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Issue 2: Directory Opus Magellan II Review

Directory Opus Magellan II Review
Robert Williams takes a look at the latest version of Directory Opus, what does it offer new users and what improvements are there for upgraders?

Directory Opus is probably one for the most popular programs for the Amiga and seems to be found somewhere on almost everyone's machine. When GPSoftware upgraded DOpus (as it's affectionately known) to version 5 they took a big step in abandoning the fixed two file list design of previous versions (and many other file managers) and changed to a much more flexible unlimited windowed design. Many existing DOpus users made the change but quite a few found it just too different. However the change did make DOpus attractive to many new users, myself included.

The version of DOpus I'm looking at here is called Magellan II and version number wise it is actually version 5.8. This version is the culmination of 4 major upgrades since DOpus 5 was released.

DOpus Magellan II Is supplied on just 3 DD floppy disks and comes with a substantial manual for version 5.5 (2 versions ago) and an addendum manual for Magellan II. When you come to install the program you find that the disks like the manuals consist of version 5.5 and an upgrade to Magellan II even if you buy the full version. The means you have to install 5.5 and then upgrade it to Magellan II, however the installation is very straight forward and well explained in the manual so this isn't much of a chore. Once installed you have to serialise DOpus and this procedure has to repeated if you re-install or move DOpus on your harddisk.

One of the options you get when you install DOpus is if you want to start it in Workbench Replacement Mode (WbR). While you can run DOpus 5 like a standard directory utility, loading it when needed, it is really designed with the WbR mode in mind. If you choose to install DOpus as a Workbench replacement it loads as you boot your Amiga instead of Workbench (which contrary to popular belief is just another program (albeit and important one) loaded by the loadwb command in your s:startup-sequence). If for some reason you need a standard Workbench you can hold down Shift while you bood to disable DOpus. In WbR mode DOpus can be used in almost exactly the same way as Workbench but it's file management power is always there when you need it...

File Management

Initially a DOpus screen (in either WbR or standalone mode) looks very similar to Workbench with icons for all your disks, DOpus can even use your WBPattern preferences for the backdrop and window patterns. It's when you double click an icon to open a directory window (called a lister in DOpus) that the changes start to become apparent. In DOpus listers have 3 display modes: Icon mode looks and acts almost exactly like Workbench. Name mode has a list of files and directories like a view by name Workbench window but it also has a button bank and popup menus so common functions are just a click away. The final mode is Icon Action which is a combination of the previous two adding name mode buttons to the icon view.

As with Workbench you can snapshot any lister into a particular mode but DOpus goes much further with this functionality allowing you to set up what information is shown (in name mode) and even what buttons are on the button bar for any directory.

Each lister actually runs as a seperate process which means that when one or more listers are busy you can simply open another one and get on with somthing else, this is very different from Workbench where you always had to wait for the current function to finish before starting another.

When you want to perform an action between two or more directories, for example copying or moving files you have to tell DOpus where the source files are coming from and where the destination is. Each lister has a box at the top right hand corner that displays SRC, DEST or OFF. If you click this box you get a menu so you can choose a different option for this lister. Normally you can only have one source and one destination but if you wanted, for example, to copy the same files to several directories at once you can lock several listers as destination and DOpus will copy the same files to all the directories. As you select different listers DOpus tries to guess which you want to be source and destination, making sure that the current lister with selected files is always the source. This means you soon get used to checking exactly what is selected before starting an operation. This automatic selection does drastically reduce the amount of source/destination setting you have to do manually.

Your Wish is my Command

When you click on a button in a DOpus lister or choose an option from the pop-up menu you are actually causing an Opus command or set of commands to be executed. Lister buttons are only one of the many ways you can execute these commands. DOpus allows you to set up your own menus (similar to Tools Daemon), button banks (replacing utilities like Tool Manager). New in the Magellan version are startmenus which are buttons with a cascading menu ala Windows 95. But that's not all (!!!!) you can setup commands to execute when you perform certain actions like inserting a disk or opening and closing listers (there's about 30 actions to choose from).

Direcrory Opus provides a huge range of file management commands with everything from simple copy, delete and move to much more complex actions like encryption... whatever you want to do to files you'll almost certainly find DOpus can do it. If it can't then you're free to use your own commands, these can be Workbench or shell programs and AREXX or shell scripts. What's more you can define any combination of these so you could copy some files using the DOpus internal copy command then work on them with an external shell command with one click! Whether you are setting up a command to be executed from a button, menu, double click or any of the other methods you'll find you always use the same Function Editor so you only need to learn it once.

File Types

DOpus has a built in file type recognition system which lets it recognise a particular type of data file from its file extension (.jpg, .avi etc.) or internal structure. Opus comes with a wide variety of file types it can recognise and there are several packages of file types available on Aminet (and the DOpus Plus CD, see boxout). If you can't find one matching the file you want then you can make your own using the filetype editor. Once you've found or created your filetype you can specify the commands you'd like available for that file. When you right click a file you get a pop-up menu of basic commands like rename and delete but with the filetype editor you can add options to this menu specific to that type of file. For example you could add an Edit option to IFF ILBM files that loads them into your favorite paint program for editing. You can also specify commands that are executed when you double click or drag and drop files. As an example of this by default DOpus comes setup to view the contents of an lha archive when you double click it and to de-crunch it when you drag and drop it into another directory.

Replacing 3rd Party Hacks

After several years of development Directory Opus Magellan II is a very stable Workbench replacement and in about two years of use I haven't found anything that won't run because of it. Because DOpus has functions like toolbars, user definable menus, NewIcons support and is much more configurable than Workbench you'll probably find many of your current hacks and patches can be removed resulting in a more stable system.

As you would expect DOpus fully supports CyberGraphX so you can have a beautiful 16 or 24bit Workbench if you have a graphics card and also seems to run stably with hacks like MCP which some of us couldn't live without.

A new feature of Magellan II is themes which allow you to save an Opus configuration complete with backgrounds, colours and sound effects to a theme file. You can then recall all those settings by loading the theme file. This feature allows you to build up a library of your favorite themes and have a random one each time you load Opus. You can also download themes from the internet or CDs to use (the DOpus Plus CD has many examples, see boxout) and DOpus can convert themes intended for Windows 95 so there's a huge library all ready and waiting.

But it Can't all be Perfect

I can think of very few bad things to say about DOpus Magellan II but I think it's main problem is its sheer complexity. Although the concepts are the same all over the program (like the common Function Editor I mentioned earlier) there are still a huge number of options. GP Software are obviously aware of this as one of the changes in Magellan II is to place all the preferences in a single multi-page Environment requester instead of in two requesters which made it hard to find a particular option. However the new Environment requester now has 21 pages so it's still a lot to search through. Personally I love the way you can setup Opus to do just what you want and I think the huge number of options are inevitable to achieve this. If you've never used Opus at all before (as I hadn't when I originally got it) you'll probably find it takes some time (maybe a couple of months of regular use) to get comfortable with all the options that are available. Even then occasionally you'll find new things.

The Opus manual is extremely through going through how everything works, all the commands that are available, and what all the options do. However it is very much a reference rather than a tutorial manual. It's not the sort of manual you can take to bed and read (OK, I'm that sad I'm afraid). What would be great would be a set of tutorials to get new users going (see DOpus Plus CD boxout for details of a tutorial set available) otherwise there's a good chance some of Opus' power will be left un-used.

Conclusion

Opus is one of those programs which make you wonder how you ever lived without it. For someone like me who loves to customise his environment and set up everything "just so" it's great. The work you have to put in learning it is well worth it for the rewards you get... previously complex operations are a snap. So if you don't have DOpus 5 get it NOW... in a couple of months I think you'll never want to give it up.

Another question is whether the Magellan II upgrade is worth the money, to be honest as you can see from the What's New boxout the changes are mostly minor improvements, nothing that's a real "must have". For the upgrade price, which is well over half the new price, I would expect this to be a major upgrade. If all the changes to the main program and the FTP module are important to you then it's probably worth it. In my opinion GPSoftware would have done better to put the Magellan II upgrade on the DOpus Plus CD and sold it as a bundle. This would give upgraders and new users the really useful tutorials and extras along with the minor improvements in Magellan II for a reasonable price. As it is I find it really hard to call this upgrade good value for money.

Results

Pros

Configurable to the nth degree.
Expandable with commands.
Flexible, extendable file typing.
More ways to launch tools than you can shake a stick at!

Cons

Intimidating for beginners.
Upgrade expensive for what you get.

Full Version:
Caviar!

Upgrade:
Fish Fingers!