Re: [AD] Proposal for a set_icon function

[George Foot <gfoot@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Aug 06, 2001 at 02:34:07PM -0400, Chris La Mantia wrote:
> int set_app_icon(void *icon, int icontype, int w, int h, int depth)
> 
> where icontype specifies the source as, say, ICON_ALLEGBITMAP or
> ICON_WINDOWS, w and h specify the dimentions for those platforms that
> require it, and depth specifies the color depth for those platforms that
> require it.  This way we can either use Allegro bitmaps or icons stored as
> Windows resources, or Mac resources, or whatever the native icon resource is
> for a platform...

Generally, I'd say the most useful thing there is using an
Allegro bitmap -- anything else is platform-dependent so, if
possible using standard API routines, might as well be done by
the user directly.  Aside from image conversion, which could be
useful.

I don't know whether people actually care very much what their
icon is when they're running though -- it doesn't appear in many
places.  In the old days it used to appear on the desktop, but
not any more; the only place I know where you get a full-sized
icon is in the Alt-Tab task switching box, and you get
half-sized icons on the bar thing at the bottom of the screen
and possibly as your control menu icon?  I don't remember.

What most people want regarding icons is probably to be able to
attach them to the executable.  Maybe there's more demand for a
utility program which converts an Allegro bitmap into an
OS-specific icon (scaling it and converting colour depth if
required) so you can attach it.  I don't know how to attach in
other OSes, and in Windows it varies between compilers, so even
this is of limited use (you still need a load of OS and compiler
specific commands to actually attach it, so it's not fully
automated).  Simply converting the format is quite useful,
though there's bound to be a utility online which already does
this, surely? :)

George

-- 
Random project update:
07/06/2001: Libnet 0.10.9 uploaded -- 13 months after 0.10.8!  Oops.
        http://www.canvaslink.com/libnet/  (try changes-0.10.9.txt)