Phew, finally things started to roll again. It’s been quite interesting week. I fixed many items from the todo list and did some research on techniques that I’ll be using in CE later. Also there is some fresh code from Jim which fixes few issues. Denis from MyTreeDB.com has created some nice themes that will ship with CE.
Also I’ve been doing a lot of work with automating SVN snapshots and logs. I had a bunch of batch files to do most of the stuff but using them was a pain. Also there was some other things that made me decide that it would be better to just write a program for the task. The solution I ended up using was to create a program that can run scripts. More specifically Pascal scripts. That way it’s possible to use it for other things also. All this work gets integrated into CE eventually.
Anyway, here’s CE 0.90 beta 1. It now includes the bug tracking system so if you have a crash, please send the report. Those reports do help a lot in finding the problem. Have a nice weekend everyone 
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CubicExplorer 0.90 beta 1 (0.90.0.1000)
Installer (2.1MB)
Zip (2.0MB)
Hi, found a bug in the beta.
When you startup using the default theme the breadcrumb bar (the standalone one as well as the address bar one) does not draw itself.
If you switch to any other theme it does. However if you switch back to default it draws using the old theme.
I’m guessing you either forgot to implement the default theme in it or just haven’t gotten around to it yet…
I know there’s no clear universal definition for program versions although when I see the word “beta” I think “feature complete, with possibly bugs” and I’m sure I’m not the only one.
One thing I would like to see is for plugins (IE your text editor) to be able to assign themselves to handle appropriate files. The easiest way to do this would probably be to check the extensions of activated files BEFORE sending them to the shell to be opened using the default handlers. Seems a bit hackish but it would work well I think. The alternative would be to add menu items to the shell context menu which would be trickier but still doable I think.
I also am having a problem navigating my custom-made shell folders… they do have a bug when used with normal Windows dialogs (The standard Folder Browser dialog can’t select them, although it can select their children… I need to fix that) however they largely work the same as normal shell folders such as My Documents on the desktop. I can browse them in the CubicExplorer treeview, but when I select them the listview navigates to the desktop.
You can use this program I made in .NET to create similar folders to test them: http://junk.mzzt.net/ShellObjectEditor.exe
Just don’t use it to edit system-made shell objects… I’m pretty sure it will obliterate them. >_>
As another suggestion the tab bar behavior is good, except that you might want to consider giving it a context menu. Possible options: New Tab, Close Tab, Undo Close Tab, Close Other Tabs, Copy Tab Path, Refresh Tab, Refresh All Tabs, Bookmark This Tab, Bookmark All Tabs… If those look familiar, I like Firefox’s tab options.
You might even make New Tab a menu in both the File menu as well as the context menu and put plugin tabs in there along with standard “Explorer” and “Search” options.
This is my favorite Explorer clone, hope some of my suggestions help you make CubicExplorer even better!
Hi, and thanks for your extensive feedback
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- The breadcrumb bug is known. I’m going to rewrite that component, that’s why it’s still not fixed. Although I’m not sure when the rewrite will happen so I think it’s better to fix it.
- Yeah, this release should have been labeled as alpha. I really need to do a proper roadmap and version plan.
- There will be a way to assign file types to specific plugins once the plugin support is implemented. There could be also more advanced options to determine what plugin to use, like file size etc. Same functionality will be available for QuickView also.
- I’ll check what’s up with those custom shell folders. You can also contact Jim at http://www.mustangpeak.net . He is the shell wizard behind the main components I’m using.
- I like FireFox’s tab options as well. I have plans to add same options as Tab Mix Plus gives.
0.90 has evolved a lot since I latest tested CE.
Glad to see now Treeview is independant for each tab, it was a must IMHO.
In order of usability, I miss some standard shortcuts not implemented (closing dialogs using ENTER to accept, and ESC to cancel; File->Folder Up should be BACKSPACE; File -> Editor is usually F4; File -> Search should be F3; or Ctrl-F; File->Close should be Alt-F4; Edit->Properties usually is Alt-Enter; …).
Some of those shortcuts are already working, they just don’t show up in the menu. I’ll have to fix that. Added these in todo list #61.