BRICONS(l) BRICONS(l)
16th November 1992 (Motif version)
NAME
bricons - quick start up utility for applications using text, icons,
colour Pixmaps and pop-up menus on an X display
SYNOPSIS
bricons [options]
[-file] [-help] [-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 twenty main menu buttons can be
displayed. 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 colour icon (i.e. Pixmap). This version of the
bricons program uses the Motif widget set. It does not set a specific
height or width for the buttons used in the program. The size of the
buttons will depend on the largest size of the bitmap or pixmap being
displayed. 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 .briconsrc. 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
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BRICONS(l) BRICONS(l)
16th November 1992 (Motif version)
either contain the key word %sub_menu or the application to be
started. If the name of an application 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 source button causes the
program to distory all the current buttons being displayed and re-read
the icon file and display the new buttons.
OPTIONS
bricons 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.
-help
Tells the program the path for the help file.
-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.
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
program understands all of the core resource names and classes as well
as:
icon_file
Specifies path name for icon file to be read.
help_file
Specifies path name for help file.
default_buttons
Boolean value used to indicate if the default buttons should be
present in the program.
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SETTING BITMAP DIRECTORIES
This section explains how to specify bitmap file paths using an
environment variable in your .enviorn or .cshrc file. This program
will search the default bitmap directory for any bitmaps that are to
be used to represent buttons. If the user wishes the program to search
other directories for bitmap files then this should be specified in
the users .enviorn or .cshrc file. An environment variable XBMLANGPATH
should be set giving path names where bitmaps can be found. The path
names should end with a %B for example:
setenv XBMLANGPATH /cur/bri/xbm/%B:/usr/local/bitmaps/%B
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 ....). 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.....
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BRICONS(l) BRICONS(l)
16th November 1992 (Motif version)
" "};
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
MenuBar menuBar,
CascadeButton action[20]
OverrideShell popup_shell
Form popup_layout
CascadeButton sub_action[10]
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BRICONS(l) BRICONS(l)
16th November 1992 (Motif version)
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
%pixmap /usr/bri/xpm/clock.xpm
xclock
%text xeyes
xeyes
%text othello
othello
%end_sub_menu
BUGS
Using the source button: After selecting the source button the buttons
may not be re-displayed correctly. Selecting the source button a
second time may help. After selecting the source button all the
buttons should be re-displayed. When the user selects a button with a
sub menu it may appear in the top left hand corner of the screen for
the first time.
AUTHOR
Bruce R Ingram, University of Kent at Canterbury.
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