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Comments from a first-time user (TCC 26)

Apr
5
0
Hello,

I have been looking at JP Software's products for many, many years, but never got around to actually try them myself.

This week I changed that by buying a Take Commander license, having so much faith in the product, that I didn't even try the demo before-hand.

It really looks like I made the right choice, I am enjoying many of its features and learning new ones every day. I really try to configure it so that it works "my way" as much as possible and I was surprised how easy (even fun, with all the experimenting involved and changing/trying different ways of working) it is to override default choices and settings.

I think TC and especially TCC would lend themselves for a subject of a good book, maybe a self-published one. I'm sure there are so many commands, features , options that I won't know about until somebody would demonstrate them to me. Maybe if I ever become a TCC power user, I'd consider such a project. Blog posts or other on-line articles will also be a big help, so if anyone has recommendations for new users, I'd love to hear them!

Not everything is clear to me (which, at this point, is hardly any surprise), my biggest problem is that tab-completion does not seem to work when I retrieve a command from the history. Say I first did "DIR C:\PROGRAM FILES", realizing I want to see the content of, say, the "AMD" sub-directory, I'd expect to press up and then tab, to continue the completion, but instead of listing the first directory of C:\Program Files, the program beeps. The only way I found to do what I want is to clear and completely manually re-enter the command. That's not what I'm used to when using Linux, or even Windows' CMD. Did one of my configuration changes blow up this feature, or is it supposed to work this way?

Some other minor things that I observed during these first days:
  • The Explorer feature is not really integrated well with rest of the product (no right-click shortcuts to the "Viewer" or "Editor" for example)
  • Explorer's textbox with the path is serviceable, but having clickable breadcrumbs would be better (especially because of the missing "move up" one directory button, but I saw that was already addressed in a different forum post)
  • When clicking the "View" option in the "Tools" menu, nothing happens after selecting a file
  • No "Word wrap" feature in the Viewer? Even Notepad has this
  • Nitpick: The File Explorer has no menu icon. I wanted a one-click button to view/hide it and was happy to see I could add it to the toolbar at the top of TCC window, but having the full word "File Explorer" looks a bit silly in my toolbar (since all other entries are icons)
  • Nitpick: I love the supplied Editor and Viewer, just wished their appearance would match with each other and TCC itself, so that it would feel more like one single, integrated product
  • Would be nice to define my own list of pre-defined "Apps" for the "Run..." window (I generally only want to use the newer "pwsh" PowerShell 7, instead of the old "powershell" Powershell)
Maybe I ask a bit too much for a product of its price, but oh well, thought I'd share my first impressions anyway. Don't let these comments discourage you in any way, I absolutely love TCC and am happy there are still some companies innovating on the Windows desktop! As a developer myself, TC and TCC are already my first choice for command-line work from now on.

Kind regards from The Netherlands,
Vincent

Best regards from The Netherlands,
Vincent
 
Hello, Vincent. Welcome. What is your OS.

An error in posting usually happens because you had the text "CMD<dot>EXE" in your post.

If you want to complete subdirectories of "c:\program files" then add a trailing '\' either when you first execute it, or after it was recalled from the history.

Also try this.

Code:
c:\pro<Tab>

It will complete

Code:
"c:\Program Files"\

but it's still in the mode of completing names in c:\ so <Tab> might give "c:\Program Files (x86)"\ (or a beep, depending on your OS).

Add '*' first

Code:
"c:\Program Files"\*

and it will be in the mode of completing names in "c:\program Files\". Maybe someone else can explain that better.

In VIEW (v.exe) you can turn on word wrap here: Tools\PreferencesOptions\FileOptions ... Wrap lines to screen.
 
hello vincent

prog<tab> f7
function key 7 F7 gives your a popup of the sub folders in \program files\
most of the function keys do special things for us, try them . lastly tell rexx his stuff is real good:smile:
 
Thanks for the tips, I now understand better!

@vefatica : I am on Windows 10. Thanks for clarifying the auto-complete and View word-wrap issue (I knew I had to miss something..., just tried it and works as a charm!)

lastly tell rexx his stuff is real good

If I sounded harsh, it was probably because English is not my first language.

I spend all the time after the computer with TC(C), so that must say something :) Now started writing my first batch files, something I have not done for a very long time.

I am really impressed with its capabilities. I mentioned TC during a phone call with my dad, he is now also interested and will download a trial copy :D
 
Re: Autocomplete: It works the same way as in CMD. To continue into directory, you have to append directory separator.
 
Some other minor things that I observed during these first days:
  • The Explorer feature is not really integrated well with rest of the product (no right-click shortcuts to the "Viewer" or "Editor" for example)
  • Explorer's textbox with the path is serviceable, but having clickable breadcrumbs would be better (especially because of the missing "move up" one directory button, but I saw that was already addressed in a different forum post)
  • When clicking the "View" option in the "Tools" menu, nothing happens after selecting a file
  • No "Word wrap" feature in the Viewer? Even Notepad has this
  • Nitpick: The File Explorer has no menu icon. I wanted a one-click button to view/hide it and was happy to see I could add it to the toolbar at the top of TCC window, but having the full word "File Explorer" looks a bit silly in my toolbar (since all other entries are icons)
  • Nitpick: I love the supplied Editor and Viewer, just wished their appearance would match with each other and TCC itself, so that it would feel more like one single, integrated product
  • Would be nice to define my own list of pre-defined "Apps" for the "Run..." window (I generally only want to use the newer "pwsh" PowerShell 7, instead of the old "powershell" Powershell)

The File Explorer integration is limited mostly because Microsoft hasn't made it possible to do more. The APIs either don't exist or are not documented.

The clickable breadcrumbs is one thing that Microsoft hasn't made doable.

Clicking the "View" option works fine here - it brings up a file dialog to select what you want to View; selecting a file brings up the file viewer. Check to see if that window is popping up behind another window on your screen.

VIEW does have a wordwrap option.

You can add an icon to any button in the toolbar. If the app doesn't have its own icon, you can select an icon file to use.

The VIEW command uses V.EXE, a third-party file viewer. The included Editor (TCEdit) uses the same editor & themes as the included IDE / batch debugger, and (optionally) TCMD.

If you have suggestions for new features, please post them in the Suggestions Forum. Suggestions made in the support forum tend to get lost.
 

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