Introduction and Overview
There are a number of differences in the icon set provided within the Wimp sprite pool and that documented in the PRM (PRM 3-32,33 and PRM 5a-666). These are noted below.
Technical Details
Filer icons
It was noted in PRM 5a-483 that open directories are differentiated by using a new icon. However, the sprite was not named. For completeness, these were 'directoryo' and 'small_diro' respectively.
Under RISC OS Select, this was further extended to provide an indication of shared (using ShareFS) directories. Such directories were suffixed by an 's' character, adding 4 new sprites to the pool. The full list of directory sprites, therefore, is :
| Sprites | Meaning |
|---|---|
| directory, small_dir | Regular directory |
| directoryo, small_diro | Currently has a view open |
| directorys, small_dirs | Currently shared |
| directoryos, small_diros | Currently has a view open and is shared |
RISC OS 4 introduced two additional file type icon pairs in to differentiate between the common 'untyped' files :
| Sprites | Meaning |
|---|---|
| file_lxa, small_lxa | File has explicit Load/Exec addresses |
| file_unf, small_unf | File has not finished being written |
During multi-tasking file operations (using FilerAction and others), files are given the Load and Exec address of &DEADDEAD to indicate that they are not valid. Filer displays the 'unf' sprites to indicate that they are unfinished.
When a multi-object drag is performed by the user, the type of the objects cannot always be represented. As such, all multi-object drags use a new 'package' sprite.
Icon bar icons
The iconbar icons were changed with the introduction of RISC OS 4 to ensure that the icons took less space on the iconbar, and to match the colour scheme of more modern machines. In general, these icons are grey, but may be customised by users in order to match an icon set style. In addition to the standard icons listed on PRM 3-32, a number of new sprites were added (between RISC OS 3.5 and the present version) :
| Sprite | Meaning and first available |
|---|---|
| cddisc | CD filer (data, or unrecognised disc types). RISC OS 4+ |
| acddisc | CD filer (audio disc). RISC OS 4+ |
| pcddisc | CD filer (photo disc). RISC OS 4+ |
| homedisc | User's 'home' directory. Select 2+ |
| netfs | NetFS disc (active mount). RISC OS 3.1+ |
| netfsg | NetFS disc (main icon). Select 2+ |
| network | Generic network icon. RISC OS 4+ |
| nodisc | ShareFS disc (inactive mount). RISC OS 3.5+ |
| display | Display manager (replaces 'palette'). RISC OS 3.5+ |
| palette | Obsolete icon, now appears as artist's palette. RISC OS 3.1+, 4+ |
Additional disc filetypes are used by ShareFS and can be found listed in the Remote disc types document.
Dialog box icons
The dialogue box icons have not been extended significantly since RISC OS 3.1. The only additions to the icons used by dialogues are '(tick)inverse', 'grightc' and 'pgrightc'. The 'grightc' pair of icons should be treated as similar to the 'gright' icons, but are used where a colour menu is expected.
The '(tick)inverse' icon (where '(tick)' indicates the tick symbol in the default character set) has been added in order to better support dark menus where the previous black tick would become difficult to see. The '(tick)' and '(tick)inverse' sprites are supplied as alpha-channel sprites in order that they blend pleasantly with the background colour of the menu (or its tile).
Pointer icons
New pointer icons have been provided for more common operations in applications. The full list of pointers provided by RISC OS are :
| Sprite | Use |
|---|---|
| ptr_default | Regular pointer |
| ptr_double | Used during the double-click wait period |
| ptr_confirm | Used by OS_Confirm and others for immediate confirmation of an action |
| ptr_write | Used over a writable field |
| ptr_menu | Used over a field which may open a menu |
| ptr_autoscr | Used for auto-scrolling over the extent of a window, usually used whilst dragging an object |
| ptr_autoscrh | As above, when only horizontal scrolling is possible |
| ptr_autoscrv | As above, when only vertical scrolling is possible |
| ptr_dts | Used for scrolling over the extent of a window, usually used whilst repositioning the window by dragging its background |
| ptr_link | Used for regions which may launch an external, or distinct, component |
| ptr_map | Used for accurately making a selection within a window |
The documentation in PRM 3-33 states that the first transparent pixel within a pointer will be used. This was not the case until WindowManager 6.14. After 6.14, a single transparent masked pixel within the pointer will cause that point to be used as the hot spot.
Tile sprites
The tile sprites are documented on PRM 5a-488. These were extended in RISC OS 4 to include the use of tiles behind menus. Where configured, these use the tile sprite 'tile_m-<depth>'. WindowManager 6.33 extended the tile sprites further to allow the tile to be resized by the Wimp to the depth of the mode (all other sprites are always plotted at the exact size specified by the sprite). See the Background tile document for more details.
Divider sprites
A horizontal divider sprite was introduced with the nested Wimp to allow regions to be separated within dialogue boxes. This sprite is expected to be left aligned with the window border. Select 3 introduced a similar divider, for vertical regions. This should be aligned to the top of the window border. The sprites are named 'divider' and 'vdivider'.
Error sprites
The error categorisation scheme was introduced in RISC OS 3.5. Although the documentation in PRM 5a-492 describes the interface for the error messages, it did not document the sprites used. For Wimp_ReportError flags, these are :
| Bit(s) | Meaning | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9-11 | Sprite name:
| |||||||||||||||||||
Window icons
The window furniture icons have been extended since RISC OS 3.1 to include new features required by more advanced designs. The actual positioning of the furniture icons can be controlled. See the Tool order document for more details.
An iconise icon has been added to the icon set. This is used to hide a window using the iconising protocol which was previously only used shift-clicking on the close icon. This icon usually appears in title bar. It has the name 'iicon', or 'piicon' for the pressed variant. The iconise icon has been present since WindowManager 4.00.
The horizontal and vertical scroll bars can be modified with an additional icon. If present, this icon will be drawn once in the centre of the scrollbar. The horizontal versions of these icons are named 'hblip' and 'phblip'. The vertical versions of these icons are named 'vblip' and 'pvblip'. The 'blip' has been present since WindowManager 3.97.
Since WindowManager 4.64 it has not been necessary for the toggle size icon to be the same width as the vertical scroll bar.