Demos Commander (deco) is an

orthodox file manager A file manager or file browser is a computer program that provides a user interface to manage files and folders. The most common operations performed on files or groups of files include creating, opening (e.g. viewing, playing, editing or pr ...

for

Unix-like A Unix-like (sometimes referred to as UN*X or *nix) operating system is one that behaves in a manner similar to a Unix system, although not necessarily conforming to or being certified to any version of the Single UNIX Specification. A Unix-li ...

systems and a clone of

Norton Commander Norton Commander (NC) is a discontinued prototypical orthodox file manager (OFM), written by John Socha and released by Peter Norton Computing (later acquired in 1990 by the Symantec corporation). NC provides a text-based user interface for ma ...

. The project started by Sergey Vakulenko in 1989 while working at the

DEMOS Demos may refer to: Computing * DEMOS, a Soviet Unix-like operating system * DEMOS (ISP), the first internet service provider in the USSR * Demos Commander, an Orthodox File Manager for Unix-like systems * plural for Demo (computer programming) ...

ISP An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides services for accessing, using, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non-profit, or otherwise private ...

(thus the name Demos Commander: ''deco'') and is considered one of the first orthodox file managers for the Unix-like systems.deco -- the UNIX OFM pioneer
/ref>

Interface

Demos Commander is a text-mode application. 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 A Unix shell is a command-line Interpreter (computing), interpreter or shell (computing), shell that provides a command line user interface for Unix-like operating systems. The shell is both an interactive command language and a scripting langua ...

. Arrow keys control file selection, the insert key is used to select files (but not directories), and the

function key A function key is a key on a computer or terminal keyboard that can be programmed so as to cause an operating system command interpreter or application program to perform certain actions, a form of soft key. On some keyboards/computers, function ...

s 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 In computing, xterm is the standard terminal emulator for the X Window System. It allows users to run programs which require a command-line interface. If no particular program is specified, xterm runs the user's shell. An X display can show ...

window is resized) nor able to support any other console resolution than 80×24.

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-based systems) because of its small memory footprint (less than 1 MiB), small binary size (a few hundred

KiB The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable unit ...

) and close to zero dependencies (only

ncurses ncurses (new curses) is a programming library providing an application programming interface (API) that allows the programmer to write text-based user interfaces (TUI) in a terminal-independent manner. It is a toolkit for developing "GUI-like" ...

is required).

Current development

Demos Commander appears to no longer be under active development, with the last version released in 2001 in

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a program is specially designed to facilitate the wo ...

form and a User's Manual for version 3.2.2 in 1993.

References

{{Reflist

External links

Current Demos Commander home page
Orthodox file managers Termcap

Interface

Small footprint

Current development

See also

References

External links