The Window Manager RISC OS System Icons
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» Part 7 - The Desktop
» The Window Manager
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» RISC OS System Icons
Overview
In RISC OS 2 the Wimp provided support for numerous screen resolutions and colour depths. In RISC OS 3 it became possible to use alternative sprites for system icons.
The system icons (title bar, close icon, scroll bars etc…) can easily be customized.
Please note: This document assumes RISC OS 3 or above.
Icon Sets
So that system icons look as well as possible regardless of screen mode, up to four different sets of system icons may be provided, each tailored to a particular resolution and colour depth.
The four sets of system area icons are:
|<^. # |<^. Name |<^. DPI |_<^. Standard Dimensions |<^. 16 Cols |<^. 256 Cols |<^. 32K/16M Cols |
|<^. 1 |<^. !Sprites|<^. 90 × 45 |<^. 34 × 17 |<^. 12 |<^. 15|<^. new format |
|<^. 2 |<^. !Sprites22 |<^. 90 × 90 |<^. 34 × 34|<^. 20 or 27|<^. 21 or 28|<^. new format |
|<^. 3 |<^. !Sprites23 |\5=^{background:#ccc}. (obsolete hi res mono mode 23)|
|<^. 4 |<^. !Sprites11 |<^. 180 × 180 |<^. 68 × 68 |<^. new format |<^. new format |<^. new format|
Note: Sprites with a full alpha mask do not currently work on RISC OS 5.xx and should be avoided.
Each set of system icons should based on the same ‘look and feel’, and be designed for optimised appearance in a specific screen mode.
The minimum requirement is the !Sprites file, and the Wimp will fall back to this icon set if no other can be found.
RISC OS automatically decides which sprite set to use by checking the nx and ny values of the current screen mode and using these returned values as a suffix to the !Sprites file to load (see above).
The code below returns the nx and ny suffix.
"Wimp_ReadSysInfo", 2
Thus a returned value of 11 would mean that the Wimp would automatically try to load !Sprites11, and fall back to !Sprites if no such file existed.
Naming Convention
Each system icon has a special name.
For sake of simplicity, the icons will be grouped by where they are shown within a window. Thus:
| 1 | Top Bar consisting of the Title Bar, Close Icon, Back Icon etc… |
| 2 | Vertical Scroll Bar |
| 3 | Horizontal Scroll Bar |
Top Bar Icons
| Description | Un-clicked | Clicked | Plot Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Back icon | bicon | pbicon | 1st |
| Close icon | cicon | pcicon | 2nd |
| Title bar (left end cap) | tbarlcap | ptbarlcap | 3rd |
| Title bar1 (middle bottom) | tbarmidb | ptbarmidb | 4th |
| Title bar1 (middle top) | tbarmidt | ptbarmidt | 5th |
| Title bar (right end cap) | tbarrcap | ptbarrcap | 6th |
| Iconize icon | iicon | piicon | 7th |
Notes:
- All these icons have the same height with the exception of Title Bar middle sprites.
- Title bars on window menus are drawn using the same sprites as those for windows.
Vertical Scroll Bar
| Description | Un-clicked | Clicked | Plot Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scroll Up Arrow | uicon | puicon | 1st |
| Scroll Down Arrow | dicon | pdicon | 2nd |
| Page Down Area (end cap) | vwellbcap | - | 3rd |
| Page Down Area (section) | vwellb | - | 4th |
| Slider (bottom end cap) | vbarb | pvbarb | 5th |
| Slider (middle section) | vbarmid | pvbarmid | 6th |
| Slider (top end cap) | vbart | pvbart | 7th |
| Page Up Area (section) | vwellt | - | 8rd |
| Page Up Area (end cap) | vwelltcap | - | 9nd |
| Toggle Size icon2 | ticon, ticon1 | pticon, pticon1 | 10th |
| Adjust Size icon3 | sicon, blicon | psicon | 11th |
Note: All these icons have the same width.
Horizontal Scroll Bar
| Description | Un-clicked | Clicked | Plot Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scroll Left Arrow | licon | plicon | 1st |
| Scroll Right Arrow | ricon | pricon | 2nd |
| Page Left Area (end cap) | hwelllcap | - | 3rd |
| Page Left Area (section) | hwelll | - | 4th |
| Slider (left end cap) | hbarl | phbarl | 5th |
| Slider (middle section) | hbarmid | phbarmid | 6th |
| Slider (right end cap) | hbarr | phbarr | 7th |
| Page Right Area (section) | hwellr | - | 8rd |
| Page Right Area (end cap) | hwellrcap | - | 9nd |
Note: All these icons have the same height.
Annotations
fn1. These Title Bar icons must have the same width, but can have different heights.
2 The Toggle Size icon must have the same height as the icons in the Top bar and Horizontal scroll bar (see above and below). Two different icons may be used depending on the state of the window (maximum size or previous size). The width of these icons must also be the same as that of the vertical scroll bar.
3 The blicon sprite is used when the Adjust Size icon is not present but both horizontal and vertical scrollbars are shown.
Icon Borders
So that icons do not overlap and so produce unwanted effects, it is necessary for some rows and columns to be transparent.
The table below details which icons must cater for this.
| Description | Location | Transparency |
|---|---|---|
| Back icon | Top Bar | right edge 1 pixel |
| Close icon | Top Bar | right edge 1 pixel |
| Title bar (left end cap) | Top Bar | solid |
| Title bar (right end cap) | Top Bar | solid |
| Toggle Size icon | Vertical Scroll Bar | left edge 1 pixel |
| Adjust Size icon2 | Vertical Scroll Bar | top edge 1 pixel |
| Scroll Up Arrow | Vertical Scroll Bar | top edge 1 pixel |
| Scroll Down Arrow | Vertical Scroll Bar | top edge 1 pixel |
| Page Up Area (end cap) | Vertical Scroll Bar | solid |
| Page Down Area (end cap) | Vertical Scroll Bar | solid |
| Scroll Left Arrow | Vertical Scroll Bar | left edge = black vertical |
| Scroll Left Arrow | Vertical Scroll Bar | right edge 1 pixel |
| Page Left Area (end cap) | Horizontal Scroll Bar | solid |
| Page Right Area (end cap) | Horizontal Scroll Bar | solid |
Common Icons
Icon sprite sets can be further subdivided into 7 categories. They are:
| # | Category | Most Commonly used Icons |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Filer Icons | directory, directory, directoryo, small_dir, small_diro, small_app, file_xxx, small_xxx |
| 2 | Icon Bar Icons | switcher, !configure, display, floppydisc, harddisc, ramfs, romapps, small_fs, network |
| 3 | Dialog Box Icons | yes, no, dontcare, radiooff, radioon, optoff, opton, tick, up, down, left, right, tick, ←, → |
| 4 | Pointer Icons1 | ptr_default, ptr_double, ptr_menu, ptr_write, ptr_hand, ptr_direct, ptr_cross, ptr_confirm |
| 5 | Pinboard Icons | ic_edit, ic_filer, ic_draw, ic_paint, ic_? |
| 6 | Application Icons | !Draw, !Edit, !Paint, etc… |
| 7 | Miscellaneous Icons | error |
Icon Design
Each icon set (!Sprites22 etc…) should have a similar style.
Text is not recommended in system icons.
Icons should not attempt to be photographic-quality pictures. They should be clear, iconic representations of their referends.
The active point of a pointer-icon, should be a transparent pixel, if the mask is present.
Speed Optimisation
System icons get drawn fastest when the iconset appropriate to the screen mode is used. That is, the number of bits per pixel should be the same as the screen mode.
The Wimp caches the memory addresses of all the icons in use so that it does not have to search by sprite name. The cache is updated after an screen mode change or *ToolSprites equivalent command.
Searching for the most common icons is faster when they are placed at the beginning of the |!Sprite file.
Colour Support
From RISC OS 3 onwards, the Wimp uses a module called ColourTrans when preparing sprites for plotting, so that logical colours are mapped to the available colours.