Total Commander Pocket & WM5

[totfun]

The first O.S. on my first and unique smartphone (MPX200) was windows smartphone 2002. 15 months ago I upgraded it to WM2003 and some days ago I upgrated my MPX200 to WM2005.
TC works like a charme on WM2005 for smartphone!

Totfun

[ghisler(Author)]

Nice to hear that! I haven't tested on that platform yet. Are there any problems you encountered, like something which no longer works as before?

[totfun]

Nice to hear that! I haven't tested on that platform yet. Are there any problems you encountered, like something which no longer works as before?

At the moment I encountered no problem.
Btw: Other users on the internet report TC among working programs on WM2005 for smartphone

[ghisler(Author)]

Nice to hear that! Btw, does your smartphone have a touch screen? What display resolution does it have?

[totfun]

Nice to hear that! Btw, does your smartphone have a touch screen? What display resolution does it have?

No touch screen. Resolution: 220x176 or something like that.

[Slavic]

Hello!

I installed TC for WinCE on a new smartphone i-mate SP5. Installation was successful without essentian problems (except the warning that I'm trying to install the unsigned program, but this message can be ignored). Here are my two pennies about bugs that I found.

1. The strange behaviour with moving the files. Sometimes this happens without problem, sometimes with the error message that file already exists in the new place (as it was reported in previous messages). This can't be entirely explained as partially incorrect message at attepmt to copy files into ROM area: I can't move some shortcuts in RAM from root start menu (\Windows\Start Menu\) to the next-level folder (attempting to reorganise the start menu in my way). However, Windows Explorer allows to do this through the ActiveSync without problems.

2. Some files in the file list and "File, Properties" dialog have incorrect date (year is displayed with 2 digits, but 4 digits would be better - feature request). Sample: link "Pocket MSN.lnk" has a date 05.04.27. Attempt to correct the year in this dialog is unsuccessful, but via ActiveSync these dates seems look correct.

3. When I try to edit some text file using built-in editor and select the option "Edit, Font...", the TC completely freeses and can't be unloaded from the memory because the Task manager already freeses. Despite the OS itself continues to work, the resources consumed by TC are locked and only system restart can repair this situation.

[ghisler(Author)]

1. Total Commander pocket uses the CopyFile and MoveFile functions. They just take source and target name, and return either success or an error. Sometimes the error is ambigous, so you may get strange error messages in some case.

2. What date is shown in Explorer for this file?

3. That's very strange, I cannot reproduce it here. Can you open the fonts dialog via the menu (About/Configure)? It's the same dialog, but opened with different parameters.

[Slavic]

Well, Christian, thank you for the answers. I checked these problems again and here are the results:

1. Problem with copy/move is really due to system restrictions, not TC. If the file has an attribute "system", as some shortcuts in the Start menu, it can't be moved or copied. The problem is, the attributes are difficult to be seen and changed, "See/change attributes" dialog is not so user-friendly. Could you make them more visible, change the horisontal scrolls with checkboxes, for example?

2. Yes, it's my mistake (at least, partially). The Explorer shows the date as 27.04.2005 (dd.mm.yyyy). The TC shows 05.04.27, i.e. yy.mm.dd, disregard to current regional settings (Russian) in my smartphone: dd.mm.yyyy for short date format. Though this is not a bug, it would be better to check these settings (or at least, please show the TC date format somewhere in the "File, Properties" screen).

3. Sorry, I also can't today to reproduce this bug. The dialog "About, Configure" works well and the same dialog in the editor also works without problems. Maybe that file was opened at the same time by another program? I will try to notice this again.

[ghisler(Author)]

1. Unfortunately there are no 3 state checkboxes on the smartphone. Microsoft recommends these horizonal scrolls because they can be used easily with the smartphone: Up/down goes to next/previous, left/right changes the options.

2. Total Commander/CE does get the regional settings from the Windows functions as it should. It's possible that they got mixed up somehow. Try this: Change the date settings, e.g. to mm.dd.yyyy, save them, then change them back to dd.mm.yyyy.

3. OK, please let me know if you find out more!

[Slavic]

I carried out some tests with Total Commander and now can explain the problems with more additional details.

Image: http://slavic.port5.com/software/tc_sp5.png
First of all, the problem with file attributes. This screenshot is made using ActiveSync Remote Display (maybe there are more simple and better screen capture programs for WM5, but I didn't find any yet). As it was expected in TC, for any attribute user can see and select one of three options: "+", "-" or " ". Unfortunately, in my smartphone two first options are looked almost similarly. This is because of insufficient width of character field or, maybe, different screen metrics in compare to WM2003.

Next is the problem with date format. I attempted to change the format several times, but unsuccessfully. Speaking more strictly, Total Commander understands the separator character, but not the date digits sequence. I have found the corresponded key in Registry:
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\nls\overrides]
"SSDte"="dd.MM.yyyy"
Maybe TC calls an OS function about date format, but gets incorrect results, instead of read this string directly?

Finally, the problem with hang/crash. It really takes a place when user tries to change the word wrap in the built-in text editor. Way to reproduce: open simple text file or create a new one and use commands: File, Edit, Word wrap. Program hangs or crushes immediately and the system comes to damaged state.

There is another bug in editor (maybe, only in WM5) when the input mode is switched from "123" to "Symbol" (and next to "t9"). In "Symbol" mode the input subsystem shows the full screen with various signs and characters with diacritical marks. But the editor cannot get any symbol from this screen, it freezes and the digital keyboard hangs. This hang is not fatal: we can close the file using File, Close and then return to main Commander's screen.

[Slavic]

There is a problem with Total Commander CE on smartphone with drop-down history list. When we activate it by "9", the list can be opened by "joystick down", and then we can select the desired directory. However, when we press Enter (push joystick), TC goes to the selected directory and input focus is moved to directory, but the history list remains opened! It partially coveres the directory, but has no focus and we cannot close it simply. Only way is to press menu twice (File, File), after that the list closes.

Could you make this list closing at the same time when desired directory is selected?

[ghisler(Author)]

First of all, the problem with file attributes. [..] This is because of insufficient width of character field or, maybe, different screen metrics in compare to WM2003.

OK, no problem, I will make the boxes larger.

Next is the problem with date format. I attempted to change the format several times, but unsuccessfully. Speaking more strictly, Total Commander understands the separator character, but not the date digits sequence

It expects the date format exactly as it is displayed in the file list. It uses the LOCALE_IDATE option to determine the sequence of year, month, and day.

Finally, the problem with hang/crash. It really takes a place when user tries to change the word wrap in the built-in text editor. Way to reproduce: open simple text file or create a new one and use commands: File, Edit, Word wrap. Program hangs or crushes immediately and the system comes to damaged state.

No problems here with WM2003 - maybe a WM5 bug? I will try with the emulator.

There is another bug in editor (maybe, only in WM5) when the input mode is switched from "123" to "Symbol" (and next to "t9"). In "Symbol" mode the input subsystem shows the full screen with various signs and characters with diacritical marks. But the editor cannot get any symbol from this screen, it freezes and the digital keyboard hangs. This hang is not fatal: we can close the file using File, Close and then return to main Commander's screen.

This is caused by a focus loss, and will be fixed in 2.5.

There is a problem with Total Commander CE on smartphone with drop-down history list. When we activate it by "9", the list can be opened by "joystick down", and then we can select the desired directory. However, when we press Enter (push joystick), TC goes to the selected directory and input focus is moved to directory, but the history list remains opened! It partially coveres the directory, but has no focus and we cannot close it simply. Only way is to press menu twice (File, File), after that the list closes.

This is a known bug in WM5 - it will be fixed in TC/CE 2.5.

Would you be interested in trying a beta version, to check if these errors are fixed? If yes, please contact me by e-mail.

[blink]

2dannyw001
Just get the PocketPC version, it is compatible with WM 5.0. The two function buttons will have no effect for now, though. They will be supported in the next version.

Total Commander Pocket PC runs very good on WM5.0 (HTC Prophet), but we still wait a support of two function buttons and BT support

Thanx for great PC and Pocket PC tcmd

[Pretor]

Hello.
I have PDA iPAQ RX1950 WM5.
What version Total Coomander approaches me more:
1. http: // www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm (Total Commander
for Pocket PC or Pocket PC phone) or
2. http: // www.ghisler.com/wince2x.htm (Total Commander for all other devices
CE 2.x, Handheld PC)

[Flint]

I have PDA iPAQ RX1950 WM5.
What version Total Coomander approaches me more

PocketPC version.