(Recursive) Directory Operator (Winter 2003)

I'm still not quite sure why I made this, but anyways, it served as a good reminder on refreshing the GUI material we learned in first year. There's actually two versions, the GUI layer is built upon the command line core, which I will add later. This is mainly a program for those who move large files on and off their hard drives, like me. Sometimes it seems like I lose hundreds of megs of space, especially when I forget what I just installed or downloaded. This program, when run, will provide an analysis of a certain 'root' directory, and all the directories below it in the file tree. As such, the next time you run it, it will remind you of any changes made to the directory (ie. change in number of files, number of directories, size of directory). It also includes a list of the ten largest files in the directory, which are accessible (if associated to relevant program) through this operator. Below is a shot of the program.

Example:



Features not Flaws:

• You can click on the links of the ten largest files to open them, assuming that they have associations to their programs. I know that there are a few inconsistencies, and am working this out. For now, this feature ONLY works on WINDOWS machines, UNIX will be coming soon, and MAC users will never see this feature simply because I have no access to MAC machines, and the call is platform dependent (thank Java for that one).
• DON'T run on the root directory (ie. c:\, d:\, etc.) unless you are patient enough to wait for the thousands of directories to be recursed. I recommend you set the default directory to perhaps your most active directory (ie. the one you work on most, the one you download to most, etc.)
• After you download the .jar file, run it through the command line java -jar DirectoryGUI.jar.
• You can see what directory it is currently running through in the title bar of the program. It it shows a directory with [!] before it, this means that the directory has a large number of files and will take a short second to complete.
• It is preferable that you run the program in its own directory, as it creates new database files after each run.
• If you happen to have any files called (ie. nnnnnnnnn.rdo) in the directory, please move them before running the program for the first time.
• When asked to choose a root, either type in a directory, or click on one, then press ok, because of the way the chooser is defined, a double click on a directory will only open it.
• As of now, it does not detect changes in individual files, simply because (for example) I have 100,000 files on the computer, and if it took just 1kb to store all their information (which is impossible), it would still take up 100mb of space. Not to mention the time it takes to gather information about each and every file, every time the user wishes to check for changes, would drive away people looking for a simple, quick, and efficient program.
• Command line version will be up shortly, incase anyone wishes to use this program in conjunction with others (go | it).