xicon

for BeOS (PPC and Intel) and Haiku

(Download links at the bottom of the page)
(Last modified on )
[xicon files]

This little utility provides a couple of facilities for executing a shell script via icon-click that are not available otherwise:

By default, a script is executed in a Terminal window, so the user can see results and interact with it.
Other icons can be dragged and dropped onto the script icon as arguments.
The folder that the script was invoked from is available as an environment variable (as in 'TermHire').
You can also invoke non-shell scripts (e.g. Python) directly in the same way.

Complete Archives v1.3

The version built for Haiku (download below) is identical in action to the BeOS v1.3, except that the Haiku Terminal doesn't currently have the 'geom' option, so this has been disabled. Internally it uses different paths, so this build won't work on BeOS. (The 'MakeSetup' package has also been removed, as there are better options these days.)

v1.3 is not much different from previous releases, except for the addition of a 'Title' facility, slightly expanded documentation, and the inclusion of a Makefile setup package that some may find useful. It will run under any version of BeOS from 4.0 onward. (No effort has been made to keep it compatible with R3, though it would probably still compile on such a system if really needed.)

BeOS R5 Capability

xicon 1.3 is fully compatible with R5, and in fact can take advantage of a feature that has been added to the Terminal in that release: you can now set the dimensions of the Terminal window opened by your script to something other than the default. Add a 'geom' attribute that specifies the desired number of columns and rows to your script by giving a shell command like this:

	addattr geom 20x10 <script name>

The Terminal window for that script will then open with 20 columns and 10 rows. [Don't try this on earlier versions of Terminal -- the script will fail ("Couldn't find shell"). If this happens, get rid of the attribute with:

	rmattr geom <script name>

]

Download xicon v1.3 for PPC Here (40KB)

Download xicon v1.3 for Intel Here (40KB)

Download xicon v1.3 for Haiku Here (40KB)

More Script Examples

Convert to Background Script

At the suggestion of Michel Clasquin, here is a variant of the supplied "Convert to xicon script" that makes a "background" script (i.e. one that does not open a Terminal) instead of the more standard type. Use it exactly as you would the other.

Here is the zip archive (note that this is a 'raw' zip file -- just the files, no enclosing folder):

Download "Convert to xicon bgnd script" Here (1KB)

Here are a couple of other scripts that were not included in the distribution, but might be useful (both are in the one archive; again this is a 'raw' zip file -- just the files, no enclosing folder).

One strips carriage returns from text files containing CR-LF pairs, so that they read cleanly under BeOS (or Unix); it also removes the slew of ctrl-Z characters that are likely to terminate the file. It preserves the original text under the same name but with '_ORIG' appended.

The other does the reverse [perish the thought...!]: it takes a newlines-only file and adds in a carriage-return after each of these. (It doesn't bother about ctrl-Zs.) It doesn't change the original but creates a new file of the same name with '_CRLF' appended.

Both try to do the 'sensible' thing. If the CR-remover doesn't find any, it just leaves the file alone (no 'original'). The other doesn't add extra CRs where they already terminate the line. Hope they're to your liking. [If not... change 'em!]

If you have any generally useful scripts, let me know and I'll put them here as well (with credit, of course...).

Download "CRLFtoNL" and NLtoCRLF" scripts Here (1.5KB)

Author:

                                Pete Goodeve
                                Berkeley, California

                e-mail: pete@GoodeveCa.NET
                         pete.goodeve@computer.org

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