A2FileCmd — A two-panel file manager and disk toolkit for the Apple II

Hi everyone,

  I’ve been working on A2FileCmd, a keyboard-driven, two-panel file manager for the Apple II. The idea is to  bring everyday file management, disk utilities and file viewers together in one program, with additional  tools loaded as plugins.

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  Think of the two-panel workflow of Norton Commander, with the ambition of gradually bringing together some of  the capabilities of Copy II Plus, Locksmith and ProSel.

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  What it can do today

  - Copy, move, rename and delete files and directory trees.  - Tag files for batch operations, sort directory listings and change ProDOS attributes.  - Browse ProDOS and DOS 3.3 disk images as folders and extract their files.  - Read physical DOS 3.3 disks.  - Create disk images from floppies, write images back to disk and format ProDOS volumes.  - View text, hexadecimal data, Applesoft listings and AppleWorks word-processing documents.  - Edit text, compare files and search for names or content.  - Extract ShrinkIt and Binary II archives.  - Display HGR and DHGR pictures, and play Mockingboard music.

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  The plugin menu also includes tools for CRC-32 checksums, file identification, conversions, batch renaming  and volume management.

  A recent addition is VOLINFO, a read-only ProDOS allocation checker. It displays free space, fragmentation  and a block map, and detects shared blocks, lost blocks and referenced blocks incorrectly marked as free.

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  Two CPU versions, three disk options

  There are separate 6502 and 65C02 builds. Each has:

  - BOOT: a bootable 140 KB floppy with the main program and essential tools.  - EXTRA: a companion floppy containing additional plugins for that CPU.  - XL: a bootable 32 MB .2mg containing the complete collection on one disk.

  Single-drive floppy exchanges explicitly identify the disk and drive to use. The program requires 128 KB and  an 80-column display; the original, non-enhanced IIe is supported by the 6502 build.

  Next in development are deleted-file recovery, disk comparison, empty-image creation, damaged-media recovery,  directory synchronization and a directory-tree viewer.

  Source, build instructions and documentation:  https://github.com/habib256/a2filecmd

  I’d particularly welcome feedback from people using real hardware: original IIe machines, enhanced IIe and //  c systems, Disk II drives and different storage interfaces. Which disk utility would you most like to have  available without leaving your file manager?