Introduction
Bantam is a new file manager for POSIX systems ("Unix-like" systems, including Linux) with X11. It is not for everyone, but is intended to be highly productive for people who know their way around the file system and are comfortable with keyboard commands. I created it because I needed a better file manager. Most existing file managers are either too heavy with icons, buttons, and other eye candy, or are handicapped by slavish adherence to conventions like the 2-panel design (in a GUI environment, why have a fixed number of panels?).
Bantam tries to combine some of the best qualities of programs like Midnight Commander (MC) and Simple File Manager (SFM), without being exactly like any of them. Important features include:
- N panels: starting with one panel, add as many as you need, limited only by the width of your screen.
- Single-keystroke commands for fast navigation and execution of common operations
- Internal text file viewer
- Configurable interface to external viewers and editors
Status
Bantam should be considered Alpha software. While it is somewhat usable, many important features are unimplemented, and there are significant bugs.
Requirements
Linux binary:
- GTK2 (tested with 2.8)
Source:
- OCaml 3.08 or later
- Findlib
- GTK2
- LablGTK2 2.4 or 2.6
- RASCL
- bash
How to Contribute
First of all, questions, comments, and bug reports are welcome! Please try to be as specific as possible. If you wish to contribute patches, even better. There are several points you should be aware of before contributing, however:
- If you're serious about working on Bantam, please request a copy of the latest source code before getting to work. I expect to have a development repository on line in the near future, but not yet.
- Your patch should be accompanied by a clear description of what it is intended to do.
- While many details of Bantam are undecided, I do have pretty clear ideas about what is and is not Bantam-like. So if I reject your patch with no explanation, it's probably because it was un-Bantam-like.
- I am using the darcs revision control system for this project (and it's my first time using darcs, actually). Patches in standard diff format will work just fine, but once I get the procedures all figured out, darcs patch sets will be the preferred form for contributions.
All correspondence about Bantam should be addressed to matt(at)gushee(dot)net. Please include the word "Bantam" in your subject line.