PeterK's IconLib Official Thread

[James]

Originally Posted by PeterK

1.) Which other software uses it on your system. Maybe, the pngalpha.library dosn't like multitasking and to be accessed by two programs at the same time? I could add a Forbid()/Permit() pair around the alpha decoding.

SkinnableClock is the only program I can think of that runs from WBStartup. I also run Limpidclock for the calendar. Tried removing these 2 when I was having problems last time but it didn't appear to help... That said here are the results so far with the latest libraries:

Either library with env variable - no crashes.
No_Forbid library no variable - crashes quite a lot, but not all the time.
Forbid library no variable - after many resets with no problems there has been just one time when the system seemed to reset itself (didn't see a guru) and then seemed to run fine. When the other library causes crashes a reset is not enough to clear the problem.

[PeterK]

Thank you James,

I've just uploaded icon.library 46.4.220 to Aminet which is almost identical to 219 with the Forbid().

[NovaCoder]

Originally Posted by PeterK

No mfilos, Forbid() and Permt() are exec.library functions to disable and enable the multitasking. After Forbid() the pngalpha.library would run without having to fight with other processes for CPU time and without being desturbed by acessing the system resources. Just use the noForbid() version as long as you don't have crashes, freezes or similar. The Forbid() version is only for James ito see if this could fix some problems.

But there might be other reasons than the pngalpha.library responsible for his problems. For example, I've got some recoverable Alerts saying that Limpidclock is causing illagal states for ReleaseSemaphore(). Also a good reason for crashes and freezes. I've already sent a bugreport to the author.

Hiya Peter,

I don't think using Forib()/Permit() to get around issues caused by other programs that are not multitasking correctly is the best way to go with IconLib. Most of the Amiga development stuff that I've read seems to be against using Forib()/Permit() these days.

I'm currently creating a custom 3.9 ROM for my ACA, which is the best (stability/speed) version of your icon.library to use for my AGA 1200?

What else do I need to install to try some of these PNG Icons on my standard 3.9 install (I'm not using Scalos)?

Thanks,
Chris

[PeterK]

Hi NovaCoder,

of course, I know that it could be better in some cases to use Semaphores for locking specific resources only instead of switching off the multitasking completely with Forbid() but I guess that Forbid() and Permit() are working much faster than ObtainSemaphore() and ReleaseSemaphore(). That's only one reason. The other one is that the second process which tries to use the pngalpha.library must use the same Semaphore locking to let it work as it should. That won't be the case, thus Semaphores are quite useless for solving this problem.

My latest icon.library version 46.4.220 will come out on Aminet in a few hours.... and you may also still find some example icons somewhere above.

Update:

Please, don't put the icon.library into a ROM if the access speed of that ROM is not as fast as your FastMem

[NovaCoder]

It's ok, I've got an ACA so the 3.9 ROM is going straight to FASTRAM

[PeterK]

PNG icon collections on Aminet are here: http://aminet.net/pix/picon
Very nice Mason icons are here: http://www.masonicons.info/4.html
Icons on OS4 Depot: http://www.os4depot.net/index.php?fu...=graphics/icon

[NovaCoder]

Cool thanks for those icons, do I need any of the following installed to use v46.4.220 on my setup?

WarpPNG.datatype
Datatypes.library
Picture.datatype
PNG.datatype
zlib.library
pngalpha.library

[PeterK]

Replace the icon.library with 46.4.220,
the datatypes.library and the picture.datatype are ok and are required,
zlib.library is ok and required for OS4 TrueColor icons,
PNG.datatype is ok and required for PNG icons, but you can remove the DEVS:datatypes/PNG if you prefer the WarpPNG.datatype for pictures,
There is an update for the WarpPNG.datatype on Aminet, but it is not required and supported for the icons anymore.
pngalpha.library is ok and required for a few icons.

if you have a Hi/TruColor screenmode then you should install the PowerIcons program too and patch it with my PatchPowerIcons

Update: http://aminet.net/package/util/libs/IconLib_46.4

[Cosmos]

@PeterK

A good news today : http://aminet.net/package/util/wb/PowerIconsSrc

[PeterK]

Thanks for this info, Cosmos !

Really unbelievable, very good news, indeed. Maybe this italian guy finally changed her mind, because he also asked me for creating a better PowerIcons program, but I refused to do that, since it's too much work to analyze and modify PowerIcons just by reverse engineering without having the sources. Ok, now it should be possible and much easier to adapt the direct drawing routine and integrate it into the icon.library without inventing the wheel again.

Many thanks to Elena Novaretti

[PeterK]

Originally posted by 8bitbubsy in Cosmos' dos.library thread:
Is there really much to optimize in the latest system libraries from Commodore? I tried some of Cosmos' libraries and all I get is problems and black screens. I don't know much about the libraries and how they work, but wouldn't it be better to instead spend the time commenting the library source code, then do bug fixes and maybe adding new routines? Again, I know nothing about this, but I refuse to believe that the libraries are so slow that they really need to be hand-optimized by other coders, correct me if I'm wrong.

I'd rather have a stable bug-fixed system than one that is optimized by someone who doesn't know how the code originally works.

Every library which has been written in C as programming language can usually be optimized in assembler with a speed factor of two (approximately). But that does NOT mean that all application programs which are calling these library function would run twice as fast. Such a speed boost will only happen very rarely because typically an application spends just a few % of its CPU time with the execution of a certain library function and uses most of the time for doing other things. So, the average speed gain is much less than expected (maybe 1%-5%) for most library calls. And the user will not even notice that.

Some years ago, I've written a tiny utility called libXScounter, because I wanted to know how often every library function in the system is really called by applications and how much sense it makes to optimize a function. LibXsCounter.rar

Unfortunatly, publishing commented sources of the system libraries which have not been completely rewritten from scratch is still illegal as long as the AmigaOS is protected by a Copyright for commercial interests. Thus, bugfixes can only be spread as patches.

[PeterK]

@TheCyberDruid
This thread can be closed and/or deleted. Thanks!

[NovaCoder]

Don't delete this thread, there's some very valuable infomation here about using the new library.

for example:

Replace the icon.library with 46.4.220,
the datatypes.library and the picture.datatype are ok and are required,
zlib.library is ok and required for OS4 TrueColor icons,
PNG.datatype is ok and required for PNG icons, but you can remove the DEVS:datatypes/PNG if you prefer the WarpPNG.datatype for pictures,
There is an update for the WarpPNG.datatype on Aminet, but it is not required and supported for the icons anymore.
pngalpha.library is ok and required for a few icons.

if you have a Hi/TruColor screenmode then you should install the PowerIcons program too and patch it with my PatchPowerIcons

[PeterK]

@NovaCoder
What is it?
Are you missing some information in the IconLib_46.4.readme file?
Which are the post numbers in this thread you're referring to?

Update:
That's all mentioned in the IconLib_46.4.readme file, but nobody reads it, as usually.
http://aminet.net/package/util/libs/IconLib_46.4

Btw, IconLib_46.4.220 is the last freeware version! The next versions will be "BluesWare"-updates, which means, I would expect a Blues song as an mp3 or flac file via email.

@TheCyberDruid
This thread can be closed and/or deleted. Thanks!

[TCD]

Originally Posted by PeterK

@TheCyberDruid
This thread can be closed and/or deleted. Thanks!

Okay, closed now