Subject: Northern Commander for Linux 0.74 alpha
From: [email-masked] (Andreas Matthias)
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 1994 04:46:08 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce

Northern Commander for Linux 0.74 alpha
---------------------------------------

A new version of NC/Linux is available at sunsite.unc.edu. It will
also be at ftp.gwdg.de as soon as this server is operating again.

NC/Linux is a filemanager similar to the N***** Commander  for DOS,
that works on every terminal for which you have a terminfo entry.
NC/Linux needs the NCURSES package (version 1.8 or newer)  to compile
(BSD curses won't do) and part of the documentation  is provided in
LaTeX format.
A 99p13 kernel or newer is recommended.

THIS IS AN ALPHA VERSION, SEE "LIMITATIONS" SECTION BELOW

New features in this version:

- Many bug fixes ;-)
- NC/Linux now works with any screen size and it uses bigger screens to
  display longer filenames
- A compilation problem with Slackware 1.1.2 has been fixed

General features of NC/Linux:

- Remote directory windows supported (some remote
  commands still missing). With this you can display a remote directory
  via ftp in a NC directory window.
- Nice new dialog boxes with OK and CANCEL "buttons"
- Console function keys (F1-F10) supported
- Terminal-independend I/O using the terminfo database.
- Color support on the Linux console.
- Nice line drawings.
- On-screen clock and date display
- Dual-window display with command line as in N***** Commander.
- All <ESC>-key combinations redefinable with a flexible script-based
  approach.
- Sample scripts for GCC and LaTeX calls provided.
- Fully customizable FTSPL (file type sensitive program launching),
  shell script based.
- Command line history, customizable prompt.
- Northern Change Directory, a utility for fast directory changing,
  similar to N*****'s NCD.
- Operates with any file viewer and editor, a hex viewer is also provided.

Limitations:

- The Online Support System mentioned in the docs is not operating yet.
  It will be available with the next NC/Linux version.
- Not every feature you might want is implemented yet ;-) e.g. directory tree
  viewing is not implemented.
- Tested only with "bash". Since NC/Linux is heavily shell based, porting to
  other shells requires changes in the sources. It is reported that NC/Linux
  works with tcsh.
- This is an ALPHA version. It is fairly stable, but there might still exist
  some bugs.
- FTP remote directory access is not completely implemented
- The documentation is very incomplete.

Where to get the new versions:

New versions are first uploaded to ftp.gwdg.de, directory pub/linux/misc as 
nc*.tgz, where * is the version number (this one is named nc074.tgz).
Since this server is not operating at the moment, I've uploaded this version
to sunsite first.

How to contact the author:

Send bug reports and fixes to:
[email-masked]

Fidonet: Andreas Matthias, 2:2437/210.43

Feedback is always welcome. If you would like to write some code or 
documentation for NC/Linux, please send me a mail.