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OS/2 Shareware BBS: 25 Icons
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00READ.ME
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1989-09-04
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Hi,
This file was created by Kevin Lowey, sysop of Fidonet node 140/43,
LOWEY.SASK.USASK.CA on Internet. The file describes how to use the .ICO
files in this archive to create Presentation Manager icons for full
screen programs. It was added to the original distribution of .ICO
files (which was NOT created by me) so that people would know how to use
the .ICO files. This file was NOT a part of the original distribution.
OS/2 has two types of programs. Presentation Manager programs are
applications designed for the OS/2 Presentation Manager found in OS/2
version 1.1 and higher. Full Screen applications ignore the
Presentation manager and do everything using the full screen.
The OS/2 Presentation Manager has the ability to run most full-screen
applications in a "text window". This is a window that can be moved on
the screen, re-sized, etc. just like any other Presentation Manager
window. It can also be shrunk down into an Icon to give you more room
on the desktop.
True Presentation Manager applications include the icon as part of the
program, however, since Full Screen applications don't know anything
about Presentation Manager, they also don't know anything about Icons.
By default, when a text window is minimized to an Icon, you get a
"blank screen" icon. Unfortunately, if you have many different programs
running in various text windows, such as Kermit for OS/2 in one window
and MicroEMACS in another, there is no way of telling them apart by
looking at these "blank screen" icons.
OS/2 provides a solution to this using .ICO files. A number of these
have been included in this archive. These are files which describes an
icon to OS/2. OS/2 associates this icon with the executable file in the
same directory as the .ICO file with the same first name as the .ICO
file. In this way we can use the .ICO files to create icons for
programs not originally written for the Presentation Manager.
Below is an example of using these Icons. I'll assume you wish to use
the TYPEWRIT.ICO file (a picture of a typewriter) as the icon to
represent the MicroEMACS editor (in the file c:\OS2PRG\EMACS.EXE). To
simplify the example, I'll assume that the .ICO files are stored on a
floppy diskette on drive a:.
1) From Presentation Manager, start up either the Windowed or Full-Screen
OS/2 command prompt.
2) Copy the desired .ICO file from the floppy diskette. Rename it as you
copy so the first part of the name is the same as the .EXE file you
wish to execute. Be sure to copy the .ICO file into the same directory
as the .EXE file you want the icon to be associated with.
COPY A:TYPEWRIT.ICO C:\OS2PRG\EMACS.ICO
3) Return to the Presentation Manager by typing EXIT.
4) Install the application (EMACS in this case) into your "Start Programs"
menu. Tell "Start Programs" that the program should run in a text window.
(See your OS/2 manuals for more details on installing applications in the
Start Programs menus)
That's all there is to it. Now you can either use the "start" command
from the STARTUP.CMD file to start the EMACS program automatically at
boot time, or you can select the EMACS editor from the Start Programs
menu. When you minimize the program into an icon, the icon described
by the .ICO file will be displayed.
IN SUMMARY
For the .ICO files to work, remember the following:
1) It only works with .EXE or .COM files (NOT .CMD files)
2) The .ICO file must be in the same directory as the .EXE or .COM file.
3) The .ICO file will only work when using the START command or when
selecting a file from the START PROGRAMS menu. It will not use that
icon if it is run from the OS/2 Windowed Command Prompt. (When you
minimize a program running in the Windowed command prompt, you are
actually minimizing the Windowed Command prompt, so you get its
"blank screen" icon, not the icon of the application running within it).
-- Kevin Lowey