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1995-03-09
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MUI Icon Update 1.2 by Robert Poole
1. What is it?
This program is a replacement for Icon Update 3.0 by Gerri Körner.
I found that his program was very awkward to use, and the CLI version
(Icon Update 2.0) was only slightly easier. His program also did
funky things with file/path names which made it impossible to access
some icons. His program also failed to update certain icons because
the write protect bit had been set on that icon and its accompanying
file.
The intent of this program is to take the imagery for a given icon
and replace it with the imagery of some other icon. This has obvious
benefits, if you happen to use MagicWB icons and want to convert
all the icons on your hard drive. The MagicWB package only has
scripts to fix the icons in your Sys: partition, and to replace
drawer icons in your other partitions.
This program does certain "extra" things that might be useful:
It can take a 3-bitplane icon and convert it to an 8-bitplane icon
which displays correctly under AmigaDos 3.x. My program can also
provide icons for files that don't have icons. Although my program
has the string gadgets and file requester popups similar to Icon
Update 3.0, MUI Icon Update provides the user with an AppWindow, so
that specifying filenames is a drag-and-drop operation. My program
also provides a fairly complete ARexx port, so that the user can,
for example, write ARexx scripts to ask MUI Icon Update to change
all the icons in a specific directory, or add icons to a directory
full of files.
2. Usage
Couldn't be easier! All you need to do is specify the "Source"
and "Target" files, make sure you have "checked off" the icon
attributes you wish to preserve in the original icon, and click the
"Start" button. If everything went OK, you should get a success
requester (unless you have disabled it, see below). Error conditions
are reported accurately.
The "Source" is the file whose icon imagery you wish to use. The
"Target" is the file whose icon imagery you wish to update/replace;
if the target doesn't have an icon, then it is the file for which
you want to provide an icon.
Specifying the source and target files can be done by manually
typing the filename (including path) into the appropriate string
gadget; by clicking the "popfile" button next to the string gadget,
which pops up an ASL file requester; or by dragging the file's icon
onto the appropriate drop box (labelled "Drop Here!"). It is OK
to drop icons which are temporarily generated by Workbench (i.e.,
when you select "Show All" from the Workbench menu).
Icon attributes which can be preserved are listed, each with an
accompanying checkbox gadget. Also, the option "Repair Icon
Structure" has its own checkbox gadget, though it is set apart to
indicate that this is not quite the same function as the other
checkbox gadgets perform.
To convert 3-bitplane icons to 8-bitplane icons, use the "Repair
Icon Structure" gadget. Note that 8-bitplane icons are significantly
larger than their 3-bitplane cousins, but 8-bitplanes are required
for correct display under AmigaDos 3.x, especially if you are using
a Workbench screen with more than 8 colors.
If you are sick of the "Update Successful" requester, un-check the
menu option "Display Results?" under the "Settings" menu.
3. Limitations
MUI Icon Update is not designed to operate on Disk.info files, although
you can trick it into operating on them in some specific circumstances.
I would recommend strongly that you simply copy Disk.info icons to the
intended partition, rather than use MUI Icon Update. There is no real
benefit to using MUI Icon Update for this task.
I have made every effort to provide this program with innumerable
sanity checks, for your convenience and safety. This program is
Enforcer tested, and seems to come through with flying colors. If you
have problems, please don't hesitate to contact me. (See below.)
Dropping multiple icons in a drop box won't cause the program to
operate on each of them. Rather, only the last of the group will
have its filename inserted in the appropriate string gadget.
4. History
1.0 -- First version, very simplistic operation, had some Enforcer
hits due to lack of error checking.
1.1 -- Second version, had a slightly improved gadget layout, better
labelling, more sanity checks, menus, additional ARexx
commands beyond the standard MUI ARexx commands, and had
code to detect cases where the target icon was write
protected and circumvent this (legally).
1.2 -- First public release. Has improved ARexx command set, is
smaller, and has more sanity checks. Works fine on drawers
and their icons now. Custom imagery conforms loosely to
MagicWB style.
5. Future
* Have someone design a custom icon for MUI Icon Update. :-)
* Possibly write a custom MUI class so that the imagery inside the
drop box becomes that of the icon dropped on it.
* Possibly add ability to operate on several files at once if the
user drops more than one icon on a drop box. (This one is iffy,
especially since you can do this through ARexx.)
* Look into alternative methods of constructing icons that display
correctly under AmigaDos 3.x.
6. Distribution
This program is giftware. Send me whatever you think is appropriate
as payment, even if it's just email saying, "Hi, I really like your
program!" :-)
Permission is specifically given to Fred Fish to include this archive
in his CD-ROM collection ("Fresh Fish").
The package is freely distributable, providing that certain conditions
are met. You must not modify any of the contents of the archive,
and you must distribute all the original contents of the archive
together. This includes the MUI_IconUpdate binary executable, the
documentation (this file), MUI.readme, and all associated icons and
support files.
I have decided to release source code with this program. I have done
this so that other programmers will have a reasonably good example
of MUI programming to look at. However, you may only recompile these
sources for your own personal use. You may not redistribute modified
versions of the source code, nor may you redistribute binaries
compiled from modified versions of the source code. If you have
any really nifty modifications you've made, send them along to me so
that I can evaluate them and incorporate them into a future release
of MUI Icon Update. I am placing this restriction on the source code
so that I don't have to answer support questions about versions that
I didn't write.
7. Legal
MagicWB is a product of Martin Huttenloher, and he holds all
appropriate trademarks and copyrights.
Icon Update 3.0 is Copyright © 1993 by Gerri Körner
AmigaDos® and AppWindow are trademarks of Commodore-Amiga, Inc.
MUI Icon Update is Copyright © 1994 by Robert Poole, All Rights
Reserved
MUI is Copyright © 1993, 1994 by Stefan Stuntz
All other copyrights and trademarks belong to their respective
owners.
APPENDICES
A. ARexx interface
In addition to the standard MUI ARexx interface, MUI Icon Update
supports these additional commands:
perform
Identical to clicking on the "Start" button.
query GADNAME/A
Query the current state of a checkbox gadget. The name of the
checkbox gadget is required as an argument, but only the first
character of that name is necessary. The state of this checkbox
gadget is returned in the ARexx variable RESULT, and is "true"
if the gadget is checked or "false" if it is not.
source SOURCEFILE/A
Enters the argument SOURCEFILE into the Source string gadget.
target TARGETFILE/A
Enters the argument TARGETFILE into the Target string gadget.
toggle GADNAME/A
Toggle the state of a checkbox gadget. The name of the checkbox
gadget must be supplied as an argument, although only the first
character is needed. The new state of the checkbox gadget is
returned in the ARexx variable RESULT.
B. Contact Information
Mail:
Robert Poole
300 South St. Apt. G5
Vernon, CT 06066
U.S.A.
Email:
pooler@rpi.edu (preferred)
pooler@cs.rpi.edu