Re: Icons of program

[raster redhat com]

On 22 Apr, Toshio Kuratomi shouted:
->  On Wed, 22 Apr, 1998 at 10:51:54AM -0400, raster@redhat.com set free these words:
->  > 
->  > * using icon files is piss-easy to impliment - it's simple, easy, hard
->  > to break (ie the KISS prinicple. Keep It Simple Stupid) so corupt
->  > databases aren't a possability - it also will speed up implimentation
->  > time/development of it.. infact i plan on writing icon
->  > file loading/saving routines into gnome sometime in the near future,
->  > which is why I am paying attention to this thread. Plans are:
->  > Tag/chunk base d9ie extenisble.. ooh sounds like IFF format to me..
->  > (WHEEE amiga formats kick back in), will allow 24bpp,16bpp,or
->  > 8bpp+palette formats for icon images (will see about usng zlib to
->  > compress/decompress) - will have multiple images for an icon staged
->  > with state names so you check for the "normal" state image, the
->  > "selected" state image, the "busy" state image etc. Other chiunks will
->  > be tagged for "tooltypes" (ie options for a command) and "tool" for the
->  > tool to run ont he data file (if its a data file, not an executable) -
->  > since the format is extenisble there isnt much else I have to do - the
->  > routines will allow reading and writing of arbitary chunks of an icon...
->  > Well I'll use Imlib of course for the image stuff... :) Once done
->  > Miguel shoudl have a nice set of routines at his disposal....
->  > 
->  Why?  Or rather -- why not a text file that points to an existing set of
->  images on the system?  (With imlib to do translation, this shouldn't be
->  overly complex :-)
->  + Can use any existing images (readable by imlib).

copyin an icon around then means finign everyhting the iocn file points
to (ie the images) - pain pain pain pain. Trust me. its nto a good
idea.. having ti all packaged up in one bundle is neater.

Imlib coudl read them too. i just nee dmy own decompresseion routinge
to put the data into a24bit buffer and tell imlib to make an imlib
image out of that buffer - so imlib does support you writing your own
loaders.

->  + Don't need special tools to edit the metainfo (text editor for metainfo,
->    image manip. for images.)

library will do the job wuite well - function calls will be there - the
text editor isnt' that useful when the porgrams primarily editing the
icons will be the filemanager and apps for whom a library is easier.

->  + images can be reused for different apps with little file overhead. (saves
->    space)

ture.. one positive point... but the icons wil be REALLY small <5k so
the impact isnt great...

->  + an "icon file" is conceptually wrong: file holds extensible metadata about
->    the file.  The picture just happens to be one piece of information that
->    might be allocated.

well the amiga version wroked pretty damn well and to date i havent
seen a better system - and systems suggested here, form what i can see
and my experience with gui systems for the past 10 years is that the
amiga has the right concept (if we discount the macs special fs for
holdinding icons) .. some details (like icons were planar etc.) were
due to their being designed aroudn the hware they were on and the icon
palette was fixed wiht newicons to replace the old icon library.. but
all in all it was a very nice, compact usableand maintainable system
that worked well and cohesively.

->  - use more inodes (one for meta-data file, several for the images [active
->    inactive, etc.])(But we've got these to spare, right?)

yeah.. but they arent packaged together.. iyou have to thne keep track
of ALL that data when moving it form one system to another etc... its
much easier to have it packed up into a single file to move with the
file that cion represents.. you cna make that icon be used by a new
file by simply renaming the icon file.. :)

->  + It's simpler than implementing a new icon format. (KISSes better :-)

nah.. same amount of work.. i'd still have to write routines to handle
reading int he format and changing it and writign it out.. tis about
the same amount of work. Trust me on this. I've done this several times
already.:) I've learnt form experience. :)

->  -Toshio

-- 
--------------- Codito, ergo sum - "I code, therefore I am" --------------------
raster@rasterman.com       /\___ /\ ___/||\___ ____/|/\___  raster@redhat.com
Carsten Haitzler           | _ //__\\ __||_ __\\ ___|| _ /  Red Hat Advanced
218/21 Conner Drive        || // __ \\_ \ | |   \ _/_|| /   Development Labs
Chapel Hill NC 27514 USA   ||\\\/  \//__/ |_|   /___/||\\   919 547 0012 ext 282
+1 (919) 929 9443, 801 4392   For pure Enlightenmenthttp://www.rasterman.com/