Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!uunet!munnari.oz.au!uhccux!uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu!jlong From: jlong@uhunix1.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu (John Long) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.introduction Subject: Re: Adding Icons to executable files (Was: Re: Basic AmigaDOS questions) Keywords: icons amigados Message-ID: <13444@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu> Date: 13 Jun 91 00:19:06 GMT References: <4004@ux.acs.umn.edu> Sender: news@uhccux.uhcc.Hawaii.Edu Organization: University of Hawaii Lines: 68 In article <4004@ux.acs.umn.edu> mmoore@ux.acs.umn.edu (Malcolm Diallo Moore) writes: >Okay, this mite be a dumb question but... There are 2 kinds of dumb questions: #1. A question you don't ask, because you're afraid of sounding dumb. #2. A question you ask, knowing that the listner doesn't know, so you can give the answer, to show how smart you are. Sorry, your question is not a dumb question ;-) > >Is it possible to generate a .info file for an executable that didn't >have one in the first place, using IconEd? Oui, but there better ways. ------ SIMPLE AND QUICK WAY: From the cli point of view, an icon is a file with the extension 'info' such as foo.info dpaint.info whatever.info and has the name of the object it represents. You gotta use cli, or shell to do this: find an icon of the type you need. i.e. tool, project, etc. (see below on the meaning of tool, project...) make a copy of said info file, naming it for your (tool, project) like this: CLI_Prompt> copy existing.info to newthing.info Presto, you now have an icon for newthing. It will not show up until you close and reopen the disk or drawer in which it is created, and it will be located where the existing icon is. ------- BETTER WAY: Use a PD program called MakeIcon. It will allow you to make an icon from a Deluxe Paint brush. It is on fishdisk #255. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > >And what's the difference between Tool, Project, Disk, etc. Icons? > A tool is a program. A project is a well, project. A data file. A text file, animation, iff picture, etc. What tools make. Every project must be associated with some tool, usually the tool that created it. A drawer is a directory. Place to keep tools and projects. A disk is a disk is a disk. Place to keep drawers. These 4 objects are different kinds of things, and so the info files associated with them have to have different kinds of information in them. Truely, I don't think too highly of the way icons are implemented on the Amiga, and don't like to use them. I throw them away and eschew the workbench. Icons on the amiga aren't as smart as mac's icons, they get in the way, projects lose touch with their tools, they waste space on the screen. I like the *idea* behind icons, but I find that they are a lot more useful on the mac, where you *have* to deal with them. I think that an alternative GUI to the workbench is a viable idea. I notice that old-timers seldom use workbench. Do yourself a favor and learn cli. Do yourself 2 favors and get one of the unix like shell programs and learn unix at the same time. If you know how to get around unix, you can use csh.xxx and you won't have to learn a thing! Aloha, -LongJohn