Disk Order
Disk Order is the product of russian LikeMac Group. Version Tracker says it had 2.5k downloads so far, which is a small number for such a great and promising app.
The authors say that they looked upon Total Commander when they built their app. It could not have been done any other way, really. TC is now at version 6.03, it’s stable application with proven concept.
Disk Order is currently at version 0.9.6, and it already have some of the most useful features. F3 to view any file with internal lister and F4 to edit the file with internal editor (no option to set external editors yet). It further follows TC shortcuts - F5 is copy, Cmd-F6 is move/rename (this should be changed to only F6), F8 is delete etc.
With such reliance on Fx keys, a very welcome addition would be a checkbox option to invisibly press the fn key, thus on xBooks user would not be forced to constantly press two keys when he only needs one.
There is also a feature called Drives. It contains all your hard drives + Network + mounted disk images by default, but if you copy any directory into there, it will stay there as a hot link to that directory. It resembles the directory hot list from TC (Ctrl+D) - the only thing missing is the ability to rename the item in Drives. Nonetheless, it’s usable as it is.
Same can be said about the Recent folders facility, which already exists in Finder, but in Disk Order it shows the whole directory path, not just the name of the directory. That way, it is quicker. I for one, use the same directory structure for each web site I built. And when I see two or three entries named css in the Finder’s Recent folders, I have no idea which one that is. Disk Order’s implementation is better.
The only serious startup feature missing is the ability to select files by single key press. Currently, you can select consequtive files, or use the mouse and Cmd-click desired files. However, as soon as you click the up and down arrow, selection is nulled. In TC, you select the files using Ins key, and the use of arrow keys has no effect on the selection. This is far more useful, as you can select files only by keyboard and then act on them. On laptops, there is no Ins key, so the best solution would be an option in the Preferences which would allow the customer to set such keys by himself. Generally, ability to set your own shortcut keys is a must in an application like this.
Lastly, Disk Order already have plugin ability, and it is delievered with five plugins, one of which is one-click CD burner. Select files, click the plugin and it starts burning them to CD. With the improved search for files and the tree-copy replica, Disk Order would prove to be a killer app, right now in its infancy.
Keep up the good work guys. DO is shareware with 30-day trial, and it costs little over $20. Well worth the price. Be sure to try it - under 1MB download is a no-brainer. If only Jon would make them a good looking icon which would better fit the Mac than the current one. :)