0.07 (14-Oct-94) David G Jones (Public Domain)

This module allows the Task Manager icon to be animated.

I don't know who created the original FunkyIconZ but I really liked the idea. Unfortunately it came as a BASIC application and disagreed with RiscOS3. This rectifies those problems and adds a number of useful features.

IconZ2 consists of two components, the module and a set of animations. Each frame in the animation should be a sprite with the same dimensions. They are named "swch1", "swch2", etc to the last frame. There are no limits on the number of frames.

All of the frames should be in a single sprite file. An animation can be loaded into IconZ2 in one of three ways:

• 1) At the same time as IconZ2 is loaded by including the file name as the parameter of the command. For example "*RMRun .IconZ2 balls", where balls is the animation.
• 2) Once IconZ2 has started if you drag the animation over to the Task Manager icon then the new animations will be loaded and used.
• 3) From the command line "*IconZ2_Sprites balls" can be used, where balls is the name of the animation. As soon as the desktop is again operational the animation should start running.

If there is no animation loaded then the Task Manager icon will appear as normal.

The animation is loaded into IconZ2 memory rather than the Wimp SpritePool so this will not be cluttered up if you quit IconZ2.

This allows the rate of animation to be changed. Specifically with the IconZ2_Update command you can set the delay in centiseconds between successive frames being shown. This is in the range of 1 - 255.

If you do not include a new delay value then the current value will be shown.

With a delay of 1 the toll on the desktop is not too great, and it is useful for gauging a rough idea of the any desktop load.

To quit IconZ2 you should use the quit option from the Tasks display window. The Task manager icon should reappear as normal. Everything is OK

Unfortunately there is an anomaly this process. This is due to the somewhat circular nature in attempting to recreate the original icon so that the Task Manager will recognize it as so.

If you RMKill the IconZ2 module rather than Quitting, then the Task Manager icon will not reappear. Obviously this will impair access to the Task Manager facilitites, though it will still respond to F12 key presses. If the desktop is Shutdown/Exitted in this state then the Task Manager will barf before dropping out finally into the command line. This is because it expects its icon to be on the icon bar. If you reload IconZ2 though everything will return to normal.

Basically IconZ2 should never destroy anything. If you wish to terminate it then use the wimp Quit facilitites and all will be fine.

IconZ2 supplies a number of commands:

==> Help on keyword IconZ2
Module is: IconZ2          0.07 (14 Oct 1994) © David G Jones

Commands provided:
IconZ2_Update   IconZ2_Sprites

It has help on:
IconZ2_Author

==> Help on keyword IconZ2_Update
IconZ2_Update controls the delay between each frame in the animation. If no delay is given then the current value is shown. All delays are in
centiseconds within the range 1 - 255.
Syntax: *IconZ2_Update []

==> Help on keyword IconZ2_Sprites
IconZ2_Sprites will load the spritefile filename into IconZ. This contains a number of sprites which are the separate frames in the animation. These
should have the same dimensions and be named 'swch1', 'swch2' ...
Syntax: *IconZ2_Sprites 

==> Help on keyword IconZ2_Author
        David G Jones
        160 Hazelwood Drive
        St. Albans
        Herts. AL4 0UZ
        0727 - 852548

The module is Public Domain. So do what you like with it. The set of animations are taken from the original Funky IconZ, which I think are PD. Note that animations from the original FunkyIconZ will need their sprites names changed to the "swch1" format.

Any comments, etc please get in contact. If anyone creates a nice spinning Acorn, etc then please send me a copy.