The RISC OS filer, a key part of the RISC OS desktop environment is clean and simple, and does its job superbly – even though we use it whenever we use the RISC OS computer, we probably don’t give it that much thought; it’s just there, showing us our files, and providing a target to drop new ones into.
It is, however, very dated, and lacks many features taken for granted on other systems – some of which we can add through third party add-ons (such as displaying thumbnails of images with the filer), but others not so much.
One of the projects undertaken by Cloverleaf – the company set up and run by Stefan Fröhling and which put some effort into funding its activities via Kickstarter campaigns (the first in 2020, which fell short of its target, and subsequently in 2021, which saw its less ambitious target met) – was an update to the filer in order to address this very problem.
The result of that is CLFiler, of which version 1.35 is apparently now available (according to an email forwarded to me at Stefan’s request – though the CLFiler page on the Cloverleaf website still mentions 1.02
).
The goal is for the software to eventually be dropped in as a replacement to the standard filer in RISC OS, but for now it is available to buy as third party filer application. CLFiler offers the following features:
- A toolbar along the top, and a tree-view of the directory structure as a pane on one side of the main filer window.
- Drag and drop into folders without opening them (with a confirmation dialogue to avoid mistakes – and the resulting confusion).
- Thumbnails for image files (with some types requiring additional support from ImageMagick) – and related to this an integrated image viewer that offers scaling and conversion.
- Keyboard shortcuts for selecting, copying, and moving files without resorting to the mouse.
- The ability to search for files quickly and easily, with the results showing in the main filer window.
- A recent folders/files list, meaning the last things you worked on are more quickly available if you need them again – as well as the ability to set ‘favourite’ locations.
- Customisable background colours for different folders.
- And much more.
According to the page mentioned above, CLFiler is available for €15.97, but bear in mind that the page may need to be updated, so that price may or may not be correct.
