HERMES' ICONLAB (Version 1.2)
Copyright (c) 1988-89 A. G. Kartsatos
*** Commercial Demo ***
TO RUN IT IMMEDIATELY:
CLI: PRESS "ICONLAB" or "RUN ICONLAB".
WORKBENCH: CLICK into the ICONLAB icon.
TO EXIT: PRESS the TAB KEY or CLICK into the LONG RECTANGLE
at the BOTTOM RIGHT of the screen. To exit
from a LARGE ICON JUST CLICK INTO IT.
TO REFRESH THE FILE LISTING:
CLICK INTO THE RED RECTANGLE AT THE BOTTOM OF THE
VERTICAL GADGET.
ATTENTION: To EXIT from any screen press the "Q" or the TAB key.
If a low memory mory situation does not allow you to use
the menu, this might be the only way.
This is the definitive work on icons on the Amiga computer. It allows
the user to perform the following functions:
CHANGE AND SAVE AN ICON'S CHARACTERISTICS (ICON TYPE, HIGHLIGHTING,
DEFAULT TOOL, TOOL TYPES, STACK)
SPLIT ICONS
JOIN ICONS
SHOW BRUSHES AS ICONS (What they would look like if you made icons out
them. They are shown in your personal Workbench
colors and MEDIUM resolution)
SHOW BRUSHES AS IFF PICTURES
SAVE ANY IFF BRUSHES AS ICONS
VIEW AND SAVE ICONS IN EIGHT COLORS
CHANGE THE RESOLUTION OF A BRUSH
CUT ICONS FROM IFF PICTURES
SAVE ANY ICONS AS IFF BRUSHES
It works with any size icons and/or brushes including sizes that fill
the entire screen.
To LOAD an ICON, just click into its name on the left and then click
into the ICON gadget.
To VIEW A BRUSH or an IFF PICTURE, just click into its name on the left
and then click into the IFF gadget.
GADGETS:
9 DRIVES:
The nine DRIVE gadgets on the left allow you to attach to anyone of those
drives. If you don't have VD0:, or VDK, or any one of the other drives,
it does not matter.
The program starts by attaching first to your RAM: volume. From then
on you can attach to any of 9 drives listed by clicking into them. You
can also attach to any drive/directory by entering it into the DRAWER gadget
and then pressing return.
PARENT: This gadget allows you to attach to the parent directory, if
you are not already at the top.
ICON: The ICON gadget loads an icon into the large rectangular area
on the right. If the icon is bigger than that area, it auto-
matically gets loaded into its own window. Before you load
an icon, you must click into its name (ending with .info)
first.
SAVE: You may change the following characteristics of an icon:
ICON TYPE,
HIGHLIGHTING,
DEFAULT TOOL,
TOOL TYPES,
STACK
You should always use the up/down arrows to change the para-
meters in ICON TYPE and HIGHLIGHTING. You can thus change
ANY icon type to ANY other icon type very easily. Do not alter
the highlighting to IMAGE if the icon does not already have an
ALTERNATE image. Remember: if you change the ICON TYPE to
DISK and its name is disk.info, you usually need to reboot
in order to see the icon on the Workbench.
The SAVE gadget saves the icon to the pathname given by the
user in the DRAWER/FILE gadgets. The program does check to
see if the volume/directory in the DRAWER gadget exists.
Make sure that the parameters on the right are the ones that
you actually want to save. Again, use the ADD and DEL gadgets
in order to ADD and DELETE TOOL TYPES, respectively.
Otherwise your icons will not be saved right.
TOGGLE: Toggles between the main and the alternate image of the icon
that has been loaded.
DELETE: Deletes the file whose pathname is in the DRAWER/FILE gadgets.
ATTENTION: (1) If your icon is TOO BIG, its window will not have a
TOGGLE and an EXIT gadget. Just PRESS "T" or "t" to see its
alternate icon and "Q" or "q" or TAB to exit into the main
window.
(2) If you get the message: "Cannot Open The Icon Window",
EXIT the program because you do not have enough memory left
to open a large icon's window.
(3) Just click inot the Brush Data and Icon Data windows in
order to close them. They will not get off your screen by
themselves.
(4) You can move a brush around by using the four arrow keys
besides the four menu-suggested key combinations.
FURTHER GADGETS:
(1) SPLIT: SPLITTING an icon, means creating an icon whose image
is the alternate image of the given icon. Thus, you
CAN ONLY SPLIT ICONS WITH TWO IMAGES.
LOAD an icon and click into the SPLIT gadget. If the
icon has two images, you will be asked to enter the
name of the new icon (whose image will be second image
of the loaded icon). Enter a valid pathname, like
DF0:Baby, or DH1:Hello/Baby, or just Baby. You don't
need to add .info at the end. The program will do
that for you. But, if you do add .info, no problem.
Now, if you want AN ICON WITH THE FIRST IMAGE OF THE
LOADED ICON, just save the present icon with high-
lighting BACKFILL or COMPLEMENT, but not IMAGE.
(2) JOIN: JOINING TWO ICONS, means creating a new icon with
images from both icons. For example, let's say you
have two icons with names Baby.info and Fires.info.
You want to make a new icon whose first image is
the first image of Baby.info and its second image is
the first image of Fires.info. Thus, you want to cre-
ate a two-image icon from the first images of the two
given icons. Let's say the name of the resulting icon
is DF1:BabyFires.info. Here is how you do it:
1. LOAD the icon Baby.info by clicking into ICON.
2. Click into the JOIN gadget.
3. Enter the name DF1:BabyFires in the requestor
gadget.
4. Enter a valid pathname for the resulting "joined
icon" in the requestor gadget.
That's it! The program will inform you as to whether
your new icon has been created.
(3) B-->I: This means BRUSH TO ICON. You use this gadget to
create an icon from a given brush. A brush is just
your usual IFF picture with dimensions smaller
than those of the normal IFF's. For example a brush
can have width 50 and height 125, but regular IFF
files start at width 320 and height 200.
You CAN SAVE ANY BRUSH INTO AN ICON! This includes
even overscan pictures. But REMEMBER: The icon will
carry the colors of your Workbench and MEDIUM resolu-
tion (the normal Workbench resolution). To see what
your icon would look like (coming out of a brush), use
the ICON option of the IFF gadget.
To use BRUSH TO ICON, just click into a BRUSH/IFF file
name on the left and then click into the B-->I gadget.
If the file is legitimate, the program will ask you
for the name of the resulting file. Enter a legiti-
mate file name (you can include paths) and there is
your icon!
(4) IFF: This gadget allows you to view a BRUSH (or any IFF
picture) in two ways:
1. You can view it as an ICON (Disabled in the
demo version).
This means that you can view your brush or IFF in the
colors of your Workbench and MEDIUM resolution.
MEDIUM is the resolution of a normal Workbench.
Thus, no matter what the resolution or size of your
IFF is, you'll see it as if you had created an ICON
from it. This you can certainly do with the next
gadget.
2. You can view it as an IFF file. Well, you know
what this means: You view the brush/picture in its
own colors. However, if the brush is an incomplete
IFF file, the program does its best to compute its
resolution. If you feel that the resolution of the
loaded brush is not right, you can change it by using
the second menu items on the picture screen. The
IFF files/brushes we are talking about here, could be
OVERSCAN pictures in any resolution. Naturally, if
the picture is a 4-color MEDIUM resolution one, the
ICON viewing is identical to the IFF viewing, except
for the fact that a brush will be centered on your
screen.
Now, take notice of the fact that when you show a
HIRES (640x400) picture as a MEDRES (640x200) picture,
you loose the lower 200 lines! So, don't be
surprised when this takes place with HIRES pictures
shown as MEDRES. Analogous situations appear with
other resolutions.
Just click into the file name on the left, and then
click into the IFF gadget. If your file is a legiti-
mate IFF/BRUSH file, a requestor will ask you whether
you want to view it as an IFF picture or as an ICON.
The PANIC button on the brush window allows the prog-
ram to attempt to read the picture as a last resort.
It reads it as an overscan low resolution picture.
To exit, just click into the screen.
This is the Commercial Demo of the program. To receive a copy of the
complete program, PLEASE SEND $30.00 TO:
A. G. Kartsatos
8524 Caladesi Island Drive
Temple Terrace, FL 33637-7310, USA
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FOR SUPPORT, call HERMES BBS in Tampa, FL, USA. It is a
private bulletin board with 1600 files online and a healthy message base.
HERMES BBS Telephone: 813-985-7624 (PC Pursuitable).
DISCLAIMER: The usual disclaimers concerning computer software apply
to this product.
Although this program has been tested extensively for its accuracy and
reliability, the author will accept no liability whatsoever for damage
resulting from the use, misuse, or excessive use of it.
