dimgrobhelper question

[webmasterpdx]

I was playing around with the dimgrobhelper utility and found it only accepts .bmp files. Yet a lot of comments on this utlity talk about working with png files. Do I have an old version of the utility or something?
Thx
-Donald

[Tim Wessman]

I would not use that any more - period. It was made before the ability was there to directly use png/jpg files. They will have a much more efficient compression and space utilization and also not waste memory just by existing like the ICON command will do.

[webmasterpdx]

So, how do you make an icon from an image if not to use the dimgrobhelper?

[Tim Wessman]

For an application, have a file named icon.png or icon.jpg in your app directory.

The problem with the ICON keyword is that the instant the program source files is parsed, it makes a bitmap in memory that will not be removed. So if you make a few screens of bitmaps, MB of memory will be consumed and never really released.

[webmasterpdx]

You mean it can't be deleted? or isn't assigned to variables? That'd be a bug for sure....
So, you place the icon file of appropriate resolution and the hp connection sw does the conversion when you copy the app to the calculator?

[Tim Wessman]

When the program source file is parsed and the ICON keyword is hit, a bitmap containing that content is created. It won't ever be deallocated unless you recompile the source and remove the ICON data, or have a compilation error, or reboot the calculator. The bitmap remains in memory for use.

It was mean to give the abiltiy to make an icon for things. However, people started using it instead to store large images...

Not a bug, just something being used for an unintended purpose that has the side effect of consuming large amounts of RAM even when (from the user perspective) it isn't in use.

[webmasterpdx]

So, I'm assuming the connection sw converts png or jpg icons when the app is transferred?

[Carlos295pz]

You can search "PNG" in the forum to find information about it: http://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-7467.html

[webmasterpdx]

Interesting. The AFiles command isn't in the online help or any other help for that matter....just saying.
Thx
-D

[Didier Lachieze]

I don't know what you mean by online help, but AFiles is in the on-calc help: just type AFiles and press [Help] or press [Help] > Tree > HP apps > Common App Variables
It's also documented in the manual page 614.

[webmasterpdx]

I looked for it in the catalog....normally all on calc help commands are in the catalog....

[Tim Wessman]

They are actually variables. Anything that allows you to store and overwrite content is considered a variable by the system.

AFiles("name.txt"):=<stuff>

Would mean that is a variable and not a function.

I agree however that it can be hard to find a specific variable/function as not everything appeared in the catalog. That is why some time was spent to make improvements in the catalogs for the next release (if any). Functions and variables will now both have a catalog that lists built in functions/variables, cas functions/variables, and all user created functions/variables.

[Terje Vallestad]

(09-09-2017 05:47 AM)webmasterpdx Wrote:  I looked for it in the catalog....normally all on calc help commands are in the catalog....

If you have a look HERE you can find a PDF of all the on Calc help. One update old though.

May be of some assistance

Cheers, Terje