Program for managing plugins in far. Far Manager - free file manager for Windows

Useful tips

FAR Manager: a brief introduction

This Norton-like file manager, created by the famous Russian programmer Evgeny Roshal, reproduces the interface of the Norton Commander program familiar to many users. FAR is designed to work with files, directories and archives in Windows 95/98/Me and Windows 2000/NT and can operate in both full screen and windowed mode. We will not sing the praises of this program, but, in our opinion, there is no more convenient file manager, at least for a person who has had time to seriously work with the Norton Commander program.

What should you give preference to?

Naturally, there is no need to introduce the well-known Norton Commander utility. At the moment, its latest version is Norton 2000, which perfectly solves the Year 2000 problem, but is not of particular interest to the Russian user. There are quite a few reasons for this, we will name only the most important: the package is not Russified; the font used does not contain Cyrillic, so Russian file and directory names cannot be used; The internal information base of the package does not include a single Russian program. In addition, it is important that the program takes up about 10 MB (version 1.0) on your hard drive, and is not cheap.

In contrast to the Norton Commander utility, the latest version of the FAR program (FAR 1.70b3) occupies only a little more than 2 MB on disk, and the previous one (FAR 1.70b2) generally “weighed” half as much. FAR Manager is considered a shareware product. The cost of registering it is $25 (without registration the product works for 40 days), and citizens and organizations of the CIS and Baltic countries can register the program completely free of charge. To successfully register it (this is done by running the FAR program with the –r parameter: “FAR -r”), a user from the former USSR should enter the phrase “xUSSR registration” as the user name, and the registration code will be the day of the week when you decided to register the program (for example, the word “Monday” entered in lowercase Russian letters). Server addresses for FAR: http://www.rarsoft.com/, ftp://rarsoft.ti.sk/pub/FAR/ and ftp://rarsoft.ti.sk/pub/FAR/ (although not on of all of them the latest version appears at the same time).

As for the software capabilities of FAR Manager, here too this utility is at its best - both for a wide range of users and for professionals. The fact is that in addition to the standard features known since the first versions of Norton Commander, the program has many pleasant features. These include determining the size of directories, calling a list of active tasks; transfer files via FTP client. FAR also provides extensive capabilities when working with archives: archiving and unarchiving, viewing, editing and launching files from archives. The program supports most known archive formats, including self-extracting and CAB archives. FAR perfectly understands long file names, works correctly with Russian letters, and the built-in editor allows you to switch between DOS and WIN encodings. But we will not delve into a further listing of the program’s capabilities, since quite a lot has already been written about this.

This program has long taken its rightful place on the computers of professional specialists, and I would really like this utility to attract the attention of the rest of the user community. Once you install it on your computer, you will no longer want to part with it and will forever forget about Norton Commander and the disk space that you were once forced to share with it.

Plugins for FAR

Initially, the FAR Manager program was conceived as a shell with a modular structure (the presence of an API allows you to expand the capabilities of the shell through so-called plug-in modules). Plugins are modules that are called from FAR and use FAR functions and interface. Connecting a wide range of plugins means a significant increase in the functionality of the program. By default, the file manager is supplemented with several useful modules that support both working with archives and FTP servers, with a network and temporary panel for storing files and directories, and using all kinds of Russian encodings. The number of built-in plug-in modules is constantly increasing from version to version, and the number of functions provided by the program is growing accordingly.

In addition, new plugins written by various authors appear regularly. Some of them are of more interest, others less so, but their total number is constantly increasing (currently about 407 different plugins are known), and old versions of plugins are periodically replaced by new ones. In addition, both the author of FAR Manager and the authors of specific plugins listen to the wishes and suggestions of users and, in some cases, implement their ideas in new versions. The most complete list of plugins with the ability to sort them according to various parameters can be found at the address, which is a kind of Internet community of authors of FAR plugins.

Several of the most useful plugins, as we have already mentioned, are automatically included in the FAR Manager distribution. Among the most commonly used, I would like to name a convenient print manager and the “File Register Conversion” module, which allows you to unify the change in the spelling of file names of the selected directory. The “Advanced Comparison” module is also very effective, which, unlike the “Compare Folders” command known from Norton, allows you to specify a number of additional comparison parameters (time, content, size), as well as include or, conversely, exclude certain files when comparing and folders. The well-known FTP client plugin greatly simplifies the process of transferring files. Another interesting plugin, “Explorer Context Menu” (Fig. 1), has been added to the latest version of FAR (1.70b3), however, most of the features announced in it are not yet active. At the same time, at least some of the functions of this module can be used quite widely in practice (for example, “Send”, “Cut”, “Copy” and “Paste”).

Most often, plugins implement various functions that not all users need. The relevance of using a particular additional module depends on the specific operating conditions. Therefore, you need to think carefully before installing all the plugins in a row. And only then, having carefully analyzed your own needs, you should install only the additional modules you really need, thereby reducing the amount of memory and resources used by the program.

Installation of any new plugin is very simple. You need to create a Plugins subdirectory in the FAR directory (by default C:\Program Files\Far) (in the latest versions of the program it is created automatically), inside it create a special subdirectory for this plugin and copy all the plugin files into it. After these manipulations, you close the program as usual, and then launch it again, and the plugin starts working. You can call the desired plugin by pressing the F11 key and selecting it from the list that opens. Some plugins can also be selected using the Alt+F1 (Alt+F2) combination. To change the parameters of installed plugins, you will need to use the command F9ФParametersФParameters of external modules and make the necessary adjustments (Fig. 2).

Are FAR plugins really necessary?

As already noted above, at the time of writing this article, 407 different plugins were officially registered on http://www.uic.nnov.ru/~ruiv/plugring/cgi-bin/downld.cgi (it is probably impossible to find another software tool , for which such a number of them would be developed). On the one hand, such a wide range of capabilities that plugins provide seems unnecessary, but on the other hand, this is precisely the main advantage of FAR Manager over other programs designed for working with files and directories. After all, the modular structure of FAR allows users to connect and disable exactly those plugins that are needed.

As for the variety of FAR plugins existing today, among them you can find literally everything - from Tetris, Reversi and a mini-calendar wishing you on your birthday, and ending with all kinds of clients. The “constellation” of plugins still includes those that are automatically included in the FAR Manager distribution or provide capabilities already implemented in the latest versions of the program (these plugins today may be of interest only to users of older versions of the file manager).

A certain part of the plugin database can be useful to a fairly wide range of users, however, most FAR plugins still implement quite specific capabilities, the need for which, due to the nature of working on a computer, does not arise for everyone. Therefore, a significant part of plugins is aimed only at users who face the same problems as the plugin authors themselves.

Clipboard Copy, Clipboard Copy Alt

These plugins are designed for the common Windows, but previously unavailable in FAR Manager, use of the clipboard for copying and moving files and folders. It is permissible to copy (move) both from Windows to FAR and vice versa. In itself, such a feature greatly facilitates ordinary operations of copying and moving, however, it cannot be said that it is implemented very conveniently (if in Windows it is enough, as you know, to press the right button and select the desired action, then in FAR you have to perform the combination F11FClipboardFCopy (Move /Cut or Paste). True, one cannot demand the impossible from the authors of plugins: this is exactly the path that is assumed based on the very logic of the work of plug-ins. This idea was initially implemented in the Clipboard Copy plugin, but was not fully developed: when trying to copy some files, the program produces a file system error. Much later, a similar functionality plugin Clipboard Copy Alt appeared, in which we did not encounter any error situations. It is very likely that such a feature will soon be implemented in the file manager itself through the built-in module “Explorer Context Menu” Archives: clbcopy110.rar (158,296 bytes, author - Alexander Kotelovich) - Clipboard Copy plugin; works starting from version FAR1.60, clipcopy.rar (9361 bytes, author - Andrey Budko) - Clipboard Copy Alt plugin; works starting from version FAR1.65.

File list creator

Designed, as the name suggests, to create a file in the current directory containing a list of names of selected files. Although there is, of course, the usual ability to copy the names of selected files to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl+Ins and then paste from the clipboard into a text file, this plugin is also quite convenient in some cases. It allows you to copy files with paths (entering long paths manually for a group of files is an extremely dubious pastime), as well as supplement the created list of files with new files and process subfolders (of course, if they are selected). There are situations when it is simply irreplaceable (for example, the author of this article, as a teacher, often requires it when creating independent assignments). Archive: flist22.rar (107,780 bytes, author - Andrey Belousov); works starting from version FAR1.60.

Edit Swap

In fact, this plugin represents two modules: “Paired brackets” and “Rus”<->Lat", intended, naturally, for editing the file in the FAR text editor. The first module is responsible for searching and selecting single and double paired brackets of various types. The plugin was written for version FAR1.63, which did not provide such an option. Version 1.70b2 of the FAR program already includes a built-in Brackets plugin that performs the same functions. As for the Rus module<->Lat", then it can still only be connected manually and provides a very useful ability to recode the selected block according to the QWERTY rule<->YTSUKEN, and such a need arises all the time if you simply forgot to switch the alphabet, and naturally you don’t have much desire to type the text again. Archive: editswap.zip (16,800 bytes, author - Valentin Skirdin). Although the plugin was written for version FAR1.63, it works perfectly in subsequent versions of the program. True, the function of searching and highlighting brackets turns out to be duplicated.

Uninstall

The plugin allows you to uninstall programs from FAR Manager in the same way as is usually done from the control panel (F11FUninstall programsFSelect program name). Archive: uinst11.zip (8,619 bytes, author - Dmitry Zhemerov); works starting from version FAR1.65.

FAR Navigator (ProxyFtp)

This module allows you to work not only with ftp servers (downloading or deleting files and directories from the server, copying your files to the server), like a standard FTP client plugin, but also with http servers (downloading from the server). If the connection is lost, files can be resumed. As for downloading files to a computer, there are, of course, more convenient options provided by download managers specially designed for this (there is a more conveniently organized resuming of downloads, and work according to a schedule, and downloading at the highest possible speed, etc. ), so this direction, in general, is not for everyone. And if we talk about the reverse operation, then the plugin’s functions should be of interest to a wide audience. To connect to the server, you need to perform a simple sequence of actions: F11ФFAR NavigatorEnter the name and other parameters of the server by pressing the combination Shift+F4. Archive: FARnav18b8.zip (161,583 bytes, author - Vasily Moshninov); works starting from version FAR1.65.

Web Editor

This plugin allows you to create and edit HTML files in the built-in FAR text editor by inserting templates for a fairly wide range of HTML tags (Fig. 4), CSS attributes, PHP structures (Fig. 5), etc. The process of completely creating Web pages in this way requires a considerable investment of time and effort and is not very inspiring, especially if you think about software products specially designed for this purpose. However, this module can be very useful in the process of debugging a page, when you need to make minimal changes, save and immediately check the result. In addition, some tags (necessary, for example, for the successful promotion of your page) still have to be inserted manually, and the Web Editor helps to significantly speed up the entire process. To insert a tag, you must use the following sequence of actions: F11 ФHTML - Editor - select the desired tag. Archive: web10.zip (163,749 bytes, author - Alexander Ermolaev); works starting from version FAR1.7.

FAR plugins programming Help Encyclopedia of Developer

It is an encyclopedia in Russian PlugRinG Help for plugin developers. In principle, there is a help file in the FAR Manager distribution, but it is quite short. Therefore, the authors of this plugin decided to write a real Help encyclopedia, which examines in detail the technology of plugin development in relation to C/C++ and Pascal (structures, service functions, exported functions, etc.), gives specific recommendations in this area and provides numerous examples. In addition, articles from various authors regarding the pitfalls they encountered at various stages of developing their plugins are published here. In other words, this encyclopedia is an excellent help for those who decide to join the ranks of plugin authors. To launch the encyclopedia, just click on the pluginsr.chm file. Archive: help/pluginsr_chm.zip (394,619 bytes, authors - Valentin Skirdin, Igor Russkikh, Ivan Sintyurin, Kirill Kirichenko, Artem Nazarov, Vasily Moshninov and Dmitry Zhemerov) is focused on version FAR1.7b3.

PlugRinGviewer

The plugin is designed to work with the plugin database - PlugRing (Fig. 6). For the general user, it may be of interest to organize a targeted viewing of plugins by category. The advantage of this plugin is that you don’t need to study the entire plugin database long and hard if you need to find out, for example, what plugins exist for working with the Internet or with a printer. However, the functionality of PlugRinGviewer is much broader: it includes downloading plugins from the database, updating, and adding new plugins. But this feature is aimed primarily at plugin authors. To connect to the database, you must first configure the plugin on your proxy server (F9F ParametersFParameters of external modulesFBase of PlugRing pluginsF Proxy settings), and then, having connected to the Internet, press the combination Alt+F1 (Alt+F2) and select “PlugRing Plugin Database” (or in a standard way through F11FBase of plugins PlugRing). Archive: plugring.zip (394,619 bytes, author - Vasily Moshninov), works starting from version FAR1.65.

For more complete information, we advise you to contact http://www.uic. nnov.ru/~ruiv/plugring/cgi-bin/downld.cgi, where more than 400 plugins await you for free, as they say, for every taste.

ComputerPress 2"2002

) and have never seen him, nevertheless, you probably still understand who he is and what he is eaten with. For those who did not read the last article, but for some reason decided to read this one, I will say that FAR manager is an analogue of Norton Commander (a file management program), working in the console (text mode), but using all the power of Windows. The statement about Norton's analogue is a little controversial, we will assume that this is my subjective opinion, of which there will be many more in the future. If you like it, then download it from www.rarsoft.com and run it. By the way, since the last article was written, the third beta has already been released. I’ll say right away about registration - it is free for residents of the former USSR.

So, you've downloaded it. What didn't you like? Everything is fine? Then read on.

Who is this article intended for? Rather, for those who have been using FAR for a long time, but have no idea how wide its capabilities are. However, it will not be superfluous for those who have not yet chosen a file manager to their taste. I admit that I initially didn’t realize how powerful FAR was until I discovered a site with plugins on the Internet :)

Plugins. Who are they?

A plugin (from English Plug-in - plug-in module) is external plug-in modules (plugins) that are used to expand the capabilities of programs. Plugins are not a specific feature of FAR. With their help, for example, the capabilities of ICQ, Adobe Photoshop or Winamp are expanded. They are also available in other file managers, for example, in Windows Commander. But, compared to other file managers, only FAR provides plugins with truly fantastic capabilities: plugins work anywhere - in panels, in the editor, in the viewer; they can be launched directly from the command line. Sometimes you simply don’t know who exactly will execute the next command - far.exe itself or the plugins, the shell has merged so closely with its helpers. The very ideology of plugins allows you to customize the shell for yourself, adding what you need and throwing out what you don’t need. This is the most important advantage of plugin systems over monolithic programs.

And now the fun part

Since there are a huge number of plugins (at the time of writing this line there were 288 of them), I will try to describe the most useful ones (in my opinion). Moreover, I will mainly use the author’s comments and my subjective opinion.

So, according to the rating, FarNavigator (formerly ProxyFtp) is in first place. Just recently it bypassed the plugin that will be described below - colorer. Author - Vasily Moshninov. FAR includes a standard ftp client, but it has only basic functions. And thanks to this plugin, FAR becomes an excellent FTP client, since it can be used to work with any type of proxy server. In the latest version, it also began to work with http servers.

Colorer is a plugin for syntax highlighting of programming languages (for example, setting colors in any software environment) in the FAR editor. It is very convenient if you need to quickly edit the sources, but are too lazy to launch the shell. Author - Igor Russkikh. Contains a huge number of ready-made scripts for coloring different languages. A few words about the installation: this plugin consists of two parts - the syntax highlighting library and the plugin itself.

Search and replace (s_and_r). Author - Ivan Sintyurin. The plugin, which allows you to replace a large number of files, expands the search capabilities of the standard editor, and also provides the ability to search and replace using regular expressions. As the author said, this is a plugin for smart people, and for those who know what regular expressions are, this is an irreplaceable thing...

7-zip. A plugin that makes working with archives transparent, that is, it does not require the archivers themselves to be installed on the machine. It was originally designed for zip, so it can only archive in zip, but can unzip from most archives.

In addition to these plugins, there are many others. For example, to control WinAmp from FAR, to support various languages and encodings, for all kinds of mass file processing. In fact, anyone can write the necessary plugin for their specific task, which is why modular architecture is convenient.

Now let's look at the standard plugins.

Advanced Compare is a plugin that expands the capabilities of directory comparison. Why describe it - just look at the dialogue it produces.

Editor\Align - plugin for formatting blocks in the built-in editor. I recommend using Format Block instead.

Editor\AutoWrap - plugin for automatic line wrapping as you type.

Editor\Brackets - plugin for automatic transition between brackets in the editor. It is stated that it is not needed if you have colorer, since it can do all this.

Editor\DrawLine - plugin for drawing lines in the editor. Dedicated to Dos Nafigator fans.

Editor\EditCase - plugin for changing the case of typed words. Can do everything - “all lowercase”, “Start with uppercase”, “ALL UPPERCASE”, “CHANGE CASE”, “Cyclic change”.

FARCmds is a very powerful and feature-rich plugin. Since it comes standard, I recommend reading “Help”. An example of use is to make the same directory on the next panel as on the current one.

FileCase is a plugin similar to EditCase, but does the same thing with file names. In the next version s_and_r (1.6) will do the same thing, but for ease of operation I would still recommend using this plugin.

FTP - standard FTP client. For infrequent work with FTP it is quite sufficient. If you work with FTP all the time, then I recommend installing the proxyftp described above and removing this one.

HlfViewer is a plugin for plugin developers. Used to view an arbitrary hlf file - a help file for FAR.

MultiArc is a powerful plugin for working with archives.

Network - plugin for working with the Network. Very convenient. Perhaps in this version it will be slightly changed for the better. Those who have already used it know that the old Network browser could not access resources on the Network, but the new one can do this, however, so far only for the Microsoft Network. Novell NetWare owners will have to wait a little longer.

PrintMan is a new plugin. Replaces standard printing functions in FAR'e, starting from version 1.70 beta1. Prints on almost all types of printers. Able to remove jobs from the print queue.

ProcList - list of processes. A nice plugin for recording processes and viewing quite detailed information about them. In addition, it can change the priorities of running processes. By the way, here - to get a list and switch tasks, you can use the ctrl-w combination in FAR, and to remove them in the menu that appears, use the DEL key. Moreover, they are removed immediately and without questions, unlike what Windows does (using CTRL-ALT-DEL).

TmpPanel - temporary panel. The main purpose is to store files found during the search.

EMenu is a plugin for getting the Windows context menu. Can display text or graphic menus.

As I noted above, many standard plugins are add-ons for users, they do not cover all needs, and in many cases their functionality is covered by more advanced plugins, which means they can be removed if you do not use them. The main point of standard plugins is to provide examples for those who want to start writing plugins themselves, since they all come with source code.

Where can I get them and how to install them?

All FAR plugins are stored in separate folders located in the "Plugins" folder (which, in turn, is located in the same place as Far.exe). When FAR detects a new module, it stores information about it and subsequently loads it only when needed, so that inactive modules do not require additional memory. However, if you are sure that you don't need some modules, you can remove them to save disk space. Also, be sure to read all text files like readme.txt, whatsnew.txt, file_id. diz. Specific features for installing this plugin may be described there. Also, occasionally check the homepages of the plugin authors that should be listed in these files.

Now let's see how to install them. So, you need to go to the folder where FAR is installed (usually c:\program files\far\), to the plugins subdirectory, create a subdirectory there with a name corresponding to the name of the plugin (in principle, it doesn’t matter, it’s only useful for orientation), and copy the entire contents of the downloaded archive into it. Next we restart FAR. Removing the plugin is a little more difficult. My method is this - enter the directory with plugins, click. (dot) and shift-enter, exit FAR, delete the directory with the plugin (del) and run FAR again. If you want to install a new version of the plugin, you must first uninstall it and then install it. Sometimes, if the plugin is not loaded into memory, you can do without exiting FAR.

You can get plugins on PlugRing - a community site for plugin writers. By the way, in the last article I wrote that PlugRinG (www.uic.nnov.ru/~ruiv/plugring) is an unofficial site. So, now it has become official, but has not changed its direction: there is the main (and, in principle, the only) collection of plugins for FAR. Shorter and more quickly remembered addresses for it have appeared - www.rarsoft.com/plugring and plugring.da.ru. Also, to keep up to date with all the latest plugins, I recommend subscribing to the forum - [email protected].

And in conclusion, I would like to express my gratitude to those who helped me write this article - especially Ivan Sintyurin, as well as the developers of FAR and plugins for it.

June 9, 2001

Primus inter pares
(First among equals)

In this note we will talk about programs (surprised?). If there be
precise, then we will talk about one program called Far.

Far is "File and Archive Manager", which translates to "I
I can handle your files and archives better than anyone.” At the beginning a little
stories. The author of this program is Evgeniy Roshal, the same one
which was written by the Rar archiver. But unlike Rar, Far did not receive
full recognition in the West, but the fact that our programmer
No one believes our programmers are capable of paying money.
Especially our programmers :) In order not to engage in self-deception,
for ex-USSR Far was free. As a result, Zhenya made a program
almost thank you until I got tired of it, after which I passed it on
sources to the Far Team group, collected from the best and most active
plugin writers. Now they are the ones who implement new features, fix
old bugs, and Zhenya plays the role of uh... producer? 🙂

Yes, by the way, about plugins. Far's main charm is that he
We can expand it to some extent using plugins. Plugins are written in
languages C, C++, Delphi, Virtual Pascal, and so on and so forth... Now
the number of plugins is huge, and much of what you need is already
implemented.

In principle, plugins are taken from the home pages of their authors. But
There is an open secret - all plugins can be found in one place -
Far PlugRinG.
Everything is very conveniently divided into categories, there is
search and the ability to find out which plugins appeared over the past
the last month or two. Their total number is so large (>350 according to my estimates),
that I decided to describe those of them that may be useful not only to me,
but also to anyone else.

However, despite all its versatility, FAR does not do everything. For example, it is not able to work with the registry or edit unicode files normally. It's good that there are fans who have written a lot of plugins and add-ons for this useful program. You can easily find their complete list, including almost half a thousand items, at plugring.farmanager.com. By tradition, we selected the ten best from them. If you bought the magazine with a disk, then you don’t have to download anything: we have already downloaded the most interesting additions for FAR and placed them on the DPK-CD.

Installing most of them should not cause you any problems. Typically, you need to create a subfolder with the name of the module in the directory C:Program FilesFarPlugins and then unpack all the files from the plugin archive into it. That's it - after restarting the program, FAR will recognize the extension and will work with it.

Far Navigator

The second name of this module is ProxyFTP. Undoubtedly, the most useful plugin for those who often access the Internet and work with FTP servers. Features include the ability to connect to the server even through a proxy, which is not available in the standard FAR module; the ability to move and copy files on different servers without first downloading them to the user’s computer (read: several times faster and without using up traffic); support for unusual authorization modes; attachment processing and everything you could want from any commercial FTP client. Moreover, it is absolutely free. Wonderful, isn't it?

7-zip

The built-in support for archives in FAR through the MultiArc module is, of course, universal, but it is implemented exclusively through external programs, which is not always convenient and is certainly inferior in speed to separately implemented archivers. Plus the need to search for executable files of different archivers, and then configure them. To be honest, this doesn’t upset us very much, but if there is a more convenient solution, why not use it? 7-zip already contains support for ZIP, RAR, GZIP and TAR, which is enough for most users.

Registry Browser

Editing the Windows system registry is an unpleasant, but, unfortunately, quite common operation. For example, you can get rid of the notorious error 1311 when installing your favorite game only by editing the registry. If for this you are too lazy to exit FAR and run regedit.exe- use Registry Browser. With it, you can edit any necessary data directly through the file manager interface. Moreover, copying keys and entire branches is no more difficult than duplicating files and folders.

Background File Copy

The main advantage of some paid file managers over FAR has always been stated to be background copying, which allows you to simultaneously perform a number of operations on files without launching several FAR windows. Well, this advantage is negated by the Background File Copy module, which allows our favorite program to do the same thing, not only with copying, but also moving, deleting and even editing files. The main thing is to carefully read the included installation instructions and note: the module does not work under Windows 98/Me.

Right Click + Right Click Menu Activator

The second (and final) useful feature of conventional file management programs is the standard Windows right-click context menu. In FAR, as you know, a banal file selection occurs instead. If you want to have access to the context menu, install both plugins: one of them will create the actual window with a list of commands, and the second will assign its call to the right mouse button. And don’t ask me why it couldn’t be done in one module - this is a mystery, shrouded in darkness. The only drawback is the lack of beautiful pictures next to some menu items.

WEB Editor

If you are more or less seriously interested in creating Web sites or this is your main occupation, then you probably know that almost all existing Html editors create so-called dirty code, which takes up more space and looks sloppy. As a rule, pages are polished in a regular text editor, for example in the same FAR. And together with the WEB Editor module, this operation has become even simpler and more convenient. Some of its nice features include automatic insertion of HTML tags and even PHP functions, convenient creation of embedded images, menus and various forms.

Plugin Calculator

There is always a need for a convenient calculator with support for expressions and automatic conversion of results into hexadecimal, decimal and binary systems. This is especially true for those who are involved in programming or simply like to delve into saved game files for the purpose of slightly modifying them. Plugin Calculator is built into FAR and allows you not only to perform simple calculations, but also converts units of measures and weights from one system to another. This will certainly come in handy when solving physics problems and reading classic American literature, which is full of feet and inches.

FAR Mail

Those of you who for some reason do not use Outlook Express (well, let's say, for religious reasons) and who find alternative clients like The Bat or Mozilla Mail not “cool” enough, should install FAR Mail. The ability to send and receive letters in text and HTML formats in absolutely any encoding, support for attached files, an address book and many email accounts (SMTP, IMAP and, of course, POP3). Even filtering of letters is available. However, it is very difficult for us to imagine that someone would prefer this program to individual email clients.

Multimedia Viewer

The need to use external utilities to view pictures and video files is an unpleasant feature of almost all file managers. However, in our case, this problem can be solved very simply - just install the Multimedia Viewer module to see all the pictures directly in the FAR window. Moreover, the plugin even allows you to listen to melodies without leaving the program interface. The main thing: don't forget to download the additional library (located on our disk) to make it all work correctly.

Tetris

And finally, the most useless plugin for FAR. No, rather, even the most harmful. This add-on, as you probably guessed yourself, makes it possible to play the famous “Tetris” directly in the program window. In this case, work risks being put on the back burner until better times. Readers nostalgic for the DOS era will probably remember that the creation of Alexander Pa-zhitnov was built into the ancient DOS Navigator file manager and even then interfered with important matters.

plugin program operating key

A plugin is a module for a program that is created separately and, if necessary, can be connected to an already running application. The main task of the plugin is to expand the functionality of the main program.

Installing the plugin

1. Download the plugin from the Internet.
2. Copy the folder along the path c:Program FilesFar ManagerPlugins.
3. Restart Far Manager so that the plugin is fully integrated into the program.
5. To configure this plugin, we need to go to the program menu, select Options, then Plugin Options.
6. In the window that appears, select the plugin that we need to configure and press Enter.
7. Now we see a window with the parameters of the plugin we need. We customize it to suit your needs and click OK.

How to create a plugin.

FAR is distributed with a complete set of files for writing the plug-in yourself on any C compiler for Windows. The topic of this article is writing these modules yourself in Visual C++ (I used Visual C++ 5.0).

1. Launches VC, create a new project of the "Win32 Dynamic-Link Library" type named SimpleFP. Creates a file simplefp.cpp - here, in fact, we will write. Copy the header file plugin.hpp from the PlugDoc.rar archive into the SimpleFP directory (edit: starting from FAR 1.70 beta 5, examples are installed in a separate PlugDoc directory).
2. Now we need to make a .def file - this is a file that describes the functions that are called from external modules. We must describe the Far functions that we will use in our module. We make a text file simplefp.def, in which we write:
3. LIBRARY
4. EXPORTS
5. GetPluginInfo=_GetPluginInfo@4
6. OpenPlugin=_OpenPlugin@8

SetStartupInfo=_SetStartupInfo@4

Here we describe 3 functions that will be useful to us. Now let’s add simpledef.def to the project files (Project - Add to project - Files - simplefp.def).

7. Now we write the plug-in itself - we work with the simplefp.cpp file. I decided to give the text of the program itself with comments - you can copy it into C++ and start tinkering with it. But first, some basics.

Far works on the same principles as Windows - you reference in the program those functions already available on the system that you want to use. Far provides functions for working with screen forms in console application mode. When the plug-in is launched, Far launches the OpenPlugin function; we will consider it as an analogue of main() or WinMain(). But besides this, we also need to provide Far with information about our plug-in. This is done by the GetPluginInfo function.

* SimpleFP - a simple plug-in to Far. (C) 2000 Phoenix, Moscow

#include // to call sprintf

#include // for Windows functions

#include "plugin.hpp" // for Far functions

#define PLUGIN_NAME "Open windows" // Name of the plug-in

#define WINDOW_HEAD "Open windows list" // Header of the menu we will make

// Describe the Far functions we work with.

void WINAPI _export SetStartupInfo(struct PluginStartupInfo *Info);

HANDLE WINAPI _export OpenPlugin(int OpenFrom,int Item);

void WINAPI _export GetPluginInfo(struct PluginInfo *Info);

static struct PluginStartupInfo Info; // Information about our plug-in

// Information about the module is defined by us in the Info structure

void WINAPI _export SetStartupInfo(struct PluginStartupInfo *Info)

// This function is called to get information about the plug-in.

// We must fill out the fields of the Info structure.

void WINAPI _export GetPluginInfo(struct PluginInfo *Info)

Info->StructSize=sizeof(*Info); // Size of the Info structure

Info->Flags=0; // We don't need this

Info->DiskMenuStringsNumber=0; // We don't need this either

// Define a string with the name of the module

static char *PluginMenuStrings;

PluginMenuStrings= PLUGIN_NAME;

// Define the name of the plug-in module

Info->PluginMenuStrings=PluginMenuStrings;

Info->PluginMenuStringsNumber=

sizeof(PluginMenuStrings)/sizeof(PluginMenuStrings);

Info->PluginConfigStringsNumber=0; // We don't need this

// This function is called when the plug-in module starts.

HANDLE WINAPI _export OpenPlugin(int OpenFrom,int Item)

HWND hwnd; // Use it to get handle

char p, o; // To create menu bars

int i=0; // Counter

struct FarMenuItem MenuItems; // Description of the menu that Far will create for us

memset(MenuItems,0,sizeof(MenuItems)); // Initialize our menu

MenuItems.Selected=TRUE;

hwnd = GetDesktopWindow(); // Get handle for desktop

hwnd = GetWindow(hwnd, GW_CHILD); // Get its handle

while (hwnd !=0) // While it's not the last one

hwnd = GetWindow(hwnd, GW_HWNDNEXT); // get window handle

GetWindowText(hwnd,p,128); // and its title

if (strlen(p)>0) // if there is a header

sprintf(o,"%0.8xld %s", hwnd, p); // make a line

strcpy(MenuItems.Text, o); // copy this line to the MenuItems array

// call the menu we created, get the number of the selected item - MenuCode

int MenuCode=Info.Menu(Info.ModuleNumber,

FMENU_AUTOHIGHLIGHT|FMENU_WRAPMODE,

return(INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE);

Compile, copy into FarPlugin and restart Far. In Far, press F11 - this is a list of plug-in modules. Now the line Open windows should appear in it. Look at the result.

Description of some plugins

Clipboard Copy, Clipboard Copy Alt.

These plugins are designed for the common Windows, but previously unavailable in FAR Manager, use of the clipboard for copying and moving files and folders. It is permissible to copy (move) both from Windows to FAR and vice versa. In itself, such a feature greatly facilitates ordinary operations of copying and moving, however, it cannot be said that it is implemented very conveniently (if in Windows it is enough, as you know, to press the right button and select the desired action, then in FAR you have to perform the combination F11FClipboardFCopy (Move /Cut or Paste). True, one cannot demand the impossible from the authors of plugins: this is exactly the path that is assumed based on the very logic of the work of plug-ins. This idea was initially implemented in the Clipboard Copy plugin, but was not fully developed: when trying to copy some files, the program produces a file system error. Much later, a similar functionality plugin Clipboard Copy Alt appeared, in which we did not encounter any error situations. It is very likely that such a feature will soon be implemented in the file manager itself through the built-in module “Explorer Context Menu” . Clipboard Copy plugin; works starting from version FAR1.60, Clipboard Copy Alt plugin; works starting from version FAR1.65.

File list creator.

Designed, as the name suggests, to create a file in the current directory containing a list of names of selected files. Although there is, of course, the usual ability to copy the names of selected files to the clipboard by pressing Ctrl+Ins and then paste from the clipboard into a text file, this plugin is also quite convenient in some cases. It allows you to copy files with paths (entering long paths manually for a group of files is an extremely dubious pastime), as well as supplementing the created list of files with new files and processing subfolders (of course, if they are selected). There are situations when it is simply irreplaceable (for example, the author of this article, as a teacher, often requires it when creating independent assignments). Works starting from version FAR1.60.

Regular Expression Search and Replace.

A very useful plugin designed to search for files based on the expressions they contain, that is, in situations where you urgently need a file with certain information, but you don’t remember its name or location on the disk. The search is very fast, and is possible both on the entire hard drive and in a specific folder. It is possible to automatically replace expressions found in the text of files. Works starting from version FAR1.65.

Edit Swap.

In fact, this plugin represents two modules: “Paired brackets” and “Rus”<->Lat", intended, naturally, for editing the file in the FAR text editor. The first module is responsible for searching and selecting single and double paired brackets of various types. The plugin was written for version FAR1.63, which did not provide such an option. Version 1.70b2 of the FAR program already includes a built-in Brackets plugin that performs the same functions. As for the Rus module<->Lat", then it can still only be connected manually and provides a very useful ability to recode the selected block according to the QWERTY rule<->YTSUKEN, and such a need arises all the time if you simply forgot to switch the alphabet, and naturally you don’t have much desire to type the text again. Although the plugin was written for version FAR1.63, it works perfectly in subsequent versions of the program. True, the function of searching and highlighting brackets turns out to be duplicated.

Special Folders.

Provides quick access to special Windows folders: “Main Menu”, “My Documents”, “Network Neighborhood”, “Desktop”, “Printers”, “Programs”, etc. (Fig. 3), thereby relieving the user of the need to remember their location on the disk, and then have a long and tedious journey to get to them. In this case, you can get to the special folder in two ways: standard for plug-ins: by F11 and through the FAR drive menu, for example, by Alt+F1, Alt+F2 (you should select the additionally appearing Special Folders item in the menu). Archive: Works starting from version FAR1.63.

Uninstall.

The plugin allows you to uninstall programs from FAR Manager in the same way as is usually done from the control panel. Works starting from version FAR1.65.

FAR Navigator (ProxyFtp).

Web Editor.

FAR plugins programming Help Encyclopedia of Developer.

It is an encyclopedia in Russian PlugRinG Help for plugin developers. In principle, there is a help file in the FAR Manager distribution, but it is quite short. Therefore, the authors of this plugin decided to write a real Help encyclopedia, which examines in detail the technology of plugin development in relation to C/C++ and Pascal (structures, service functions, exported functions, etc.), gives specific recommendations in this area and provides numerous examples. In addition, articles from various authors regarding the pitfalls they encountered at various stages of developing their plugins are published here. In other words, this encyclopedia is a great help for those who decide to join the ranks of plugin authors. To launch the encyclopedia, just click on the pluginsr.chm file. Focused on version FAR1.7b3.

PlugRinGviewer.

The plugin is designed to work with a database of plugins - PlugRing. For a general user, it may be of interest to organize a targeted viewing of plugins by category. The advantage of this plugin is that you don’t need to study the entire plugin database long and hard if you need to find out, for example, what plugins exist for working with the Internet or with a printer. However, the functionality of PlugRinGviewer is much broader: it includes downloading plugins from the database, updating, and adding new plugins. But this feature is aimed primarily at plugin authors. Works starting from version FAR1.65.

Program for managing plugins in far. Far Manager - free file manager for Windows

What should you give preference to?

Plugins for FAR

Are FAR plugins really necessary?

Clipboard Copy, Clipboard Copy Alt

File list creator

Edit Swap

Uninstall

FAR Navigator (ProxyFtp)

Web Editor

FAR plugins programming Help Encyclopedia of Developer

PlugRinGviewer

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