In 2003, I discovered the KDE program KDirStat (kdirstat.sourceforge.net) and was immediately fascinated and enthusiastic about it, likely as many others were. I had considered creating a disk usage tool before, and this was exactly what I had envisioned!

Although SequoiaView (http://w3.win.tue.nl/nl/onderzoek/onderzoek_informatica/visualization/sequoiaview/) existed, KDirStat’s unique combination of a tree list view with a treemap was unmatched, and I couldn’t find anything similar for MS Windows. Thus, I decided to create WinDirStat, drawing inspiration from the research papers on squarified treemaps (www.win.tue.nl/~vanwijk/stm.pdf) and cushion treemaps (www.win.tue.nl/~vanwijk/ctm.pdf) by Mark Bruls, Kees Huizing, Jarke J. van Wijk, and Huub van de Wetering.

I focused less on inventing new functionality and more on replicating KDirStat. While the pacman feature wasn’t my idea, the extension list was. I aimed to optimize the size and position of each GUI element and avoid modal dialog boxes, ensuring the program delivered extensive information with minimal user input. After I considered it complete, I asked my sister to test it, observing her interactions and making improvements for another two weeks. This process, combined with a thorough test plan, ensured the quality of WinDirStat.

Meanwhile, a colleague of mine developed Disc Inventory X (www.derlien.com/), a clone for Mac OS X.

That’s the story so far. Oliver has since taken over the project, many translations have been contributed, and I have mostly switched to Linux, observing WinDirStat’s impressive download numbers. I hope we can slowly but surely provide a new version.

Bernhard