about languages -except English and German- on the SC's page…
2. I downloaded the (fat…) trial archive (SFX-EXE), but I could not open it… I like to know what is contained inside a program before to install it.
• Hence, I deleted the archive immediatly (yes, I know, it's a bit stupid, but getting nothing when pressing Ctrl+PgeDown on an archive is the most irritating thing I know!)
• Maybe some improvements could be brought ?
{ Off topic : thanks for your reply ! }

 V G
Claude
Clo