Re^2: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files

Yes, ImageMagick would do what I want, but I don't want to have to build bindings for ImageMagick across multiple OSs.

This may be an X-Y problem. The issue is that this is for an in-house build for an Eclipse Rich Client Platform Application. For Eclipse RCP, you can build all OS applications on one system, because the "executable" is really a bundled launcher. So the Eclipse folks give you the executable for all OSs in the Eclipse bundle, and you copy it to the name of your application. The executable then loads your Rich Client Application java code . So concievably, you can build Win32, linux, sparc, hp-ux Rich Client applications all from a Mac OS X machine (for example).

The trick is that the windows executable has the icon embedded in it, and I'm trying to figure out how to change the icon in the executable. Win32::Exe can change the icon of a windows executable given an .ico file, and seems to be pure Perl. However, I have a set of .bmp files that need to be converted to .ico, then I can embed them.

Eventually we may distribute this setup to other people/systems and the requirement to have/install/build ImageMagick side task seems a bit like overkill. But then again, I can't spend days looking into it, so ImageMagick might have to do.

Thanks for the input. - J

Comment on Re^2: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files

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Re^3: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files by leocharre (Priest) on Mar 22, 2007 at 15:08 UTC
There's this book I'm reading.. called why things bite back. It has some good examples of when the solutions we create for everyday problems, bring new problems.	[reply]
Re^4: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files by jimbojones (Friar) on Mar 22, 2007 at 15:11 UTC
Hi Yes, this is certainly biting back. The Eclipse "export RCP Application" button in the IDE works great. But does way too much under the hood. I'm in the process of trying to figure out what exactly it is doing so that I can automate it without having to have the entire Eclipse Platform installed everywhere I want to do a build (I should only need the libraries, which is a much small set of code). Thanks, J	[reply]
Re^3: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files by halley (Prior) on Mar 23, 2007 at 13:20 UTC
It may be slightly simpler to skip the "build perl bindings for ImageMagick for each platform" step, and use the command-line magick tools. While it's admirable to try to integrate the two into a monolithic tool, there comes a point when it's valuable to rely on `system()` and ship a small private bundle of dedicated tools. For example, many Mac OS X tools are starting to embed more of these tiny command-line tools into their .app packaging, unbeknownst to the user. The fact that for Darwin, an application IS a subdirectory just helps that process along, but there's no reason you can't do that with application bundles on other platforms. -- `[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]`	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Merge multiple BMP images into ICO files by jimbojones (Friar) on Mar 23, 2007 at 13:30 UTC
Hi I think this is the correct way to go, even though I resisted at the start. It'll just be faster. Thanks, - J	[reply]