[Squeakland] Methods for Customizing EToys' Icons and Interface?

Scott Wallace scott.wallace at squeakland.org
Sat Jul 8 02:04:18 PDT 2006


Hi, Greg,

Concerning fonts:

 From the "system fonts..." menu, found in the "appearance" branch of 
the world menu, you can change the "etoys font," which governs the 
font used on etoy tiles.

[You can obtain a "world menu" by holding down the shift key as you 
hit the ESC key.]

Also, from this same menu, try changing the "default text font," 
which governs the appearance of text in many places all over the 
system.  This is used, for example, to determine the font 
characteristics of *readouts* seen in Viewers.


Concerning icons:

Which "EToy icons" are you interested in changing?   Most of the 
graphics used in the etoy system are obtained from a "graphics 
library" that you can readily modify, and there's even a tool to 
help.  From the world menu, follow the "do..." branch, and choose 
"ScriptingSystem inspectFormDictionary."  The resulting tool lets you 
browse through all the items in this graphics library, and to edit 
any one, using the Squeak painting tools (use the "repaint" item.)

Alternatively, if you want to import entirely new graphics to 
substitute for some of the graphics used in etoys, that can be done 
as well, first by importing the graphics into Squeak in the usual 
manner, then by evaluating Smalltalk expressions to "patch" the 
graphics library.  But here we are out of the realm of the "etoy 
system"; there is no formal "feature" to let the user do this 
strictly via menus, and constructing the right little code snippets 
to will accomplish the substitutions is not something most users 
would be able to figure out on their own.

If you wish, perhaps you could email me graphics for a couple of such 
substitutions you want to make, and I can construct the appropriate 
code to accomplish this, and email it back to you, as examples of how 
this can be done.

When fiddling with fonts, you're likely to have better success if you 
substitute fonts of roughly the same size as the ones currently used 
in etoys.  Likewise, if you import replacement graphics, best results 
are likely if you keep sizes the same.

Cheers,

  -- Scott


At 12:52 PM -0700 7/7/06, Greg Smith wrote:
>GentleSqueakerFolk:
>
>Though I really like what EToys is capable of doing, I don't like to 
>look at its interface icons and fonts.  I read that everything in 
>Squeak is an object, and, being an object , it is editable.  If this 
>is so, how do I replace EToy icons and text with my own icons and 
>substitute font sets?
>
>Greg Smith


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