Conference bulova::decw_jan-89_to_nov-90

My recollection is that the small icon should be 17x17 and not 16x16 in size.
Otherwise, they can't be made symmetrical. It could be that the window manager
deals with both.

Also, it is possible to merely set some arguments on the top level widget
and not have to deal with changing properties directly. Here is a fragment
of some code I had lying around. No warranty is expressed or implied. It's
not completely ICCCM compliant in that it doesn't force the icon pixmap to
be of depth 1.

PK

=====================================================================
void
SetIconPixmaps(top, iconifyPixmapXImage, iconPixmapXImage, fg, bg)
    Widget top;
    XImage *iconifyPixmapXImage;        /* should be 17x17 */
    XImage * iconPixmapXImage;          /* should be 32x32 */
    Pixel fg, bg;
{
    Arg args[3];
    GC pgc;
    XGCValues gcv;
    int i = 0;

    gcv.foreground = fg;
    gcv.background = bg;
    pgc = XCreateGC(XtDisplay(top), RootWindow(XtDisplay(top), 0),
            GCForeground | GCBackground, &gcv);

    if (iconifyPixmapXImage)
    {
        XtSetArg(
            args[i],
            XtNiconifyPixmap,
            XPixmapFromXImage(XtDisplay(top), iconifyPixmapXImage, pgc));
        i++;
    }
    if (iconPixmapXImage)
    {
        XtSetArg(
            args[i],
            XtNiconPixmap,
            XPixmapFromXImage (XtDisplay(top), iconPixmapXImage, pgc));
        i++;
    }
    if (i)
        XtSetValues (top, args, i);

    XFreeGC( XtDisplay(top), pgc);
}

    Window manager displays 16x16 fine - it is an example
    after all.  If you wish your small icon to be the same
    size as say, VUE,  then better to use 17x17.
    
    

    I noticed that .1 said that the iconpixmap should be 32X32.  This
    and the fact that I havent been able change *only* the iconpixmap
    when the window manager is using 16X16 pixmaps tells me that its
    either a bug or 16X16 iconpixmap *only* changes are not provided
    for.
    
    Everything works as I would expect with the window manager set to
    large icons.  I can change the iconpixmap, iconifypixmap, or bothe.
    With small window manager icons, I can change the iconpixmap only
    when I change the iconifypixmap as well.  Actually doing an XtSetValues
    with XtNiconifyPixmap with change bothe for you, which renders the
    XtNiconPixmap resource useless.
    
    Anyone care to comment on this ?
    
    Thanks,
    Steve

I have not seen the code (the ultimate documentation) or the spec on the
exact behavior, but I believe that this is what is happening.

The window manager picks up the "iconify" and "icon" pixmaps from the
client. It then copies those into a pixmap of the appropriate depth for
being displayed. It always makes a 17x17 and a 32x32 pixmaps as the
destination of the copies.

The window manager allows the user to specify whether the 17x17 (iconify)
pixmap or the 32x32 (icon) pixmap gets used in the icon box.

In any event you only have one small pixmap. You can't have a different
one in the corner of your application and in the icon box.

PK

   
    When the window manager icon style is set to large (32X32) I am
    able to have a different pattern in the iconify icon than in the
    iconbox icon and viceversa.  When i dont specify one explicitly,
    I get the default.
    
    I would like to have the analygous situation exist when the window
    manager icon style is set to small icons.  
    
    I would have to have to find out why the window manager is not 
    allowing this to exist.  Total of 104 files, 1154 blocks  of
    very compact and sparsly documneted code.  I would prefer if
    someone who definitively knows what the state of afairs is to
    say:
    		1) yea it's a bug
    		2) this function will not be provided for 
    
    bothe answers would be equally satisfactory to me.
    
    thanks for the help,
    Steve

    Window Manager is using the same pixmap for
    both the small icon and the iconify icon - its
    intentional.  The thinking being that the icon "picture"
    means something basic, i.e., the application.   Therefore,
    the iconified icon "picture" is always the same as the icon box
    icon (whatever size) because they are supposed to be the
    same thing.   
    
    I suppose if you have some reasons why you must make
    the iconified icon different than the icon box icon,
    you may consider a QAR on the matter - with your
    explanation.

Or, if what you want is a changing icon in the icon box, it may not matter that
the iconify button on the window changes also.  In that case just change
the iconify pixmap and the icon pixmap to signify these state changes.  See
DECW$MAIL (dxmail for ultrix types) for an example of how this looks.

Dick

Actually, it seems like a bug to me that I have to specify *two* icons
if I want to set my icon!   Let's assume that I care nothing about
iconify buttons, all I want to do is to set my icon picture.  I have
to realise that "sometimes" the DEC window manager will display
my icon, and sometimes it'll display something entirely
different -- namely an "iconify" button.

Yes, I realise that the icon_pixmap is only a hint.  I just wish that
the window manager sometimes took hints a little better.   

Perhaps it'd be nice if it would take a 17x17 (not 16x16 as popularly
believed) icon and double it up (ok, and discard the 17th row/column)
for the large case.

Remember that the capabilities of window managers vary all over the map.
Not only that but you may run into a situation where your application is
running on a server w/o a window manager.  Some window managers don't even
use icon_pixmap.  They require the client to create an icon window
into which it draws the desired icon picture.  These can be of any size.
Take a look at Xchess.  It doesn't use icon_pixmap it uses only icon_window.
X provides a situation in which the window manager can be almost brain dead
and the applications can get something out of it.  The applications need just
be aware of the relatively small set of possibilities.

This brings up an interesting possiblity, how about a library routine
to handle icon/iconify pixmaps/windows.  That way each application could avoid
the unpleasantness of duplicating the code to do each of these possibilities.

As to scaling the 17x17 up, a 32x32 pixmap usually gives you a far more
readable pixmap than the 17x17.  If you scaled up the 17x17 to 32x32 you would
just get something impressionistic  8^{).

Dick

Yeah, I understand about Window Managers in general, and how they're
whimsical little entities that can do what they wish.   It's just that
I want to make my applications look as good as possible under the
DECwindows Window Manager in particular.  Thus, when I write, I include
code to set the icon pixmap and meddle with the iconify button.  It
doesn't matter to me that some WMs will ignore that stuff; it does irk
me that I have to know rather more about DEC_WM_HINTS than I think
I am entitled to know (since it's not documented).

I'm programming at the raw Xlib level, of course... I think things
are better at the widget level, but I like to learn things from the
bottom up!