I really like the look of the Silicon Graphics
desktop icons. However, they're a total pain in the ass to make.
It's understandable why they charge so damded much for these computers
given all the labor it takes to make them as spiffy as they are.
So, when I decided to actually start making some icons of my own, there
was no doubt in my mind that it was a "bad idea." And you know what?
I was right. It is quite a pain. Once you get the hang of it
it's pretty easy, you just have to realize that you're creating little
3D images and not just plain old boring 2D icons.
A little bit of info about how the SGI desktop icon system works in
case you're wondering; the icons consist of several different files.
First, you've got the .ftr (file-type rule) files that define
all sorts of behaviors about how the program reacts when it is used from
its iconified form. It's really pretty impressive just how customizeable
this sytem is. Take a look at the ftr(1) man page and see.
Next, you've got the .fti (that may mean file-type image, but
I can't find an actual definition anywhere) which is the actual graphical
icon that you see on your desktop. These are generally constructed
with iconsmith(1), which isn't a very developed tool but at least
it works. Put the two together (well, usually more than two, since
you can make a whole bunch of icons for one item and have them appear for
different reasons) and you've got yourself an icon.
"That's great," you say, "but how do I install them?" Once you've
downloaded the icon package you want, un-gzip and un-tar it and you should
have a directory that contains an .ftr file, and a subdirectory
named iconlib containing at least two .fti files.
Copy the .ftr file (as root) to /usr/lib/filetype/local
and copy the .fti files to /usr/lib/filetype/local/iconlib
and they should be installed. Next, in the directory /usr/lib/filetype
and as root, run make -u and it should update the necessary files
so that your machine will respond to the new icons. Last, you need
to tag the files in question so that the machine knows which icons belong
to which executables. The way to find out the correct tag is to look
in the .ftr file for that specific icon. It's just a plain
old text file so you can view it with your favorite text editor.
Find the line that starts with the word MATCH and look for the
tag entry on that line. It'll be a hexadecimal value (like 0x00FF17A0).
From there, as root, you use the tag command to tag the executable.
Find the executable you want to tag, and execute a command like this:
tag <the value you saw on the MATCH line>
<the path to the executable you want to tag>
For example, with the zircon icon below, you'd do this:
tag 0x00FF17A0 /usr/local/bin/zircon
Restart the window manager (i.e. log out and log back in, or do a tellwm
restart) and your icons should show up just fine. If not, let
me know, because it means my instructions suck and I need to rewrite them.
Better yet, for more info, read the following man pages:
ftr(1)
tag(1)
iconsmith(1)
IMD(1G)
A note about the tag numbers I use; wherever I can, I use tag numbers
that are appropriate for the item in question. For example, with
my Adobe FrameMaker icon, I have tagged them with the number Adobe uses
for all their other products. But with most icons, there's no correct
number to be using so I'm kind of winging it. I have a block of tag
numbers assigned to me by SGI that I use so I shouldn't be overlapping
with other people's products, but I think it should be mentioned that the
overall method to my madness isn't very calculated.
I don't know how often I'll make icons, but as I'm getting better at
it I might make more. I'll just keep adding more to this page as
I create them.
Back to the Bad Ideas page
