Reviewed by dual pane freak

[admin]

http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/window ... 8244.shtml

Yeah, now I know I'm on the right track!

EDIT ^-- irony --^

[John Bee]

http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/window ... 8244.shtml

Yeah, now I know I'm on the right track!

I don't know Don, the way I read it, it wasn't that great a review.

If I hadn't already bought it and know how good XY really is, and was trying to find a review on XY before deciding whether to buy it or not, this review would have scared me off!

Very low resultant scores (2 of 5 overall). I wouldn't advertise it too strenously if I were you.


John
Win2K
0029

[admin]

http://www.softpedia.com/reviews/window ... 8244.shtml

Yeah, now I know I'm on the right track!

I don't know Don, the way I read it, it wasn't that great a review.

If I hadn't already bought it and know how good XY really is, and was trying to find a review on XY before deciding whether to buy it or not, this review would have scared me off!

Very low resultant scores (2 of 5 overall). I wouldn't advertise it too strenously if I were you.

Hey, I was being ironic! (this one --> )
The (obviously completely ridiculuous) review is no problem, dual paners won't touch my baby anyway. They are too afraid to look at their file system without being backed up by a 2nd pane. Whoops, I probably lost some potential customers now...

But OTOH, you are right: this review ain't exactly helpful. So I hope some folks use the chance to put a little comment on the page...

[allen]

Maybe it was the Scotch speaking, but after reading that sorry excuse for a review, I posted a comment about the length of the review. Said a few not entirely nice things, though nothing too bad, and a few nice things about XY. I don't like to see someone with "Editor" after their name on a website, associated with a half-assed review.

My big question is this: How the Hell do you say "I only hope that you'll find this program useful and enjoy it, because there's one thing I am sure of: XYplorer is a file manager worth trying for sure!" along with 2/5 stars (with 1, not 0, being the lowest possible)? Meh.

xplorer2 = 4 stars, xyplorer 2? Not to say xplorer2 isn't a good application, but it sure isn't 2 stars better than xyploer: As a matter of fact, I've migrated to xy -after- using xplorer2 for quite some time. I managed to survive the removal of my pane's siamese twin :D

It's interesting that you list a number of things as good about this application, list only one missing feature (dual pane) and close the review suggesting people check out this application -- saying it's something users should try FOR SURE. Then you lay an insulting 2/5 stars on it. That's a "fair" rating. That's only one star above the worst possible score. That's one or no stars higher than you'd have awarded windows explorer had you reviewed it. That's like saying "this cheese is pretty awful, just barely more palletable than fecal matter. You should try it!" -- At best, that's a mixed message. At worst, a completely confused opinion; one I'd suggest was born out of an overly short trial of this application. Perhaps by an author more concerned with posting a review under their name than posting a rightly written review. Or maybe you were confused with XY's simple interface and didn't bother to explore how much was really there to be found.

Obviously I'm a fan of the application. A paying, not paid-to-defend fan. Regarding the price I happily paid, consider this: When deciding cost/value, you should look at it in the long term, not just the immediate. Yes, it does cost a bit more than -some- explorer applications but you're paying for a lifetime license. You don't have to pay for it now, then a few months to a year down the road pay 50% or more again and again still after another duration. You pay a slightly-higher-than-some initial fee (much less than others, mind you) and never pay again.

Price aside, the only complaint you had that you put on the bottom line--the final pros/cons was that it was a single pain [sic] application rather than dual pane. Perhaps you are accustomed to dual pane, but did you stop to ask yourself why this single feature is more important to you than any other(s)? Almost all features supported by dual pane applications can be done as easily via xyplorer's single pane interface and at a fraction of the screen space/application size. I'm at a loss for what features might be tied to a dual pane system that XY is missing -- the only thing I can think of is direct visual comparison of two folders. That is not, in and of itself, a feature worth 3 more rating stars as near as I can tell. It's something I could do very, very easily by opening to instances of xy side by side -- should I really need to.

A lot of XY's greatness is perhaps something you have to use it a while to get. Unlike your run-on sentences, it's a concisely assembled application. Maybe that's the problem: We're all so accustomed to feature-richness and application clutter being directly proportional. XY is misleading. It's feature rich but boasts an iterface--from menus to toolbars-- that is simple, fluid and consistent.

Here are just a few of my favorite things about XYPlorer

* Easy, multifaceted means of accessing useful features (For example, you can apply searches/visual filters via the versatile location field, the information panel or via the menu).

* Ctrl+backspace gives you immediate access to what may be a revolutionary take on the bread-crumb idea -- it pops up a menu that gives you access to navigate backwards in the current directory structure and back-foward again if you've moved backwards. (Sorry for that painful sentence :)

*Among the many (briefly mentioned) customizations of the application are several options on how to view files. Whether you want to configure XY for more speed or more (depth of) information, it's all there. You can even configure it to color file names based on criteria you define lending further personalization/intuition to Your browsing Your file system.

* Lists are maintained (optionally) for everything -- from your favorite files and folders to visual filters to selection filters to searches to recent directories and more. What's great is that these lists can all easily be accessed via a Lists management sub menu item: Whether you're privacy minded and want to clear them all or you just want to edit/clean them up manually. Unlike many/most applications, these are your lists. You can edit them.

* Editable clipboard: copy a directory structure that you want to copy/move elsewhere but want to double check it? Yet another item you can edit much like the list management items. You can add/remove items easily rather than having to re-do entire selections again.

* Drag/drop text from any application to XYPlorer to have a text file immediately created with that information.

There's a lot more than this to XYplorer, all tucked into that misleadingly clean and simple interface. You just don't find so much body in such power in simplicity every day. So what if it only has one pane? Give the rest of XY a try! When you've given it a thorough handling, maybe adjust your review and rating to reflect one another.

[j_c_hallgren]

The (obviously completely ridiculuous) review is no problem, dual paners won't touch my baby anyway. They are too afraid to look at their file system without being backed up by a 2nd pane.

I read it and found it irritating in parts, but also confusing...it seems to contradict itself in more than one place...anyway, about dual pane: Yes, it's one feature that I continue to have to rely upon xplorer2 lite for, as running two XY's does not work as a substitute for me. Because one cannot easily swap between just those two windows and no others with just one keystroke as on a dual-pane but single occurance.

I don't follow your comment about being afraid to look at file system...in my case, it's being able to see both source and destination for moves/copies/etc at the exact same time...and mainly for visual comparisons of two folders...tasks that I do rarely but when I do them, nothing but a dual-pane will work for me based on my experience.

Back when I was programming on IBM mainframes, and using a dumb terminal with 27 lines of 80 chars, the editor we used allowed one to split the window into two horizonal panes via a function key and then swap between them using another function key...we could then have the data set list (similar to a folder list) open in both of them...so if dual-pane was an option on mainframes back in the 80's, I don't see why it's so despised.

I could accept as a substitute having two tabs visible together, even if the tree was single and reposition based on which tab was 'active'...

Also, the review says the help file is completely useless for beginners...I definitely disagree, but IF the reviewer was looking for docs like the x2 manual of 336+- pages in a pdf file, then maybe it's a bit lacking...however, now with the wiki and this forum, help is easily available!

But at least there was a variety of screen shots in the review which helps show XY in a better light...

[admin]

Maybe it was the Scotch speaking, but after reading that sorry excuse for a review, I posted a comment about the length of the review. ...

Wow. Great job, Allen, thanks!

[admin]

... you have a chance out of ten to have your settings reset to the factory defaults. I haven't seen such a "limitation" before, and I must say that this sounds like having a trial run with a plane that may stop its engines in a flight out of ten, until you buy it.

I must admit I found this part of the review quite sensible (although the plane simile is wrong). I think I'll take this limitation away because I don't want to upset customers in spe...

[j_c_hallgren]

I must admit I found this part of the review quite sensible (although the plane simile is wrong). I think I'll take this limitation away because I don't want to upset customers in spe...

Maybe instead: could reset to defaults every 3 days or so? Or limit the number of entries in catalog/lists/filters/etc. and nbr of open tabs to some reasonable amout that would allow adequate checkout but not for continued practical usage?

[admin]

I must admit I found this part of the review quite sensible (although the plane simile is wrong). I think I'll take this limitation away because I don't want to upset customers in spe...

Maybe instead: could reset to defaults every 3 days or so? Or limit the number of entries in catalog/lists/filters/etc. and nbr of open tabs to some reasonable amout that would allow adequate checkout but not for continued practical usage?

Yes, there should be another nag. Limiting the number of this or that is indeed the way to go I think...

[j_c_hallgren]

Granted that, in some cases, a limit may be of no consequence to a casual user, who may be happy with those limits...for example, nbr of tabs...(I only have 3-4 max at one time, but that's just my personal preference)...various other pgms have limits like this in trial vers, such as length of audio, nbr of lines that can be edited, file size that can be saved, etc., but putting limits on options/choices seems a better way to me.

another thought for limits: nbr of colors used for filters; nbr of favorites.

[admin]

Granted that, in some cases, a limit may be of no consequence to a casual user, who may be happy with those limits...for example, nbr of tabs...(I only have 3-4 max at one time, but that's just my personal preference)...various other pgms have limits like this in trial vers, such as length of audio, nbr of lines that can be edited, file size that can be saved, etc., but putting limits on options/choices seems a better way to me.

another thought for limits: nbr of colors used for filters; nbr of favorites.

I think the art of crippling is to keep the user hungry but not starving. Limit the length of audio/video preview is a good idea...

[j_c_hallgren]

Limit the length of audio/video preview is a good idea...

That type of limit is found in audio/video type pgrms, but in XY case, it might not be as good an idea..unless it was a decent limit, maybe 5 min...I just mentioned that as one example...I'd be more comfortable with restricting nbr of ways/things that can be customized, so I could use the full function, like favorites, just not dozens of them...

[admin]

Limit the length of audio/video preview is a good idea...

That type of limit is found in audio/video type pgrms, but in XY case, it might not be as good an idea..unless it was a decent limit, maybe 5 min...I just mentioned that as one example...I'd be more comfortable with restricting nbr of ways/things that can be customized, so I could use the full function, like favorites, just not dozens of them...

Something easy to implement would be: app needs to be restarted after 10 minutes. Hmm.

[Gandolf]

Something easy to implement would be: app needs to be restarted after 10 minutes. Hmm.

No.
If I was in the middle of trying to find out how to do something and XY shut down I don't think I'd be very happy, even if it did save everything. One of the annoying things about the laptop on batteries is when it hibernates in the middle of work.

[admin]

Something easy to implement would be: app needs to be restarted after 10 minutes. Hmm.

No.
If I was in the middle of trying to find out how to do something and XY shut down I don't think I'd be very happy, even if it did save everything. One of the annoying things about the laptop on batteries is when it hibernates in the middle of work.

Thanks for a clear (mis)vote.