[comp.sys.next] NeXT icon on Dock

asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (11/07/90)

Okay folks, here's a curious question:

Does anybody know if it's possible/how to change the little NeXT cube
icon on the workspace icon?  I would love to put a different image
there and make my machine look "Oh So Neat!" :)  Sure, it's stupid,
it's pointless, but hey, so is the Mac discussion.  No really, I would
like to know how to go about this.

On a related note, is there any program out there that can do
'resource editing' or in other words, 'nib file editing'?  It would be
great to be able to do what the Mac does with resources, and edit the
nib part of a application, and tailor an application to ones needs, or
desires.  Anybody working on one?

-k

wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis) (11/07/90)

In article <5978@mace.cc.purdue.edu> asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) writes:
>Does anybody know if it's possible/how to change the little NeXT cube
>icon on the workspace icon?  I would love to put a different image
>there and make my machine look "Oh So Neat!" :)  Sure, it's stupid,
>it's pointless, but hey, so is the Mac discussion.  No really, I would
>like to know how to go about this.

  Check out the "narcissus" application on the archives. It's supposed to
put your face in the icon window but you can specify an arbitrary .TIFF
file if you want it.

>On a related note, is there any program out there that can do
>'resource editing' or in other words, 'nib file editing'?  It would be
>great to be able to do what the Mac does with resources, and edit the
>nib part of a application, and tailor an application to ones needs, or
>desires.  Anybody working on one?

   Hmmm... Well, given the really interesting format of Mach-Object files,
you can actually dump .NIBs (and .SNDs, and .TIFFs, and .RTFs, and 
.PSs ...) right out of an application. You can also replace existing
.NIBs (and stuff) wiuth your own files. Launch IB in the interim and you
have your resource editor.
   Only problem is that the program that does this segment editing appears in
the man files but not in the binaries directories. Dunno if it was supposed
to be released or not but I've never seen an executeable. I've written
a quick hack (in three of thr four senses of the phrase, blech) that dumps
things; I use it to snoop through any applications that have interesting
soundfiles or pictures or nibs or just to satisfy my curiosity =8)
Couldn't be that hard to write something to replace or load things,
though it would take a little fiddling with offsets. I haven't looked at
it too hard. In any case, it wouldn't be too hard to write. (And if the
missing binary was just a fluke, it wouldn't even require any coding =8) )


-- 
 wiml@milton.acs.washington.edu       Seattle, Washington   
     (William Lewis)   |  47 41' 15" N   122 42' 58" W  
"These 2 cents will cost the net thousands upon thousands of 
dollars to send everywhere. Are you sure you want to do this?"

lane@SUMEX-AIM.STANFORD.EDU (Christopher Lane) (11/08/90)

In <5978@mace.cc.purdue.edu>, asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu writes:
>On a related note, is there any program out there that can do
>'resource editing' or in other words, 'nib file editing'?  It would be
>great to be able to do what the Mac does with resources, and edit the
>nib part of a application, and tailor an application to ones needs, or
>desires.  Anybody working on one?

You can use the 'fsectbyname' utility (available from your favorite NeXT
archive) to extract and replace (within limits) segments in Mach object files.
Since the nib file becomes a segment in the executable, you can extract it
into a file and put it back into Interface Builder, change it and splice it
back.  I did this with the 'Preference' application to remove buttons that
didn't apply at our site (eg. the 'password' button due to YP).  You can also
modify an application's icons and sound files in the same manner.

The 'fsectbyname' utility was meant as a 'temporary' replacement for the
documented but missing (CMU) 'segedit' utility.

In <10723@milton.u.washington.edu>, wiml@milton.u.washington.edu writes:
>I've written a quick hack (in three of thr four senses of the phrase, blech)
>that dumps things; I use it to snoop through any applications that have
>interesting soundfiles or pictures or nibs or just to satisfy my curiosity
>=8)  Couldn't be that hard to write something to replace or load things,
>though it would take a little fiddling with offsets. I haven't looked at
>it too hard. In any case, it wouldn't be too hard to write.

From your description, this 'hack' is a subset of what 'fsectbyname' does.
(Which surprises me since 'fsectbyname' has been on the cs.orst.edu NeXT
archive since NeXT 0.8 days!).  If you think it may have additional, useful
features that 'fsectbyname' lacks, send me a copy and I'll splice them in.

- Christopher

-------

declan@remus.rutgers.edu (Declan McCullagh/LZ) (11/08/90)

In article <10723@milton.u.washington.edu>, wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis) writes:

>    Hmmm... Well, given the really interesting format of Mach-Object files,
> you can actually dump .NIBs (and .SNDs, and .TIFFs, and .RTFs, and 
> .PSs ...) right out of an application. You can also replace existing
> .NIBs (and stuff) wiuth your own files. Launch IB in the interim and you
> have your resource editor.
>    Only problem is that the program that does this segment editing appears in
> the man files but not in the binaries directories. Dunno if it was supposed
> to be released or not but I've never seen an executeable. I've written
> a quick hack (in three of thr four senses of the phrase, blech) that dumps
> things; I use it to snoop through any applications that have interesting
> soundfiles or pictures or nibs or just to satisfy my curiosity =8)
> Couldn't be that hard to write something to replace or load things,
> though it would take a little fiddling with offsets. I haven't looked at
> it too hard. In any case, it wouldn't be too hard to write. (And if the
> missing binary was just a fluke, it wouldn't even require any coding =8) )

Check out /bin/segedit under NeXTstep 2.0...  Here's the description:

     Segedit extracts and or replaces the named sections from the
     input_file and creates an output_file (if replacing a sec-
     tion).  The segment and section names are the same as speci-
     fied to ld(1) with the -segcreate option.     The segment and
     section names of an object file can be examined with the -l
     option to otool(1).

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Declan McCullagh / NeXT Campus Consultant \ declan@remus.rutgers.edu
--------------------------------------------------------------------

edwardj@microsoft.UUCP (Edward JUNG) (11/09/90)

In article <10723@milton.u.washington.edu> wiml@milton.u.washington.edu (William Lewis) writes:
>   Only problem is that the program that does this segment editing appears in
>the man files but not in the binaries directories. Dunno if it was supposed
>to be released or not but I've never seen an executeable. I've written

This utility is shipped on the GNU source optical disk from NeXT.
Perhaps someone from NeXT can say if it will be part of the standard
distribution of the extended 2.0 release OS.

--
Edward Jung
Microsoft Corp.

My opinions do not reflect any policy of my employer.

SLVQC@CUNYVM (Salvatore Saieva) (11/18/90)

In article <5978@mace.cc.purdue.edu>, asd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) says:
>
>Okay folks, here's a curious question:
>
>Does anybody know if it's possible/how to change the little NeXT cube
>icon on the workspace icon?  [ ... text deleted ...]

I recently saw NeXTStep running on an IBM RS/6000 at Unix Expo in NY.
IBM has changed the NeXT icon at the top of the dock to the letters
`AIX' in a tall san serif font. So, it can be changed, don't know
how though.

Sal.
-------
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