README for TkDesk 1.0b3 25.9.96 -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TkDesk - a desktop and file manager for UNIX and X11 by Christian Bolik (Christian.Bolik@Mainz.netsurf.de) Changes since 1.0b2: o Files may now be dropped from any file listbox onto the root window! o Undo functionality and marks for the built-in editor. o Nicer NeXT'ish default AppBar. o Added "." and ".." to the listboxes of file browser windows. o Better handling of file permissions. o Several bug fixes. o Plus LOTS of smaller changes. Make sure you don't miss any by taking a look at the CHANGES file! Newsgroup and Mailing List: The newsgroup is (virtually) dead. But, thanks to Chris Sterritt, there is now a mailing list dedicated to TkDesk: Send mail to majordomo@mrj.com with an empty subject line and "subscribe tkdesk" as the message body to join the list. This list is meant to provide an open forum to both novice and experienced TkDesk users, so don't hesitate to ask there for help if you have problems with installing or using TkDesk. In fact, I strongly encourage you to join the list as my spare time has shrinked dramatically since I finished my studies. Sigh... What is TkDesk? TkDesk is a graphical desktop and file manager for UNIX (especially Linux) and the X Window System. Compared with other file managers available, it offers the most complete set of file operations and services, plus gives the user the ability to configure most aspects of TkDesk in a powerful way. The reason for this is the use of Tcl/Tk as the configuration and (for the greatest part of TkDesk) implementation language. TkDesk has been influenced by various other systems and file managers: NeXT, for laying out the file browser windows, Apple Finder, for the idea of file annotations and, (shock horror), Windows 95, for some other (of course minor and unimportant ;-)) inspirations. This is a brief overview of the most prominent features of TkDesk: o Arbitrary number of automatically refreshed file browsers and file list windows, o Configurable file-specific popup-menus, o Drag and drop, o Files and directories may also be dropped onto the root window, o Configurable application bar, with several displays and cascadable popup menus for each button, files can also be dropped here, o History of visited directories, opened files, executed commands, and others, which is automatically saved to disk, o Find files through their annotation, name, contents, size or age, o Trash can for safe deletion of files and directories, o Calculation of disk usage for directory hierarchies, o All file operations (find, copy, disk usage, etc.) are carried out in the background, o Traversal of directory hierarchies through recursive cascaded menus, o Bookmarks, create menu entries for often used files/directories, o Comprehensive hypertextish online help, o Built-in multi-buffer and undo-capable editor, o Close coupling with Netscape, o Sound support, o Powerful configuration of nearly all aspect of TkDesk through Tcl/Tk, this also allows the Tcl-literate to extend TkDesk in arbitrary ways, o Free of charge! But see the file COPYING, or menu entry Help/License for information on usage and redistribution of TkDesk. How do I install it? See the file INSTALL for instructions on how to install TkDesk. Usually the steps are: Install Tcl/Tk if you still don't have it, edit TkDesk's Makefile, "make", "make install", done. Is there a Web page for TkDesk? Yes, have a look at: http://sun1.rrzn-user.uni-hannover.de/~zzhibol/tkdesk/ Latest bug fixes, new versions and (in the future) binaries will be available first from there. Well, the latest news and fixes are now always available first from the mailing list, see above. Good luck (I hope you don't need much) and have fun!! Christian