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Messages - David Graser

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1
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: December 01, 2023, 11:52:05 pm »
Update:

Added Rich's two fixes to the txt file.  Now folders are working much better.

Found some more small errors and fixed

More icons coming.  It seems the hardest PNG icon for me to make was the info and help books.  Although not perfect, it is far better than the old system icons.

Make new PMNVC icons.  New Netdrive icons.  More system folders created.  A couple of new Styler and XWP icons.

Working on rearrange the bigicon.txt file.  What a mess.  I don't know if I am making it better or worse.

It is going to be a few more day before the new release.  Enjoy Warpstock in the meantime.

2
Applications / ArcaOS is the best multitasking system there is
« on: November 30, 2023, 06:01:59 am »
While developing and testing the BigIcons, I took advantage of the systems mutitasking environment.  I had XPager set up for 5  desktops or rooms or whatever you want to call them.  I had FM/2 opened in the first, the second desktop ready to use another instance of FM/2 or PMView when needed, PMView in the third, Small (a text editor I purchased over 20 years ago in the fourth, with the 5th used to open folders and properties to get and check info, along with restarting the desktop.

I discovered you can only restart the desktop approximately 10 times before XPager disappears and the system has to be rebooted.  I can't imagine trying to do what I did under Windows.  What I did in 2 weeks, it would have be months under Windows.  As it was, I worked around 10 hours or more each day to get it to the presently level.  The wife wasn't happy.

3
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 30, 2023, 05:32:32 am »
Attached is the latest containing all the necessary files and the bigicons.txt.

The easiest thing to do is rename your original bigicons directory to something else.

Make a new bigicons directory and unzip and copy all the files to it.  Then follow the previous instructions mentioned earlier.

If you installed the earlier version of my PNG folders by doing it individually, you will have to reset each folder ( both open and closed for the folder changes to take effect.  This is still a work in progress, but now I can do it at a leisurely pace.

By the way Rich, thanks for everything!  After using the PNGs, and switching back and forth, I much prefer the PNGs. 

There are over 500 PNG icons, Guessing, at least 480 are being used.


4
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 29, 2023, 11:36:27 pm »
I just finished some DFSee icons.  Once I add these to the script and check for errors, I may upload.  Tons of corrections in the bigicons.txt.

This may be about 90% finished.  Need to arrange the bigicons.txt file better.  There are still some issues.  The arca command prompt shows for for some icons that don't a png icon.  The KLIBC icons will not update in the systems setup folder.  The bitmaps folder and one other have no asssigned id, so can't update.  Common unassigned folder and text continue to show the old ugly OS/2 icons.

Other than that, it is working well. Up to aroound 470 PNGs

Wait one more day and the new pngs and new txt will be uploaded.  I think Rich or someone smarter than me may have to correct what I can't.

5
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 29, 2023, 04:13:40 pm »
Rich, is there a way in the bigicons.txt file to use one icon file for all icons to use that are not assigned an icon.

For unassigned txt files, is there a setting for the system to look at?

The same for URL text files.

For unassigned folders.

I noticed these keep the Original OS/2 icon.

6
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 28, 2023, 04:25:15 am »
As you stated Rich, I needed to open the folder properties and reset each icon.  I guess this is due to the fact that I had individually install all the previous PNG folder icons.

7
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 27, 2023, 11:41:04 pm »
I then selected Use custom icons and and Dynamic setting it to 56, closed and rebooted.
Nothing changed. The text was still named bigicons.txt.

The filename must not be changed.

Quote
I was wonder if this feature was ever tested.

Yes, both at the time of its inclusion in AOS 5.0, and within the last week in response to your postings. WFM.

I replaced my copy of 'bigicons.txt' with yours, then restarted the WPS. Entries that you hadn't changed, such as folders, font palette, and color palette, all came up with the appropriate PNG icon.

It occurs to me that you had previously been replacing icons manually on an object-by-object basis. Doing so would override any changes you've made to the defaults. Have you tried pressing the "Reset icon" button that's displayed when 'png' is selected? Also, the "Browse" button should bring up a file selection dialog that points at the currently active 'bigicons' directory. Does it point at the correct directory?

If problems persist, perhaps you could post a representative sample of your icons (10-20) for objects I'm likely to have, such as stuff in System Setup. This would let me do more comprehensive testing.
Hi Rich
 
I have attached some of the icons including an update bigicons.txt which corrects a lot of the mistakes I made.  I have attached new startup folder icons, network icons. command prompt icons, drive icons, and others.  I also include some folders.  I have yet to get folder icons to update.

Also, a peek the new icons.  This is a work in progress..

8
Programming / Re: Bigicons
« on: November 27, 2023, 06:56:05 am »
OK, I tried it on a different partition and this time some of the icons were replaced, but not many.   There must be major problems with that other partition that will require me to reinstall when I have time.  It appears that a lot of program icons were replaced, but none of the folder icons.
 
Further examination reveals the pro.gram icons are changing except for the ones that are missing or named incorrectly.  Not one folder icon changed. There appears to be a problem with folders changing.


9
Programming / Bigicons
« on: November 27, 2023, 04:44:33 am »
I decided to do a test to see how well the new icons are looking.

I copied my new icons to drive:\sys\icons

The new folder name is DGYellowIcons

I changed the bigicons path in the config.sys file to
SET BIGICONS=D:\SYS\ICONS\DGYELLOWICONS

I opened the System Setup folder
Selected the WPShell icon

Selected the last tab for Icon Size

I then selected Use custom icons and and Dynamic setting it to 56, closed and rebooted.

Nothing changed.  The text was still named bigicons.txt.  I then changed it to dgyellowicons.txt, rebooted and still no change.  I was wonder if this feature was ever tested.  I also rename my dgyellowicons folder to bigicons to see if that helped which it did not.

Rich, any ideas?  There are now over 400 :png icons and with lots more to do.

Note:  There were some items in the txt file I had no clue what they were.  I used the ; to comment them out for now.

I have attached the txt to see if it is the problem.

10
I noticed all the icons listed are not in the bigicons folder.

That figures - it was always a mess. (Don't blame me :) I worked on the code, someone else handled the icons). I see it has been cleaned up a bit but still needs work.

Basically, don't worry about what's in the BIGICONS folder or in 'bigicons.txt'. Consider it a blank slate you can use to do whatever you want. Make a copy then delete stuff you don't want to support and add stuff you do - not just programs but WPS classes and file types too. It's your choice, not "theirs"...

To make things easier, open 'config.sys' and locate "SET BIGICONS=", then change the path to point at your icons folder. While your folder can be anywhere, the final product (say, 'DGicons') should probably go in 'x:\sys\icons' for consistency.

Update:

It will be a few more weeks until I have something to test.  Everything was such a mess, I can see why it hasn't gone much further.

I have made lots and lots of new PNGs to replace the icons that have no PNG equivalent.  Making entries in the script for system objects that were not included along with new PNGs..  Still working on the text structure to something more easier to work with.  Renaming icons so a person can know what icon it affects.

Now up to 323 PNG icons from a little over 200. I am thinking it may be close to 400 pngs when I am done.

I was wondering, if problems occur after testing, can I boot up and replace with an earlier WPShell backup before testing with another script?

Can one add comments to the text like one does with rexx scripts?

11
PNGs can be used if Dynamic icons are selected in the folder properties menu. There is no default PNG for each folder and icon.  You have to manually select a PNG for a PNG to be used for each program object or folder..

David, it's far simpler and "automated" than that. In x\SYS\ICONS\BIGICONS there are over 200 png icons. Their use is controlled by 'bigicons.txt' (also in that directory). It's broken down into categories like WPS class, file type, object ID, etc. Make a backup copy then have at it (you may want to deliver a customized version with your png icon sets).

To get custom icons enabled, goto 'System Setup->Workplace Shell->Icon Size' (it's the very last tab) and check "Use custom icons". On that page, you can also make Dynamic icons the default and set the default size. You have to restart for custom icons to kick in. The other settings are live and happen immediately.

Note: the "default" default size produces icons whose physical size is the same as they would be if you were running your display at 1024*768. For example, at 1920*1080 you need a 56*56 pixel icon to get the same physical size you'd get at 1024*768 using a 40 pixel icon. At UHD (3840*2160), icons have to be 112 pixels to be that size.
Rich, it may be some time before I have anything ready to try.  I noticed all the icons listed are not in the bigicons folder.  The folders are easy.  It is the other icons.  Building pngs I don't see  takes time.  If I am right, I can even add more program icons to the text and these icons won't be available unless the program is installed.  I am also reducing the icons to 80x80.  This is a good middle of the road size to lower or increase.

Here is what I am doing.
Resizing icons
Making new icons
renaming to reflect the size and make icon search more easier
rearranging some of the text to make things easier to find and updating the icon names
Then when finished, I have to hope everything works.  I am a bad typist, mistakes will be made

I backed up the old big icons folder.

The new bigicons folder will contain all the newly updated pngs.  I started with the yellow folder set although I like the red and black also.  Once the icons other than folders are complete, it should be a lot easier make other folder sets.

Question.  There seems to be a lot of repetition on the open office icons.  There are all kinds of different icon names using the same icons.  It seems a lot of these are repetition.  Is it me or is there a reason for this?

12
Martin, hi.  I see this topic has been idle for a while.  Still, the process of restoring archived eCS-2 material to my new AOS-5.1 system has suggested a couple of ideas.

1) Icons have switched from *.ICO to *.PNG, meaning it's complicated to re-use old designs I have come to know and like.  PNG is a good format, mind (as it should be, considering its illustrious parentage, NASA &c) but maybe there could be an outwardly simple CLI tool (cf XCOPY, ATTRIB &c) which converts ICO to PNG?  Ok, I once had to write code that generated PNG (of heat flow diagrams, FWIW) but left out compression, using PMView for that if I wanted to keep images, so I realise what I'm asking is not trivial.

2)  I have long felt it'd be handy if chains of open directories could start with the top level header bar being given a distinctive colour which its children would copy.  How about three or four tiny coloured rectangles at one end of the top header: a click activates that colour (temporarily), while a double click invokes a colour palette.

Anyhow, there's some wishing for folks to ponder.  Meanwhile, thanks for sterling efforts invested so far.
Hi Andrew

I see that you aren’t that familiar with ArcaOS yet. The default is the use of icons.  PNGs can be used if Dynamic icons are selected in the folder properties menu. There is no default PNG for each folder and icon.  You have to manually select a PNG for a PNG to be used for each program object or folder.  Otherwise, an icon is used.  In eCS, you had both icon themes and PNGs themes that could be applied if I remember correctly.  In ArcaOS, only the icon themes can be applied. Presently, there is no way to apply a PNG theme to the WPS.

13
Applications / Re: HyperAccess 7
« on: November 16, 2023, 03:12:24 pm »
I have not used a floppy drive in years, but I believe I have seen this error message before. If I remember correctly, it needs the temporary folders to be on Drive C.

14
Networking / Re: arcmapper
« on: November 15, 2023, 11:29:42 pm »
If using XWP, open the desktop properties page, select the Startup page, and check

Write WPS start.log file

Show WPS classs initialization

At he bottom, you can set an XWP startup folder startup delay in seconds.  I normal install XWP startup folder and move the programs from the regular startup folder to it.

15
Programming / Re: Copying text strings to AOS-5.1 clipboard in 'C'
« on: November 15, 2023, 09:58:40 pm »
I am no programmer. this site contains all the API info.

http://www.edm2.com/os2api/

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