
Show HN: Marta – A fast and minimalistic file manager for macOS - yanex
https://marta.yanex.org/
======
mmjaa
Not a fan of the Midnight Commander-style of UI, but I'll give it a try since
anything has got to be better than the mess that is the Finder these days .. I
still don't understand why Apple can't push Finder to be a more modern
interface for the system without completely screwing it up .. so much to
improve, but yet they are ignoring it in favour of sandboxes and "nobody knows
what a filesystem is" policies that make us all dumber.

One of my pet peeves with the Finder is that it still can't auto-layout the
content to fit in the window - take a list view, open a folder .. and marvel
at the fact that its the 21st century, but yet this list view still isn't
capable of rendering itself for minimal-fit constraints. (I have to do it
manually.) This is very frustrating, and I'd love to know of a solution ..

~~~
shripadk
Can't agree with you more! The other issue I have with macOS is the maximize
button which defaults to "fullscreen". I have become used to pressing the
Option/Alt button before clicking the green maximize button. It's so obvious
that it is a very bad design decision. Even more surprising is that this
"feature" has been kept around for 3 versions of macOS. Am I the only one who
finds this UX so counter-intuitive? Else why would it stick around for 3
versions of macOS?

~~~
waibelp
Full ack! To fix those issues and many more I started to use Spectacle [1]
some months ago which steady improved my workflows. I could not even think
about working with macOS without it.

[1] [https://www.spectacleapp.com](https://www.spectacleapp.com)

~~~
jrowley
Spectacle is an essential app for me. I feel completely lost whenever I use a
mac that doesn't have it installed.

~~~
nimeshneema
Give Divvy a try ([http://mizage.com/divvy/](http://mizage.com/divvy/)).

I find it to be quite configurable, easy to use and quite better than the
available alternatives.

------
jmuguy
This is eerily similar to fman, which was posted here a few weeks ago

[https://fman.io/](https://fman.io/)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13764060](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13764060)

~~~
yanex
fman is a cross-platform application made with PyQt. I doubt if it will
achieve the native macOS experience someday. And I think the difference is
really important.

~~~
mherrmann
fman author here. Congrats on the launch. Sublime Text is cross-platform and
is great on macOS. I don't see why fman shouldn't be.

I would say people who truly care about 100% macOS may choose Marta, people
who care about cross-platform and a Python-based plugin API will choose fman.

~~~
yanex
Thank you! :)

Well, the problem is that Sublime Text is the only GUI cross-platform
application with the native behavior I know, so it's more like an exception.
And it shows that making portable tools right is not that simple.

I don't think we are the direct competitors. fman is a completely another
project with its own strong and weak points. I tried fman and didn't like it
because of numerous reasons, but it's my own opinion.

~~~
mherrmann
Of course :) - to each their own. Good luck!

------
smarx007
Wanted to try it, but no, I am not going to sign up for a super exclusive
alpha that requires my email address.

~~~
lm2s
So... You're trusting it with all your filesystem but not your email?

~~~
smarx007
No, that's actually an indicator. If the DMG is email-walled, how much data
the app will track once installed on my machine?

~~~
yanex
To be honest, the initial launch of Marta was an important lesson for me. I
started with a closed alpha so I could fix the critical bugs until it will
become open for everyone – not because I want everyone's emails to send some
shitty spam. But lots of people disagreed with me, and I understand them.

I changed some of my plans. Marta will become open much earlier, maybe even
the next week. Sorry for the inconvenience.

~~~
smarx007
Thank you for a reply and best wishes to your project!

------
nicoburns
Just want to point people to
[http://www.binarynights.com/forklift/](http://www.binarynights.com/forklift/)

It's not free, but they've just releaseed a new major version, and it's the
first time I've found a file manager I'm happy with on Mac.

~~~
yanex
Actually, I used ForkLift for some time. But ForkLift lacks configurability,
and the new version is somehow _slow_. I didn't like that.

------
dyeje
Consider doing an animation like the Sublime Text website:
[https://www.sublimetext.com/](https://www.sublimetext.com/)

Would make the homepage more engaging and demonstrate value quicker.

~~~
yanex
Yes, of course, I'm planning to add the animation a bit later. Thank you for
the suggestion!

------
laurent123456
Should "minimalistic" be a goal for a file manager though? Total Commander is
great _because_ it's not minimalistic and allows the user to customise it in
any way you want. I think that's what users who want more than just Finder or
Explorer are looking for. It's the same for text editors, nobody would use a
minimalistic one, or they'd just use Notepad.

~~~
yanex
I call it minimalistic just because the UI is not cluttered by numerous panels
and menus. _It 's not about the functionality_. I believe that the
functionality/simplicity balance is possible, as I see it done well in Sublime
Text. By the way, Marta supports plugins so the functionality is not limited
by what you have out of the box.

~~~
athenot
> I call it minimalistic just because the UI is not cluttered by numerous
> panels and menus.

And yet it does just that with all the buttons and UI items that visually
blend in each other.

Constrast to the Finder:

\- View > As Columns (this is a legacy from NeXT Step that I still love 17
years after first seeing it, and use it daily).

\- View > Hide Sidebar

\- View > Hide Status bar

There: you have a minimalist and fast view of the FS, with zero UI clutter,
and 100% browseable with the keyboard.

------
dorian-graph
I'd recommend putting some more details on the homepage, or at least linking
to the introductory blog post which has pertinent information like your plans
about pricing (for everyone else, it will be paid). Maybe even list some of
the other features like plugins would help sell it too.

~~~
yanex
Added the blog post link to the index page. Thank you for the suggestion!

------
husted
Looks like a good start. I would love to get a full replacement of
TotalCommander for macOS. I've tried a few and I'm currently using Forklift 3.
There's still some features that I'm missing in Forklift so I'll keep an eye
on this project.

~~~
pax
_Disk Order_ ([http://likemac.ru](http://likemac.ru)) was great, now
abandonware (last updated 2013)

Next best thing I could find was _Path Finder_
([http://cocoatech.com](http://cocoatech.com))

~~~
husted
I've also used [http://www.mucommander.com/](http://www.mucommander.com/) for
a while, I haven't kept track so I'm not sure about the current status.

~~~
finchisko
yes mucommander, it could open websites too. it literally parsed html and
showed you list of included resources in the panel. how cool is that? :-)
which commander has that?

------
diggan
> If your work isn't ready for people to try out yet, please don't do a Show
> HN. Once it's ready, come back and do it then.

From
[https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html)
which I feel is applicable here, since it's invite only alpha.

~~~
yanex
Well, I was thinking about this. And I actually don't know how to interpret
this sentence because there are lots of projects that are announced but don't
have anything to show at all.

Marta has – but the difference is that it doesn't provide the direct link.

~~~
diggan
Well, I think it's fair for projects to submit links when announcing something
but if it's under "Show HN" it actually has to be something that people can
try. Putting the "trying" being a closed wall I don't think is very fair.

------
mattlevan
This product doesn't look to me to be compelling enough to switch away from
Finder and ranger. I use Finder when I want to browse pictures or other rich
media and ranger when I just want to browse source code and other text files
from the command line using vim-like hotkeys.

------
hooksfordays
I'm very interested in getting started with this! One question, is there a way
to change the key binding for switching active panes? Right now it seems like
the only option is to use Tab and is the only key binding that doesn't appear
to be configurable.

~~~
yanex
Sorry, it's not possible right now. But I've added a task to the TODO list
([https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi](https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi)), and it will
be fixed in Marta 0.1.1.

------
fareesh
It looks interesting from the docs but on an average day I would have closed
the page without going to the docs section. Some sort of video or animation to
boast why it will help me reclaim productivity is all I need to press download
and start using it.

------
xmichael99
Not really alpha ready in my opinion. Needs quite a bit of work to be able to
do anything.

~~~
yanex
You're right: it's the first preview version, not the complete product yet.
Please stay tuned :)

But if you have some specific problems with Marta, you can always contact me
at mail@yanex[dot]org, or leave the TODO request here:
[https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi](https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi).

------
balladeer
I really like XtraFinder[1] and pretty much can't do without it. I wish it
worked w/o that very serious (potentially dangerous) workaround but sadly it
doesn't and after OSX upgrade broke it it is not as stable it used to be.

Where does Marta fit in among file managers (esp very serious ones) and Finder
plugins for OSX? Are other features (for e.g. FTP or so? Though it says
minimal) are planned or already exist?

[1]
[https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/](https://www.trankynam.com/xtrafinder/)

~~~
floSchr
God I wish it was open source and the dev didn't suddenly disappear :(

------
yellowboxtenant
Just an FYI I wouldn't have realized the Mad Mimi subscription confirmation
email was related until I tried another email address and saw the same
message.

------
gcb0
> give money to a company with crappy software

> spend your time fixing their problems so they can continue making money with
> crapy software

someone needs some Stallman love

------
saberworks
I think GUI tools like this should use every opportunity to gently introduce
users to the conventions used in lower-level tools that they may eventually
decide to use. For example, in the top of each pane in the screenshot there is
a directory open with a path listed. Perhaps show it with typical path
separators (/) so the user gets used to it.

~~~
yanex
By default, Marta shows file icons that identify directories pretty well. You
are free to disable the icons and specify `directoryPrefix` and
`directorySuffix` in conf.json.

But it would be an interesting idea to make a "set up wizard" that will
suggest users disable the icons.

------
vbezhenar
There's similar program: Nimble Commander, I use it for a long time and I like
it.

~~~
pax
Thank you, I gave it a try and so far I like it better than Path Finder (which
I've been using for last couple of years). Nimble wins for minimalistic UI.

------
mariusmg
Pretty interesting that the default file manager sucks soo much on both
Windows and OSX (and Linux depending on the distro i guess).

~~~
erelde
On Linux you can use virtually any file manager without anyone/anything
"preventing" you from it.

~~~
mariusmg
Yeah, "default" is a hard word to understand.

------
pavlov
A tiny niggle: consider using the Apple-defined system font instead of
Helvetica? Many Mac users are sticklers about this.

~~~
yanex
This is a completely valid point, thank you. I added it to the public TODO
list: [https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi](https://quip.com/TOH6Abh8ruxi).

By the way, you can already change the font
([https://marta.yanex.org/docs#fonts](https://marta.yanex.org/docs#fonts)).

------
weitzj
Nice. mc keybindings

------
RileyKyeden
Any relation to the mass transit system in Atlanta?

~~~
afdsadf
They both are pretty minimalistic I suppose...

~~~
tomcam
... and snap!

------
pvinis
What was the motivation for this?

~~~
needz
I don't know if this is truly faster, but Finder can really crawl for me
sometimes. I'd gladly switch to a faster solution.

------
DoodleBuggy
Might be more useful for iOS

------
holydude
Stack? Native ?

~~~
yanex
Just Cocoa (Swift). Marta is a completely native macOS application.

~~~
mrmondo
Such a relief, I'm so sick of all these dreadful javascript 'apps', not a
single one of them performs like a native app on any platform I've used.

