BarCommander is a small,
unobtrusive, yet powerful program, that allows one to
execute commands on a small floating toolbar. BarCommander
has quite a few useful features:
- Tiny footprint,
in screen size, memory usage, and hard drive usage.
- Extensive command
set, allowing easy access to command prompt,
web pages, local directories and programs.
- Customizable interface,
which docks, shrinks and remembers.
- Aliases
can be set for any command.
- Auto-completion
for all commands, aliases, and web pages etc.
- Fully extendable
through plugins (see SDK for information).
- Source code freely
distributed under a GPL license. Coded in Win32/C.
Although I have made every
effort to make BarCommander as intuitive as possible,
some of the features (especially the ones you will find
most useful!) are not very apparent, and I do hope that
you read this entire doc, and gain the most from it
:)
Basic usage is already
fairly obvious, type in a program, url, path and it will
run. You can execute anything in the system path as well.
Behavior is very similar to the windows run dialog. For
example:
- www.google.com
- c:\windows\
- notepad.exe
- notepad.exe examplefile.txt
It should be obvious now how the auto-complete feature
works as well.
As far as looks go, double clicking on the gray area
on the left rollsup/derolls the window to save space.
That's pretty much the basics of BarCommander...
Advanced Usage mainly
revolves around special prefixes, see below for the list
and what they do.
Dos Programs - !<command>
A power user often finds himself in the prompt, so I wrote
the program with a good interface to the prompt. All dos
commands can be entered into BC normally, but by using
a ! prefix, the dos window will stay open.
The best way to demonstrate this is by example..
- ! - By itself, launches a prompt.
- ipconfig - Hmm.. Anyone catch that?
- !ipconfig - Great! So thats my IP!
- ping yahoo.com - Pings yahoo.com but the window
instantly disappears.
- !ping yahoo.com - Now we can see the results of
the ping.
In some cases however, you may prefer to omit the !,
such as a copy. If you want to see if it was successful,
the you would use the !, or you can leave it out and
let the window disappear.
Aliases - @set/@remove/@update/@
Aliases allow you set a command that executes another.
You can setup aliases through the alias manager (@),
or by using the @set/@remove commands.For example, lets
say you frequently visit http://www.slashdot.org. You
wanna get there as soon as possible right? Or perhaps
you want to get to a directory on your computer fast?
You can set/remove an alias like this:
- @set sdot=www.slashdot.org
- @remove sd
- @set games=c:\myfiles\there around somewhere\games\
- @update games=c:\newgamesdir\games\
- @remove games
- @ will launch the alias manger, where you can type
in/remove your commands.
Aliases get incorporated into auto completion as well.
Allowing for even faster access :) There is no limit
to the amount of aliases you can set either.
Macros - #set/#remove/#update/#
Macros are another very useful feature. If
you find yourself loading a lot of programs or websites
consecutively, and wish to combine these in one command.
The syntax is similar to aliases. You can set macros
through the macro manager (#), or by using the #set/#remove.
For example, personally, I find that when I get on the
computer, I want to start up a bunch of things, I can
do that like this:
- #set runapps=C:\Program Files\Outlook Express\msimn.exe&C:\Program
Files\Messenger\msmsgs.exe&sdot
- #update runapps=www.loadthissite.com&c:\Program
Files\ICQ\icq.exe
- #remove runapps
- # - loads the Macro manager. NOT IMPLEMENTED
Macros are also set up to be auto-completed. You may
find the macro manager easier than the command line
interface, so its up to you!
Appearance
Always on top: Setting this means the window
will always be above other windows.
Animated-Rollup: If you want a sliding
bar look when you rollup, set this.
Auto-Rollup: If this is set, when you
click outside of the box, the window will rollup.
Hotkey: Set this hotkey, and you can
make BarCommander appear from any application. It will
automatically unroll, and be waiting for keyboard input.
Highly Recommended.
Email: tom@tompicot.com
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