OS/2 Shareware BBS: 18 REXX/18-REXX.zip/ADDICO11.ZIP/ADDICON.DOC

Text File | 1992-07-27 | 8KB | 174 lines

Documentation for AddIcon Version 1.1
by Timothy F. Sipples (Internet: [e-mail])
July 11, 1992

Modified by Michael J. Strasser (Internet: [e-mail])
July 27, 1992

Copyright 1992 by Timothy F. Sipples

This utility may be freely distributed with all included files.
For-profit (commercial) users, in lieu of a license fee, are asked to
donate US $1.00 (or equivalent in local currency) per copy of AddIcon
installed to a favorite, nonprofit charity.

The following three files are included in this ADDICON package:

ADDICON.DOC    The file you are reading right now.
ADDICON.CMD    The AddIcon REXX program itself.
ADDICON.ICO    An icon for ADDICON.CMD (see below).

AddIcon is written in REXX and runs under IBM OS/2 Version 2.0 or later.
This release of OS/2 incorporates a highly graphical environment called
the Workplace Shell.

Using the drive objects, users are permitted to manipulate the files
on the system.  Each file can be represented by an icon.  With Windows
and OS/2 program files, and some data files, a pre-built icon is
available so that Icon View displays colorful, useful icons.

However, with many other program and data files, OS/2 uses a default,
colorless icon.  (For an example, open an Icon View for the root
directory in which OS/2 is installed.  The OS/2 README file will display
with an icon that is not much more than a rectangle.)

To easily distinguish between files it is often useful to attach an icon.
OS/2 provides a method of doing so from the Workplace Shell.  (From
any open directory window from any drive object, select the file for
which you wish to change the icon, click on it with mouse button two,
then select Open -> Settings.  Click on the General tab, then use the
provided controls to change the icon.)  However, this method is not
helpful when one wishes to attach icons to large numbers of files at
once.  Also, some users prefer a command line method.

AddIcon can attach icons from the command line using a simple REXX
function.  The icon file (ending in .ICO) must be in OS/2 format.
It can be created by the OS/2 Icon Editor (that ships with OS/2 2.0),
supplied by a software vendor, or even downloaded from a BBS or
online service.  [Icons created for Microsoft Windows 3.x can be
converted to OS/2 format using the CVTICO utility, available from many
OS/2 BBSes and online services.  (CVTICO is not supplied here.)  Or
see below for another method.]

To run AddIcon, open an OS/2 command line session (either full screen
or windowed).  At the command line prompt, type:

x:\path\ADDICON x:\path\iconfile x:\path\filename

where "x" is the appropriate drive letter (optional, as required);
      "path" is the appropriate path (optional, as required);
      iconfile is the name of the icon file (e.g. DOC.ICO);
      filename is the name of the file to which the icon is to be
           attached (e.g. TEST.TXT).

Examples:

ADDICON C:\ICONS\DOC.ICO TEST.TXT

Attaches the icon DOC.ICO, located in C:\ICONS, to the file TEST.TXT,
located on the current drive in the current directory.

ADDICON GRAPH.ICO \DATA\YEAREND\NUMBERS.WK3

Attaches the icon GRAPH.ICO, located on the current drive in the
current directory, to the file NUMBERS.WK3, located on the current
drive in the directory \DATA\YEAREND.

When ADDICON is run without any arguments, a help screen is displayed.

AddIcon places the icon data in the file's extended attributes.  On FAT
partitions these extended attributes are located in the file EA DATA. SF
(in the root directory).  On HPFS partitions these extended attributes
are stored contiguously with the file.

File operations which do not preserve extended attributes will destroy
the icon data, and the icon will have to be reattached.  For example,
when running under native DOS (without OS/2 running), COPYing a file
with extended attributes will not COPY the extended attributes along
with it.

Icon data may be removed from a file (under OS/2) by removing the
extended attributes (and storing them in a separate file).  To do so,
use the EAUTIL program (see the online Command Reference for information
on this utility).  Note that an icon is not necessarily the only thing
stored in extended attributes, and sometimes a program (or even OS/2
itself) depends on other, specific extended attribute data, so use
EAUTIL with caution.  You may wish to merely change the existing icon
by using AddIcon again rather than deleting all extended attributes
for the file.

IMPORTANT:  Using AddIcon to attach an icon to a file may not result
in an immediate change in the appearance of the file when viewed
through the drive objects.  A Shutdown and reboot may be necessary
for the change to appear.

AddIcon supports wildcards and multiple filespecs.  Each is processed
in turn.  Only one icon file can be attached in each call of AddIcon.

If you do not wish to create icon files by hand (using OS/2's Icon
Editor), you may extract any icon used as the default program icon
for any Windows or OS/2 Presentation Manager program.  To do so, first
open the Templates folder and drag (using mouse button two) a
Program template from the folder to any convenient folder (or to
the desktop).  A notebook settings dialog window should open
automatically.  In the program name box, type the full pathname to
the program (for example, C:\LOTUS\123G.EXE).  Then click on the
General tab.  If the icon you wish to save to an icon file displays
correctly, click on the Edit button.  If not, go back to the first
page and correct the program name.

When you click on the Edit button the Icon Editor should start and
display the program icon.  Select File -> Save As.  Save the icon
to a file (e.g. C:\ICONS\LOTUS.ICO).  Make sure you select OS/2 2.0
format when you save the file.  Then, close the Icon Editor.  Close
the notebook settings dialog window.  Then drag the program object
to the Shredder (unless you wish to keep it for some reason).

Bear in mind that icons do take up some disk space, so use some
judgment.  Note that OS/2 2.0 CSD Level 02000 (use the command
SYSLEVEL from the OS/2 command line to determine the CSD level)
contains a bug which prevents proper display, using the drive
objects, of any directory with a large number of icons (in the
hundreds).  To avoid this problem you should place no more than about
200 icon files in any one directory.

CSD Level 02000 also contains some problems with the REXX interpreter.
You may wish to obtain the freely available REXX patches available
from IBM (through BBSes and online services).

This package contains a VGA resolution icon in OS/2 2.0 format for
AddIcon itself.  Assuming all the files in the AddIcon package are
located on the current drive in the current directory you may attach
this icon to ADDICON.CMD by typing the following commands at the
OS/2 command line:

COPY ADDICON.CMD ADDICON.TMP
ADDICON ADDICON.ICO ADDICON.TMP
DEL ADDICON.CMD
RENAME ADDICON.TMP ADDICON.CMD

AddIcon could conceivably be used as a program object on the Workplace
Shell desktop (so that, for example, dragging a file to the AddIcon
program object would attach a certain icon).  Also, AddIcon could be
used to automatically attach icons to data files as part of running
an application.  Using a batch file to invoke the application, upon
exit from the application AddIcon could be called to attach icons
to all data files in a given directory, for example.  The graphics
cut and paste facility, and OS/2's Icon Editor, can be used to easily
create icons from graphical DOS programs.  I leave it up to the reader
to try these approaches.

I welcome your comments on suggestions on how to improve AddIcon.
Please write to me through the Internet address given at the top
of this file or, if you prefer, you may write to:

Timothy F. Sipples
Dept. of Economics
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL  60637

I cannot guarantee a response to your questions, comments, and
suggestions, but I would appreciate them.

T.F.S.