Rapid Environment Editor

URL: http://www.rapidee.com/

Version: 5.1 build 754

A long time has passed since the first testing, and many versions. I see all the issues I mentioned then are now solved, and many nice new features added.

Verdict: A very, very good program!! A true pearl!

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Version: 3.2 build 564

Unlike RedfernPlace Path Editor, this is usable. Still, there are some similar design flaws:

This one switches to edit mode with F2 and with the context menu, but not with a click on a selected item (RedfernPlace Path Editor can do this).

I can read the value, the expanded value, the short path, the long path! Nice! But I can not copy them. Why? I do not know in what development environment the program is created, but it is probably just a click away: to enable coping from a label (make it selectable), or even just – not to disable it! If a software creator is not sure whether a user will want to copy/select the contents of a label, and there is no reason why that would be undesired, wouldn’t it be wise to just let him do it?!?!?

And a bug:

I tried File/Backup and it said it can not load my profile. (And I have administrative privileges, just in case you wonder.) When I chose another profile (I chose administrator this time), there were no more complaints. How silly. And I didn’t even want to backup the user environment, only the system environment, and only the PATH variable.

Verdict:  Rich on features. Some flaws in design and functioning.

RedfernPlace Path Editor

Version 2.1.3.0

This program gets improved rapidly. Let’s hope the issues will be solved.

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Version 2.1.2.0

I installed the version 2.0.2.1 and immediately saw that “%JAVA_HOME%\bin” is recognized as invalid – because it’s quoted – and the removal is suggested. I reported this issue and in version 2.1.2.0 it is solved. The program now does not suggest removal of quoted paths any more, but their cleaning instead.

The authors claim that it has “intuitive interface”. Well, the psychologists would say that intuition is actually based on experience. So, from experience from using other programs, the Windows Explorer is a notorious example, I would expect F2 to switch to edit mode and the context menu should double this functionality. Almost every if not every file manager can do this. But this program can’t. Instead, the context menu has only one item and it is to change font?! As I suspected, this changes the font for all items. Of course, I mean, why would anybody want to change the font for a particular item? That is how I knew that this will change font for all items. Right? You might call it intuition, or logical thinking. But why then put this in the context menu?! It clearly belongs to the View (or Options) menu. But the program has neither View nor Options menu, so the author decides to put this in the context menu. This is bad design.

Also:

  • no help so I have no clue what are these things in the Edit menu for
  • a checkbox labeled “Can contain directories” instead of “Must contain directories”

etc.

On the program homepage (http://www.redfernplace.com/software-projects/patheditor/) there are some comments regarding potentially dangerous issues in older versions. Well, were! The comments are removed now!!

Very basic functionality. Weve offers the same or better (backup) functionality and better design.

Verdict:  There are other, better free programs, so there is no point using this one.