Editing Norton Commander (section)

==Background==
[[File:Captain norton.png|thumb|upright|Commander Norton [[mascot]] including his trademark cap and white gloves, used in NC 5.51 [[computer icons]]|left]]

{{Quotation|I started work on what became known as the Norton Commander in the fall of 1984 while I was still a graduate student in Applied Physics at Cornell University. The first versions were entirely in assembly language, but that was too time-consuming, so I soon switched to a blend of C and assembly language at a time when most "real programmers" wouldn't touch C.|John Socha described his work on NC{{ref|Bezr}}}}

John Socha started work on Norton Commander in 1984; at the time, he called it "Visual DOS" or "VDOS".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.softpanorama.org/OFM/Paradigm/Ch03/norton_commander.shtml|first=Nikolai|last=Bezroukov|year=2005 |title=The History of Development of Norton Commander |work=[[Softpanorama]] |quote=As John Socha recollected the events (personal communication): 'I started work on what became known as the Norton Commander in the fall of 1984 ... At the time I called it Visual DOS, with the abbreviation of VDOS instead of the usual two-letter abbreviations used at the time.'}}</ref>

Norton Commander was easy to use because it had a constant view of two file manipulation objects at once. After starting the program the user sees two panels with file lists. Each panel can be easily configured to show information about the other panel, a [[directory tree]], or a number of other options. At the bottom of the screen, Norton Commander displays a list of commands that are extended on demand by the [[Control key|CTRL]] and [[Alt key|ALT]] keys. Thus, without heavy use of the mouse (although mouse functionality was integrated around version 3.0), the user is able to perform many file manipulation actions quickly and efficiently. Additionally, it also includes a built-in text file viewer (invoked with F3 key) and text file editor (invoked with F4 key).

Norton Commander was very popular during the DOS era and it has been extensively cloned. For example, the [[IntelliJ IDEA|IntelliJ IDE]] used to include a "Commander" plugin that performed file manipulation using the same shortcut keys as Norton Commander<ref>{{cite web|title=Commander Tool Window|url=http://www.jetbrains.com/idea/webhelp/commander-tool-window.html|access-date=9 August 2012}}{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> but the plugin is now obsolete.<ref>{{cite web|title=Commander|url=https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/7706-commander|access-date=6 July 2018}}</ref>

===Long filenames===
[[Windows 95]] included a new graphical shell called [[Windows Explorer]] and supported [[long filename]]s (LFN). Symantec released Norton Commander 5.51 to support long filenames using the standard Windows [[Application Programming Interface|APIs]]. In order to preserve LFNs while working in [[real mode]], Norton Commander 5.51 required the use of a [[terminate-and-stay-resident]] (TSR) utility. Norton Commander did not have native support for LFNs in real mode and would truncate them.

===End of life===
According to former Peter Norton Group developer Mark Lawler, after Symantec had acquired Peter Norton Computing, Symantec had speculated Microsoft Windows would be a success, so the key PNC resources had been diverted, while new programmers for the Windows platform were hired. [[Enrique Salem]] (who eventually became Symantec's CEO) led the development of a Windows shell replacement for [[Windows File Manager]] and [[Program Manager]] released as Norton Desktop for Windows.