Looking to spark your imagination?
Posted by Steve Revill Sun, 26 Feb 2023 11:20:00 GMT
SparkFS is undoubtedly one of the must have RISC OS applications when it comes to working with compressed files/archives, so much so that we’ve bundled a read-only version as part of RISC OS 5 since as far back as 2014.
Having worked closely with David Pilling, SparkFS’ original author, we are very pleased to announce that from today, the full read-write version is now included for free with RISC OS 5.
An image filing system
We often take for granted the way SparkFS presents compressed archives as though they are normal directories in the Filer, entire applications can even be run from within them! A feature that other operating systems still don’t manage to replicate as successfully.
In the battle for archive standards Zip is probably king, but SparkFS’ modular approach means a veritable zoo of other archive formats can be handled and enabled as needed via the Choices dialogue.
Getting SparkFS
The !SparkFS application is available as part of our HardDisc4 disc image or via the RISC OS package manager, PackMan packaging system.
We have released version 1.51, which includes the following new features:
- Directories dragged to the icon bar icon will offer a Save box to compress their contents
- Improved handling of HQX archives
- Standardised decoding of UU coded data from other systems
Open Source
Following a careful audit of over 35,000 lines of source code, interested developers can now also roll up their sleeves and unzip the pockets on its constituent parts. These are hosted in our GitLab server and therefore subject to a host of automated tests when rebuilt every night.
If you’re interested in helping to further develop this fantastic program, there are all kinds of things you might want to squash in, does one of these ideas spark your imagination?
- Ability to rename within a Zip archive
- Decode bzip2 archives by double click or drag
- A compressor/decompressor for 7zip archives
- Support working with files over 2GB in size
- Opening RAR archives
- Support for extra Zip formats, like Deflate64 or encryption
- Extract data from Base64 MIME messages
- Extract data from UNIX shell (“shar”) archives
- Job sharing across multi-core processors to speed up compression/decompression and/or improve multitasking
Future support
On behalf of all RISC OS users we’d like to say tar to David Pilling for writing (and now open sourcing) SparkFS. The version number has jumped to 1.50 to be clear of the last commercial release, and please note that any support questions or bug reports should not be sent to David – please use our bug tracker and forum for assistance.
Fantastic news!
Where would one find the source for the Zip compressor?
Many thanks to David and ROOL :-D
Having just got back from the South West show where ROOL were covering the new SparkFS release in more detail, the short answer is: ran out of time to publish the 9 compressors before Saturday so they live here temporarily. Allowing (say) a day per compressor for admin chores, hopefully those binaries will be phased out over the next week or two.
Tried downloading this (v1.51) and throwing a few zip files at it… Couldn’t get any of them to open… Falling back to 1.46 for now. Is anyone else experiencing the same issue, or am I doing something idiotic??
The default config has the Zip module disabled by default. Go to Choices… in the iconbar menu and put a tick next to Zip then click Save. There’s a change to make Zip be on by default in review but that’s just doing the same as ticking it in the choices.
I am happy to answer technical questions or document things about SparkFS. I raise the possibility of a place to discuss such matters and proposed developments.