Demos Commander is an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like

Unix-like

A Unix-like operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, while not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification....

 systems and a clone

Clone (computer science)

In computing, a clone is a hardware or software system that is designed to mimic another system. Compatibility with the original system is usually the explicit purpose of cloning hardware or low-level software such as operating systems...

 of Norton Commander

Norton Commander

Norton Commander was a prototypical orthodox file manager , written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing . NC is a file manager which provides a text user interface on top of DOS. It was officially produced by Symantec between 1986 and 1998...

. The project started by Sergey Vakulenko in 1989 while working at the DEMOS ISP (thus the name Demos Commander: deco) and is considered one of the first orthodox file managers for the Unix-like systems.

Interface

Demos Commander is a text mode application

Text user interface

TUI short for: Text User Interface or Textual User Interface , is a retronym that was coined sometime after the invention of graphical user interfaces, to distinguish them from text-based user interfaces...

. The main interface consists of two panels which display the file system. It is used in a similar way to many other programs run in the Unix shell

Unix shell

A Unix shell is a command-line interpreter or shell that provides a traditional user interface for the Unix operating system and for Unix-like systems...

. Arrow keys control file selection, the insert key is used to select files (but no directories) and the Function Keys

Function key

A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard which can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions...

 perform operations such as renaming, editing and copying files. Unlike many full screen programs that run in console, Demos Commander is not capable of resizing itself when the console changes resolution (for example, when an xterm

Xterm

In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. A user can have many different invocations of xterm running at once on the same display, each of which provides independent input/output for the process running in it .xterm originated prior to the X Window System...

 window is resized) nor able to support any other console resolution than 80x24.

Small footprint

While lacking features found in more elaborate OFM programs, Demos Commander is suited for rescue-disk setups and for very limited systems (such as 486

Intel 80486

The Intel 80486 microprocessor was a higher performance follow up on the Intel 80386. Introduced in 1989, it was the first tightly pipelined x86 design as well as the first x86 chip to use more than a million transistors, due to a large on-chip cache and an integrated floating point unit...

 based systems) because of its small memory footprint (less than one MiB

MIB

MIB may refer to any of several concepts:* Master of International Business, a postgraduate business degree* Melayu Islam Beraja, the adopted national philosophy of Brunei* Motion induced blindness, a visual illusion in peripheral vision...

), small binary size (a few hundred KiB) and close to zero dependencies (only ncurses

Ncurses

ncurses is a programming library that provides an API which allows the programmer to write text user interfaces in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing "GUI-like" application software that runs under a terminal emulator...

 is required).

Current development

Demos Commander seems not to be under active development any more, with the last version released at 2001 in source code

Source code

In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...

 form and a User's Manual

User guide

A user guide or user's guide, also commonly known as a manual, is a technical communication document intended to give assistance to people using a particular system...

 for version 3.2.2 in 1993.

See also

• Orthodox File Manager
• Midnight Commander
  Midnight Commander
  GNU Midnight Commander is a free cross-platform orthodox file manager and a clone of Norton Commander originally created by Miguel de Icaza.Midnight Commander is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.-Design:...
  
  
• Norton Commander
  Norton Commander
  Norton Commander was a prototypical orthodox file manager , written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing . NC is a file manager which provides a text user interface on top of DOS. It was officially produced by Symantec between 1986 and 1998...
  
  
• Comparison of file managers
  Comparison of file managers
  The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable file managers.-General information:Basic general information about the managers: creator/company etc.-Cross-platform file managers:...