BRICONS(l)BRICONS(l)NAMEbricons - quick start up utility for applications using text, icons,
colour icons and pop-up menus on an X display
SYNOPSISbricons [options]
[-file] [-col] [-help]
[-bw] [-bh] [-bmdir] [-default]
DESCRIPTION
Bricons program allows the user to quickly start up applications by
selecting the appropriate button from the display and pressing the left
mouse button. A maximum of up to sixteen main menu buttons can be dis‐
played. Each main menu button can launch an application or pop-up a
sub menu containing more buttons. The buttons can be represented as a
bitmap, text or a colour icon (i.e Pixmap).
Information on how the program is to present each button (either as a
bitmap, text or colour icon) and the application that is to be executed
if that button is selected is contained in script file called .bricon‐
src. This file should be stored in the same directory as the program
is executed from.
The .briconsrc file contains a number of key words which are used to
indicate if the button label is some text, bitmap or pixmap and if the
button is to pop-up a sub menu or launch a program. These key words
are explained below:
The .briconsrc file should start with the keyword %icon or %text or
%pixmap The key word %icon indicates that the button label is a bitmap.
This should be followed by the file name containing the bitmap. For
example:
%icon clock.icon
The key word %pixmap indicates that the button label is a colour
pixmap. This should be followed by the full path name where the pixmap
can be found. For example:
%pixmap /usr/cur/bri/xpm/clock.xpm
The key word %text indicates that the button label is some text. The
text can be split over three lines by using the new line character \n.
For example:
%text Line1\nLine2\nLine3
would be presented as:
Line1
Line2
Line3
Once a button has been selected it is prevented from accidentally being
re-selected by "graying out" the button (default action). Sometimes
however it maybe desirable to allow the button to be selected more than
once. This can be done be using the keyword %icon+ or %pixmap+ or
%text+
The next line in the .briconsrc file should either contain the key word
%sub_menu or the application to be started. If the name of an applica‐
tion is given then a check is made to see if such an program can be
executed. If the program does not exist or is not in the users path
then an error message is printed and the button associated with the
application is ignored.
If the key word %sub_menu is used then a pop-up sub menu is created.
Any further buttons defined in the briconsrc file will appear in the
sub menu for that button until the key word %end_sub_menu is found. A
maximum of ten buttons are allowed in a single pop-up sub menu.
Any line in the .briconsrc file starting with a # character is treated
as a comment and will be ignored.
This program has four default buttons labelled source, edit, help and
quit. The edit button allows the user to edit there icon file (default
being an empty ./briconsrc file) and to add or delete buttons from the
script file. The source button causes the program to distory all the
current buttons being displayed and re-read the icon file and display
the new buttons.
OPTIONSbricons accepts all of the standard X Toolkit command line options
along with the additional options listed below:
-file Tells the program to read this file instead of the default file.
-col Indicates the number of buttons in a column before starting a
new row. The default number of columns is 15.
-help Tells the program the path for the help file.
-bmdir This program will search the default bitmap directory (./bit‐
maps) for any bitmaps that are to be used to represent buttons.
If you wish to add different bitmap directories then use this
command line argument followed by a colon separated list of path
names. For example if the program needs to find bitmaps in two
different directories then the following can be entered at the
command line:
bricons-bmdir /usr/local/bitmaps:/usr/mydir/bitmaps
-default
Toggle used for including/not including the default Edit Icons
button in the bricons program. This flag expects a Boolean
value. If the bricons program is called with the -default flag
set to False then the Edit Icons button is not included.
-bw Specify the width of each button.
-bh Specify the height of each button.
X DEFAULTS
The bricons program reads the .Xdefaults file and Xbricons resource
file during startup and uses the appropriate resource specification to
customise the appearance or characteristics of its display. This pro‐
gram understands all of the core resource names and classes as well as:
no_of_cols
Specifies the number of buttons in a column.
icon_file
Specifies path name for icon file to be read.
help_file
Specifies path name for help file.
icon_dirs
Specifies path name for bitmap directories.
button_w
Specify the width of each button.
button_h
Specifies the height of each button.
SETTING BITMAP DIRECTORIES
This section explains how to specify bitmap file paths using the .Xde‐
faults file. For the quickest and simplest method see the OPTIONS sec‐
tion under -bmdir.
This program will search the default bitmap directory for any bitmaps
that are to be used to represent buttons. If the user wishes the pro‐
gram to search other directories for bitmap files then this should be
specified in the users .X11defaults file. *BitmapFilePath: should be
added followed by colon separated path names where the bitmap files can
be found. For example:
*BitmapFilePath: /usr/local/include/X11/bitmaps:/usr/mydir/bitmaps
FORMAT OF PIXMAP FILES
This program uses version 3.2 of the xpm libraries written by Arnaud Le
Hors (source code can be found from anonymous ftp to export.lcs.mit.edu
and from many other sites). The bricons program will produce colour
bitmap buttons from pixmap files provided that these files are in the
correct format. Below is a outline summary of the format for pixmap
files. For more detailed information please consult the xpm manual.
These files are text files so they can be edited using a normal text
editor.
The XPM format presents a C syntax, in order to provide the ability to
include XPM files in C. It is in fact an array of strings composed of
six different sections as follows:
/* XPM */
static char * <variable name> [] = {
/* width height ncolours chars_per_pixel */
<values>
/* colours */
<colours>
/* pixels */
<Pixels>
<Extensions>
};
For example:
/* XPM */
static char * clock [] = {
/* width height ncolors chars_per_pixel */
"125 85 4 1",
/* colours */
" c #ffffffffffff",
"B c #ffff00000000",
"C c #ffffffff0000",
"D c #000000000000",
" BBBBBBBB BBBB BBBB BBBB BBBBBBB",
" BB BB BB BB BBB BBB BB B",
" B BB B BB BBB BBB BB B",
cont.....
" "};
RESOURCE FILES
The Xbricons file specifies the required resources. To make sure the
program uses the resources file set the following line in your .login:
setenv XUSERFILESEARCHPATH ~/app_defaults/%N
and place all all resources in the app_defaults directory.
WIDGETS
The bricons program is a toolkit-based application which consists of a
combination of widgets. In order to specify resources, it is useful to
know the hierarchy of the widgets which compose bricons. In the list
below, indentation indicates hierarchical structure. The widget class
name is given first, followed by the widget instance name.
Xbricons toplevel
Form box
Command action[18]
OverrideShell popup_shell
Form popup_layout
Command sub_action[10]
EXAMPLE
Below is an example of a simple .briconsrc file:
# <-- a line starting with a '#' is a comment line
#
# Bri's icon file
#
# first line must have keyword %icon or %text
# to indicate if button is an icon
%icon calculator
xcalc
%text Games\n sub\n menu
%sub_menu
%text xeyes
xeyes
%text othello
othello
%end_sub_menu
BUGS
After selecting the source button the buttons may not be re-displayed
correctly. Selecting the source button a second time may help.
AUTHOR
Bruce R Ingram, University of Kent at Canterbury.
16th November 1992 BRICONS(l)
