FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Allan Bonadio, sales@tactileint.com, +1 650-964-1518
SAN FRANCISCO, CA - Jan 20, 2005 - Tactile Interactive Software today announced the immediate availability of Tactile Interrogator™ version 1.5. With this release, the company's revolutionary new file manager is now available for Linux and Solaris, in addition to the original Mac OS X.
Tactile Interrogator provides a rich graphical view of Unix files and directories. Although similar in origin to some other file managers, it uses colored icons, in different sizes, to give the user an informative picture of a directory at a glance. It has many other power features designed for programmers, system administrators, and power users. It is designed to complement and extend the management capabilities of the Unix command line.
"Interrogator is designed for power users, people who deal with massive amounts of files all the time, and who need to absorb a lot of information each second", said the president and founder, Allan Bonadio. "A program having only having one window, that shows only one directory at a time - that's not enough. That's kid stuff."
Bonadio was the developer of Expressionist™ and Theorist™, and founder of the company that published them, Prescience Corporation. Through the 1980's and 1990's, Bonadio's software revolutionized the use of mathematics on graphical user interfaces. (Recent versions of Bonadio's previous software are being published at livemath.com).
Tactile Interrogator was built from the ground up to move beyond the limited capabilities of the command line, which most Unix users depend upon. For instance, Interrogator can highlight a changed file, or a hackable file, even if buried several directories deep. These potential security problems are highlited and therefore always obvious, even if you aren't specifically looking for them. Using the command line, such details are only detectable by examining each directory, one at a time.
Touch Targeting™ allows the user to navigate by simply typing in filenames. Although other file managers allow you to select a file by typing the first letter, Interrogator selects all matching files as the user types in a wildcard pattern. The user can navigate by typing in whole Unix pathnames, using virtually the same keystrokes that are used on the command line.
Interrogator attempts to pick up as many facts as possible about a particular file. For instance, the new Permissions command can access and change the obscure chattr attribute bits that can be found on Linux. "A lot of developers blow off the more obscure settings for files, as if that's an acceptable solution," explains Bonadio. "If the user is trying to delete a file, and it's not working because of one of these archane attributes, then the user should be able to learn about these attributes, to see their current settings, and to change them. Otherwise, your file manager is an impediment, not a tool."
Different dialects of Unix have subtle differences. One of the goals of Interrogator is to simplify the life of the cross-platform Unix user. For example, the Unix command ls -s lists out files with their sizes, but it uses different units on Linux, Solaris and MacOS. On MacOS, you can add the -k option to make the output similar to Linux, but not exactly the same. Solaris does not have that -k option. Linux has a -k option but it does something different.
The cross-platform Unix user must put up with these complications to use the command line. Tactile Interrogator, on the other hand, consistently uses standardized units like kbytes, and displays the same way on Linux, Solaris or Mac OS.
Tactile Interrogator is available immediately for download. The downloaded version works for free for 30 days before disabling. A $49.95usd license key can be purchased at the company's website, tactileint.com
Tactile Interrogator requires the following:
Mac OS: X.2 and later
Linux: requires libstdc++.so.5
Solaris: version 8 and later
For more information, and for screen snapshots, please visit the website at
http://tactileint.com/interrogator/press
Tactile Interactive is devoted to empowering experienced users by exploring innovative approaches to graphical user interface. Over 1000 Interrogator users have enjoyed the power and simplicity of Tactile Interrogator. Headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA, Tactile Interactive was founded in 2002.
Allan Bonadio, the president and founder, previously developed the Expressionist equation editor, and the award-winning Theorist math program.
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