Assigning GEOS Icons to DOS Files

Updated: 92-03-12

This document is provided as a way for PC/GEOS users to get the most
out of GeoWorks products. It contains technical information on how to
modify PC/GEOS system files and use undocumented features. Therefore,
most of these tips are for advanced DOS users and are not supported
by GeoWorks since they go beyond the scope of normal use.

[Note also that GeoWorks cannot promise to get you out of any mess
you may create using this information. Not to say we won't, but the
customer service reps have not been briefed on this information since
it is, as Frank says, undocumented --GW Adam]

Here is a way to give your DOS files any icon seen in GEOS (to
temporarily, I hope, relieve the lack of an icon editor). Under the
heading of [fileManager] in the GEOS.INI file add the name of your
file (wildcards ok) and then specify the icon (i.e. token), which is
a four letter code and is case sensitive. The code is in quotes and
is followed by a comma and a zero. For example, if I wanted to give
my PROCOMM.BAT file the GeoComm icon, my GEOS.INI file would be
modified to look like this:

[fileManager]
filenameTokens = {
   PROCOMM.BAT = "TERM",0
         *.EXE = "gDOS",0
         *.COM = "gDOS",0
         *.BAT = "gDOS",0
         *.*   = "FILE",0,"NPAD",0
}

Notice that I have placed the filename before the wildcards--this is
important! Also note that the four letter code for GeoManager is
TERM. The four letter codes for the rest of the icons ae listed
below along with the actual icons on the next page. Remember they are
case sensitive and must be in quotes followed by a comma and a zero
as seen above.

gDOS - generic DOS program icon
WP00 - GeoWrite icon
FILE - generic DOS file icon
NFCT - Nimbus font converter icon
gAPP - generic GEOS application icon
NPAD - Notepad icon
gDAT - generic GEOS data icon
PERF - Perf icon
3DFt - 3D Font Demo
PMGR - Preferences icon
AMOL - America Online icon
scbk - Scrapbook data file icon
BANR - Banner icon
Scrp - Scrapbook icon
BONC - Bounce
DUMP - Screen Dumper
CALc - Calculator icon
SOLI - Solitaire icon
CCOM - Complete Communicator
FLDR - Subdirectory folder icon
TERM - GeoComm icon
TETR - Tetris icon
adbk - GeoDex data file icon
ADBK - GeoDex icon

Icons only in TOKEN.DB:
DDAT - GeoDraw data file icon
DP00 - GeoDraw icon
GCAL - Unknown application icon
DESK - GeoManager icon
GCDa - Unknown app's data file
plnr - GeoPlanner data file icon
PLNR - GeoPlanner icon
WDAT - GeoWrite data file icon

If you browse through the TOKEN.DB file with a HEX/ASCII editor you
might find some duplicate icons, but I have only listed the primary
ones here since the other ones haven't always worked for me in all
cases.

Note: Within the TOKEN.DB file which was sent out on the setup disks
with version 1.2 there are two additional icons. Be careful, though.
If you erase (e.g. to rebuild) your TOKEN.DB file they will be gone!

A technical note about PC/GEOS file structure and icons:

You may wonder where all these mysterious codes come from and what
they mean. First let me briefly explain the way PC/GEOS stores files.
As you may have already noticed, PC/GEOS stores GEOS files with a
three digit numeric extension. This is because PC/GEOS allows long
filenames whereas DOS does not. So, if you save a file named
"Business Report for April" in GeoWrite, the DOS file name would look
like BUSINESS.000. All that PC/GEOS does is take the first eight
valid DOS characters from the GeoWrite name and hen tack on a
numeric extension. If a BUSINESS.000 file already existed, PC/GEOS
would simply increment the numeric extension by one, thus creating a
BUSINESS.001 file (for example, that would be the case if you
subsequently created a GeoWrite file called "Business Report for
May"). You can therefore create a thousand PC/GEOS data files in
which the first 8 characters of the filename are "business." The
actual PC/GEOS filename is stored within the data file itself along
with the its Type and Creator.

If you use a file Hex editor to view PC/GEOS files (application or
data files), you will notice three things. The file's Type is listed
at offset 14H, the Creator at offset 1AH, and the long filename at
offset 20H. The Type and Creator are stored as four digit codes. The
Type is simply the code for that particular file 'type' and the
creator is the code of the application which created it. The Creator
for all PC/GEOS applications is GEOS. The codes which I listed for
the icons are the Type codes. Thus, if you wanted to know the code
for a new PC/GEOS application, you could simply pull out your handy
hex editor and take a look at offset 14H to find the code.