If you want to find information about a file or directory from within RISC OS, the obvious thing to do in the desktop environment is to click the ‘Menu’ mouse button with the pointer over the object in a filer window, go to the submenu for it and choose ‘Info’.
However, the information you get from doing that is quite limited – the ‘About this object’ window will tell you its name, its type, its size, the access rights set for it, and its date stamp. (And for a directory, some of that information may be less useful than for a file.)
Another option is to drop to the command line, and typing in a *info command followed by the path of the object in question, which will give you similar information for files.
Kevin Wells has now provided a way to do the latter from the desktop without any need to type, with a new application called InfoFile.
The application presents you with a window onto which you can drag an object, and it will generate a TaskObey file containing a *info command followed by the path to that object. While the data returned that way is no more detailed than the information provided in the ‘About this object’ window, for a directory Kevin’s app appends a ‘.*’ to it – i.e. it adds a wildcard to look at the directory’s contents, so you get that same information for each file contained within, which some people might find handy.
If you find any of Kevin’s software useful, why not consider rewarding him for it by buying some merchandise or with a small contribution.
