What is a binfilter?

Question

OpenOffice.org download options page lists a source archive file named "binfilter".

What is a binfilter?

Answer 1

It has to do with the file formats supported, check here for more information about it: http://framework.openoffice.org/binfilter.html

Is has been obsolete since OOo 1.1 and should be downloaded separately.

Answer 2

From the framework wiki page:

Binary Filters provides the import / export filters for the old StarOffice file formats.

So, in short, it provides the ability to open older binary StarOffice file formats which are now obsolete.