As part of the AmigaOS3.5 ( actually in boing bag 1 I think) release there was a program in the utilities draw called AnimatedIcon. This program took advantage of the new renderhooks and workbench control functions to place an animated appicon on the workbench whilst playing a given sound file. That was all it did however, the icon could not be used to launch programs or interact with applications as you might expect but was merely cosmetic.
I decided that what I would like to see was an animated icon that could do the above but could also launch scripts and programs, much as any other icon, simply by double clicking on it. (I particularly wanted a spinning quake symbol to launch ... wel?l the obvious!).
The result is AnimIcon a small application that displays strip anims as icons and can launch a script defined by a tooltype in the animations icon.
Now your workbench can have cool animations without loss of functionality!
I now use an animated quake logo to launch quake and an animated Boing Ball logo to launch AWeb with the Amiga OS3.5 online help files.
The following resources are need to make use of AnimIcon.
To install AnimIcon simply copy the executable ( AnimIcon ) to the C: directory (or any other directory of your choice).
To get online help this should be document placed in Help:english draw by default. Multiview is assumed to be in sys:utilities.
AnimIcon can be lauched from either shell or Workbench. In either case the information about the animation to display is contained in the tooltypes of the animations icon. If no icon exists the program will fail safely with an error requester.
To launch from the shell simply type
To launch from the Workbench set the default tool of the animations
project icon to C:AnimTool (assuming that AnimTool is in C:) and the stack to a minimum
of 8196 and double click to start.
To have the icons appear on start-up simply drag the icon to the
sys:WBstartup drawer.
The script or program to be launched when the icon is opened is set by the
tooltype SCRIPT=
The various options and in particular the animation format are controled
from the icon tooltypes. For consistancy with other
applications that use strip animations (such as Aweb, and AnimatedIcon) I
have kept to the conventions they have defined.
When selected the animicon supports several of the workbench's Icons menu items.
AnimIcon currently only supports animation stored in strip anim format.
This consists of a single picture (in ILBM format) which contains all the
animation frames in a single row. The accompanying icon contains
information on how to display the icon in it's tool types.
A ImageFx script is included to convert convetion anim5 format anims
into this form.
The tootypes are divided into two main groups animation control and prgram
control.
SCRIPT = Work:games/quake/AmigaQuake - the path
to the script whichlaunches quake on my system.
SCRIPT = OpenURL Help:AmigaOS_Manual/index.html
- Launch OpenURL to diplay a html doc.
SCRIPT = sys:rexxc/RX ArrangeIcon.wbrx - Launch
an arexx script.
All the tooltypes can be altered from within the program by selecting the
Icons Information menu item and the clicking on INFO. This will bring up
the standard workbench incon iformation requester for the icon that lauched
the animicon. Saving from here will alter the tooltypes in the usual way
but will not have an effect until the program is relaunched.
This Program is FREEWARE.
That means it is freely distributable so long all the files are included
and unchanged. No charge may be made for it except a nominal fee to cover
media costs etc. It may be included on CD based collections such as those
mounted on the covers of magazines or the Aminet CDs as long as it is not
the main focus of the collection.
The (C)opywrite remains the property of Andy Broad and all rights are reserved.
If you use and like/hate it you could write me a letter or send me a postcard
or email me
DISCLAMER
This software was writen by
Andy Broad
If you find any please send a bug report or in fact any comments at all to
the author.
AnimIcon
at the shell prompt. Where Animation Format
Icons Menu
The AnimIcon currently supports the following Icons menu options.
Open
Selecting Open (or doubleclicking on the icon) will launch
the script or application specified by the tool type
SCRIPT.
Snapshot
Selecting snapshot saves the current position of the icon
so that it will appear in the same place next time the the
program is lanched. The snapshot position is held in the
tooltypes ICON_X and ICON_Y.
UnSnapshot
Selecting this option disables the tooltypes ICON_X and
ICON_Y so that position of the icon is undefined next time
the program is launched. The icon will then appear
according to normal icon rules. ( Whatever they are!;)
Information
This option calls up a requester which gives some
information about the program and allows the following
options.
QUIT
quit the AnimIcon program.
INFO
this calls up the information requester for
the animations icon. Thus the tooltypes may be
set by hand. Changes to these values will only
come in to effect next time the program is
launched.
CANCEL
quit the requester.
PutAway
This option currently quits the animation. If the anin was
launched from WB startup or by any other automatic method
it will appear in the usual way on next startup.
ToolTypes
Tooltypes For Animation Control
FRAMES=<no frames>
This tooltype defines the number of animation
frames. This tooltype compulsory.
eg. FRAMES=30
FPS=<frame rate>
The frame rate a which the animation should be
played in frames per second. If no frame rate
is supplied the default is 10fps.
eg. FPS=10
SIZE=<width,height>
The size of the animation. This limited to the
size of an appicon that is 256 by 256 pixels.
START=<x,y>
DELTA=<x,y>
REST=<x,y>
These tooltypes allthough standard for strip
anims are not yet supported. AnimIcon assumes
that each frame is the same size as the first
and that thet start a zero offset 0,0.
ANIMATION=<filename>
This tooltype gives a path to the animation to
play. If not given the animation file is assumed
to be the file to which the icon belongs.
SELECTANIMATION
=<filename>
This tooltype sets the animation to play when
the AnimIcon is selected. If not given the
same animation is played whether selected or not.
Tootypes for program control
ICON_X=<x position>
ICON_Y=<y position>
This pair of tooltypes allow the postion of the
animation to be "snapshoted". They can be set
by hand or will be set by selected snapshot
from the Workbench @{"Icons menu" LINK IconMenus}. As is standard
for icon positioning the origin is in the top
left corner of the screen.
SCRIPT=<arguements>
This defines the action to take when the icon
is opened either by double clicking or by
selecting open from the Workbemch Icons menu.
eg.About the Program
I disclaim all responsiblity for a loss damage or anything else that might
occur if you use this program.About the Author
46 Sheffield Road,
Portsmouth,
Hampshire,
England.
PO1 5DP
andy@broad.ology.org.uk
Known Bugs
History and To Do
AnimIcon History
Version 0.4
20 March 2001
-Fixed th problem with the select image being trashed if the oringnal
icons image was different in size to the animation. Select Image is
now taken from the first frame of the animation.
-Added Tooltypes to set both the selected and unselected animations.
**************************************************************************
Version 0.3 Unreleased
27 Nov 2000
-Now supports the UnSnapshot Icon menu item.
-Now supports the PutAway Icon menu item as aquick way to quit.
-Changed icon tooltype handling code.(now in tooltypes.c)
This has Much simplified code in the mainloop.
The tooltype code is both simpler and more general!
**************************************************************************
Version 0.2 Unreleased
24 Nov 2000
-Changed Name to AnimIcon
-Added Support for Information Requester
Selecting information from Icon menu enables calls requester
To quit or pass on to WBInfo requester for project Icon.
-Shell Entry point now correctly extracts program name from input path.
**************************************************************************
Version 0.1 Unreleased
-Project Started 15th Oct 2000
-Support For StripAnims Only
-Supports SnapShoting of Icon
-WB and shell entry points.
Todo
****
Add support for different anim and image formats ( GIF ANIM )
Add sound ?