While I think downvoting this comment is unfair, it should be noted that if you care about your OS and tools being open-source, you probably shouldn’t be running OSX in the first place.
I've been using Nimble Commander for a while now. Snappy, similar to Total Commander on Windows and I love it. The developer recently made it open source and published the code on GitHub here: https://github.com/mikekazakov/nimble-commander
I'm not sure if that's the kind of open source you were looking for, but may be worth checking out.
If that's the case (and I take it the absence of a source code repository is how you're reaching your conclusion), that's ironic. The Marta webpage linked to this story includes "Because I want to own what I pay money for." yet one never truly owns proprietary software regardless of price; one can never really tell what it is doing, and users are prohibited from inspecting the program to find out, as well as sharing copies (modified for sure, often verbatim copies too).
Perhaps this is a bit off-topic, but I correctly guessed from the domain name and later, the contents of the page, that [1] the author is Russian, and [2] the file manager resembles the layout of FAR, another file manager of Russian origin and seemingly very popular among them.
In short, what is it with Russians and this type of file manager? It's a very curious association.
Norton Commander (and its clones, such as Volkov Commander, DOS Navigator) was very popular in ex-USSR — almost every computer running DOS (the majority of PCs in ex-USSR back then) had nc running as the main user interface to the PC, and was introduced in most computer education courses in the 90's.
I pretty much write, compile & run a large chunk of my C, C++, Python and other code in FAR every day.
I use it because I can do so many things in FAR so much faster than any other alternative (or my colleagues). I can view/navigate file/folder structure. View/Edit/Copy/Move/Archive files. And search recursively. Either by file name/extension or in contents. Also run command-line stuff (make, python, git). Inspect output from commands, quickly select text - copy&paste between contents of file, command-line and output of command. And much more. All that with just a few of keyboard shortcuts. No mouse.
And when I'm showing/explaining something to my colleague, I often hear "wait, what just happened?" or "how did you do that so fast?"
// not russian, but using FAR every day (started with Norton Commander, then used Volkov Commander, then Dos Navigator for a long time)
FAR is fascinating. It may look like a Norton Commander, but it's fully integrated in Windows and the extension system goes beyond most Norton Commander clones. It may be a small thing since the API in windows is fairly simple, but what got me is the fact that you double click an item and you get a copy of windows explorers right click + FAR extensions.
But yes, I agree I've asked myself the same question.
Forklift[0] Does a very good job of being a stable and reliable double pane file manager with connectivity such as SFTP, S3, GoogleDrive and nice built in things like batch rename and file transfer queues.
I've used ForkLift for a while but then I got a notification that Transmit [1] was updated to version 5 and it's been great so far for me. I like the UI more.
>Marta is a dual-pane file manager. Most of the time you work with two directory panes placed side-by-side. This allows you to do the basic file operations such as copying or moving files in a fast and efficient way, because you can see both source and target directories, and you can copy or move files directly, without copy-pasting it.
Just in case, it could be categorized as a OFM (Orthodox File Manager):
I don't like that file operations are controlled by F1-F8 keys. This UX is unfriendly to macOS environment. Most users' F-row is in media keys mode by default, so you have to hold Fn otherwise. And I'm not even taking into account the Touch Bar.
The default key binding set is a de facto standard for double-pane file managers. I personally used Total Commander for a long time until I switched to Mac, and I really missed a FM with the similar hotkeys.
But I understand now that it's not what all Mac users expect from a file manager. I'll make an option to choose the hotkeys on the first launch [1].
As about the Touch Bar, Marta supports it since 0.1.2.
You can use software like Karabiner to change the default behavior of F keys for specific apps. In my case, function keys behave as F1-F10 in Terminal, Virtualbox, Pycharm and Dosbox, for example.
It's not really unfriendly for developers though, who I would expect make up a decent proportion of the intended audience, and who surely all have the 'Use F1, F2 keys as standard function keys' set.
As for the Touch Bar, yes, that's a problem with the standard keybindings (and is also why I'll probably only be a macOS/Marta user for a few months, as I'll never buy a laptop with a fake keyboard).
But settings to the rescue! Cmd-shift-p & 'open default keybindings' reveals that they're all configurable.
On a first look, this looks fantastic. Just what I've been waiting for. Time will tell -- I have thought this about a couple of other file managers, but irritations have always eventually surfaced to drive me back to Finder.
The ST-style command palette alone makes this worth a decent evaluation.
First-run experience was a bit odd - Marta opened up with both panes empty, and all actions unavailable. I had to go to Go->Volumes in each pane and select a volume to show up. That's OK, it's a beta. Seems great so far.
I just tried it and I really liked it. It looks very promising. I applause author's statements about its business model ("The goal for me is to create the best file manager for Mac, not to become rich.").
I have tried everything, from Double Commander, to Forklift,Pathfinder and fman.
I was fman user for about a year (OSX) but it was slow and the quick look (with plugins) was unresponsive and crashed all the time so I cancelled my subscription about one month ago and I was in search for a minimal but powerful dual panel file manager with keyboard functionality.
Thanks for making this, it looks like TotalFinder (which I am a user since the beginning) for power users. Especially the tabs functionality
This is really excellent. I used to use Altap Salamander when I was more of a Windows user, and it became one of my most indispensable tools. I've tried most of the Mac commander-style clones (Forklift, Pathfinder, fman, Nimble Commander) and found them slightly off for various reasons. This one really hits the mark for me in terms of functionality, usability/feel, performance, and predictability. And the Sublime-style command palette makes it even better. Excellent job!
What does this app provide that Finder doesn't? I see something about a background operation queue, which Finder does, archive support, which I have a QuickLook plugin for, and gadgets, which I can accomplish with services.
If you've ever used Total Commander or even Windows 7+ native file explorer it's very hard to go back to or use Finder. Keyboard shortcuts, tokenizing/detokenizing file paths, opening in terminal, searching within files, search for duplicate files, bulk rename, plugins, and more.
Whenever I have a new Mac I spend a couple minutes customizing Finder: adding things like the Path button, showing the Path bar, showing the Status bar, etc. I get that it's supposed to be simple but it's surprising to me that such basic things aren't in the starting configuration.
Looks interesting. I'd love to see more screen shots. Is there a gallery somewhere? I poked around the site a bit but didn't find one. Tthough perhaps I just missed it. Been known to happen.)
I agree, more screenshots would be great to get an understanding of the product before trying it. Though I really like the design of the website (and the current screenshot), it gives me a good feeling about the software.
Marta looks super nice, but I very hesitant to replace native Finder. I wish Apple would do a complete rewrite of Finder and update it, instead of bolting on these iOS type changes and new applications.
Marta was inspired by (my) https://fman.io [1]. Marta's author criticises that fman doesn't feel native enough because it is also available for Windows and Linux. (It's based on PyQt.) What you get in return however are a more vibrant community and plugin ecosystem in Python.
"The development of Marta started the long before I knew about fman, so it's not any kind of imitation."
"I don't think we are the direct competitors. fman is a completely another project with its own strong and weak points. I tried fman and didn't like it because of numerous reasons, but it's my own opinion."
Two column file manager interfaces have been around for a long time, fman certainly didn't invent it. Marta seems to draw more influence from Midnight Commander / Norton Commander, with the function key reminders at the bottom of the window. The breadcrumbs and tabs in Marta remind me more of Panic's Transmit, and those UI elements aren't in fman. There's elements of the standard Mac finder in there. It is definitely not a clone of fman.
I think that was a really unfair comment, designed to get traffic to a competing product.
Marta is not inspired by fman. The Action panel (I think it's called a Command palette in fman) is likely to be the only common thing between our products – and we both took it from Sublime Text. But it's not really important.
The "doesn't feel native" is not the main problem for me. I use a number of non-native apps (such as IJ IDEA) – and I'm okay with it.
fman is a just slow app without features. It was ok if it was in alpha stages, but why it is a paid product then? Come on, there's still no way to cancel the copy process! And you need to install a third-party plugin to swap panes. I wonder how you made such a small progress since the last year, considering that you work on fman full-time.
The default bindings are just a de facto standard for double-pane file managers. But all key bindings are configurable, and you can set them to whatever you want in the configuration file. Check the documentation [1] for more information.
Nice! I like it and see potential. Was quite disappointed of all the OSX file managers so far and I think I've tried them all.
After staying for a bit with pathfinder I'm back to finder. While not super decent it still doesn't get into my way too often.
Something more advanced would be welcome though and I would even be willing to pay for it, given it suits my needs. That means though I rather wait for v1.0 because I miss quit a lot of features / ui usability in the current state.
Make it the Sublimetext of file managers and you have a customer.
So, I see a plugin API for this, as well as a sample Swift plugin: https://github.com/marta-file-manager/HelloWorldPlugin. How are you making this work? As far as I know, creating plugins in Swift is a bad idea because trying to load two of them with incompatible runtimes (a likely possibility, since Swift doesn't have a stable ABI) would cause bad things to happen.
Well, until Swift introduces ABI compatibility, this is definitely a problem, as both Marta API and a plugin need to be built with the same version of Swift.
Depending on the Swift release roadmap, I'll postpone 1.0 until the release of Swift 5, or make the API ObjC-compatible.
I also have plans for making a "lightweight API" (possibly in Lua). It will support only the subset of features available in the "full API", but if that would be sufficient, nothing prevents it from becoming the "right" way of writing plugins for Marta. (In any case, Swift API won't disappear).
The queue thing is something I've always wanted for Windows. Probably for the last 15 years I've wondered why they have't added this and made it a default.
Just downloaded the beta. Saturday morning. The time I opened the app. I realized I have Emacs dired. I don't need this...
Sorry. The UI does look good.
I would like to try to use this as default manager for things like `open .` and `reveal in finder` actions. `defaults write -g NSFileViewer -string org.yanex.marta` did a pretty good job with some things but others still don't work.
cyrusmg|8 years ago
[1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/
josteink|8 years ago
I might even suggest running Linux. Oh my :)
darek|8 years ago
I'm not sure if that's the kind of open source you were looking for, but may be worth checking out.
BozeWolf|8 years ago
Digital-Citizen|8 years ago
userbinator|8 years ago
In short, what is it with Russians and this type of file manager? It's a very curious association.
dchest|8 years ago
gedy|8 years ago
mmozeiko|8 years ago
I use it because I can do so many things in FAR so much faster than any other alternative (or my colleagues). I can view/navigate file/folder structure. View/Edit/Copy/Move/Archive files. And search recursively. Either by file name/extension or in contents. Also run command-line stuff (make, python, git). Inspect output from commands, quickly select text - copy&paste between contents of file, command-line and output of command. And much more. All that with just a few of keyboard shortcuts. No mouse.
And when I'm showing/explaining something to my colleague, I often hear "wait, what just happened?" or "how did you do that so fast?"
// not russian, but using FAR every day (started with Norton Commander, then used Volkov Commander, then Dos Navigator for a long time)
rjzzleep|8 years ago
But yes, I agree I've asked myself the same question.
vbezhenar|8 years ago
gukov|8 years ago
spython|8 years ago
[0] https://binarynights.com/
usaphp|8 years ago
[1] - https://panic.com/transmit/
smaili|8 years ago
jaclaz|8 years ago
Just in case, it could be categorized as a OFM (Orthodox File Manager):
http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/index.shtml
What started it all is the Norton Commander for DOS.
mherrmann|8 years ago
dctoedt|8 years ago
I think even it was preceded by the (wonderful) PFM file manager, which has a modern-day descendant in the Linux world.
http://p-f-m.sourceforge.net/
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/comp.archives.msdos....
yeasayer|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
The default key binding set is a de facto standard for double-pane file managers. I personally used Total Commander for a long time until I switched to Mac, and I really missed a FM with the similar hotkeys.
But I understand now that it's not what all Mac users expect from a file manager. I'll make an option to choose the hotkeys on the first launch [1].
As about the Touch Bar, Marta supports it since 0.1.2.
[1] https://github.com/marta-file-manager/marta-issues/issues/30...
marmaduke|8 years ago
Yep: the app provides touch bar buttons for many operations
aneidon|8 years ago
It works quite well for me.
carlesfe|8 years ago
Not sure about the touch bar though.
crispinb|8 years ago
As for the Touch Bar, yes, that's a problem with the standard keybindings (and is also why I'll probably only be a macOS/Marta user for a few months, as I'll never buy a laptop with a fake keyboard).
But settings to the rescue! Cmd-shift-p & 'open default keybindings' reveals that they're all configurable.
crispinb|8 years ago
The ST-style command palette alone makes this worth a decent evaluation.
First-run experience was a bit odd - Marta opened up with both panes empty, and all actions unavailable. I had to go to Go->Volumes in each pane and select a volume to show up. That's OK, it's a beta. Seems great so far.
hambos22|8 years ago
I have tried everything, from Double Commander, to Forklift,Pathfinder and fman.
I was fman user for about a year (OSX) but it was slow and the quick look (with plugins) was unresponsive and crashed all the time so I cancelled my subscription about one month ago and I was in search for a minimal but powerful dual panel file manager with keyboard functionality.
Thanks for making this, it looks like TotalFinder (which I am a user since the beginning) for power users. Especially the tabs functionality
mherrmann|8 years ago
yalestar|8 years ago
bitL|8 years ago
saagarjha|8 years ago
mephitix|8 years ago
Whenever I have a new Mac I spend a couple minutes customizing Finder: adding things like the Path button, showing the Path bar, showing the Status bar, etc. I get that it's supposed to be simple but it's surprising to me that such basic things aren't in the starting configuration.
I do love the spacebar preview though :)
dymk|8 years ago
grzm|8 years ago
SyneRyder|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
nodesocket|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
grzm|8 years ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13921364
abcd_f|8 years ago
mherrmann|8 years ago
[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13921631
SyneRyder|8 years ago
"The development of Marta started the long before I knew about fman, so it's not any kind of imitation."
"I don't think we are the direct competitors. fman is a completely another project with its own strong and weak points. I tried fman and didn't like it because of numerous reasons, but it's my own opinion."
Two column file manager interfaces have been around for a long time, fman certainly didn't invent it. Marta seems to draw more influence from Midnight Commander / Norton Commander, with the function key reminders at the bottom of the window. The breadcrumbs and tabs in Marta remind me more of Panic's Transmit, and those UI elements aren't in fman. There's elements of the standard Mac finder in there. It is definitely not a clone of fman.
I think that was a really unfair comment, designed to get traffic to a competing product.
yanex|8 years ago
The "doesn't feel native" is not the main problem for me. I use a number of non-native apps (such as IJ IDEA) – and I'm okay with it.
fman is a just slow app without features. It was ok if it was in alpha stages, but why it is a paid product then? Come on, there's still no way to cancel the copy process! And you need to install a third-party plugin to swap panes. I wonder how you made such a small progress since the last year, considering that you work on fman full-time.
Ice_cream_suit|8 years ago
I cannot imagine that any security conscious Linux user would willingly use it
* This was a consequence of it's Windows heritage.
dymk|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
[1] https://marta.yanex.org/docs#key-bindings
binaryanomaly|8 years ago
After staying for a bit with pathfinder I'm back to finder. While not super decent it still doesn't get into my way too often.
Something more advanced would be welcome though and I would even be willing to pay for it, given it suits my needs. That means though I rather wait for v1.0 because I miss quit a lot of features / ui usability in the current state.
Make it the Sublimetext of file managers and you have a customer.
saagarjha|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
Depending on the Swift release roadmap, I'll postpone 1.0 until the release of Swift 5, or make the API ObjC-compatible.
I also have plans for making a "lightweight API" (possibly in Lua). It will support only the subset of features available in the "full API", but if that would be sufficient, nothing prevents it from becoming the "right" way of writing plugins for Marta. (In any case, Swift API won't disappear).
Numberwang|8 years ago
WalterGR|8 years ago
https://images.techhive.com/images/idge/imported/article/itw...
hs86|8 years ago
MikusR|8 years ago
musage|8 years ago
[deleted]
declanqian|8 years ago
dvcrn|8 years ago
Is there any way to set it as default?
zhtway|8 years ago
yanex|8 years ago
yogthos|8 years ago
tuananh|8 years ago
- feature wise, it's not as good as forklift yet but the performance, ui (personal preference) are much better.
kingmanaz|8 years ago
[deleted]
wintercanoe|8 years ago