3D ICONS FOR NEODESK - FREEWARE BY DAN DREIBELBIS NEODESK 3 certainly has proven to be very popular - and justifiably so in the added features and capabilities this replacement desktop gives to the ST. One nice feature that it adds is the ability to have specifically designed icons that denote at a glance what the program, folder or file is without having to squint at the writing underneath. I hadn't seen it all, however, until I saw J. Hurwitz's NEONEXT enhancement to NEODESK, which adds a NeXT-like feel and look to the ST's desktop. The thing that really got me was the icons, though - they LOOKED 3-D, and they even looked like they were actually being pushed in like a button when selected by the mouse cursor. (If you'd like to take a look at this interesting file, you'll find it in GEnie's Atari ST Roundtable - it's file NEONEXT.ARC; well worth the download!) Curiousity getting the better of me, I loaded the .NIC file from J.'s creation into NEODESK's Icon Editor, and began to pull apart his design - and was surprised to discover just how easy the process of designing an icon to get the effect he had achieved was. So easy, in fact, that within ten minutes I was editing my own icons to give me the very same features! Not only that, but the exercise also helped me to understand better how the Editor worked - thereby allowing me to actually improve upon the variety of icons I had designed in the past, as well as designing a whole load of new ones for some recent programs I had acquired at both the ACE '92 Canadian Atari Exhibition and at my meetings of the computer group I belong to, the Toronto Atari Federation (TAF) (PLUG!). I've decided that these icons are too good-looking to keep to myself, and so I've decided to share these with my fellow ST and NEOdesk3 users. Since some of the ones in this collection are modifications of the icons that originally came with NEOdesk, I decided that the honest thing would be to release it as freeware, since it wouldn't be right to ask for any fee on something that would come under copyright. (And I have spoken with Gribnif on the matter to get a few facts straight whether I should upload this file or not). You will, though, find quite a few of my own icons on this collection - including ones for Turtle, No Roach, Warp 9, MUGSHOT!, Multi-Viewer Graphica, STeno, Cardfile3, CatsPaw (the front end of Image Cat) - plus a few more. These icons are designed for use on monochrome ST systems - I would've loved to have designed some colour ones, but monochrome's all I have at the moment. They also look best on some sort of dark or 3-D background. Please feel free to distribute this file to as many users of NEOdesk as you can. The only compensation I really would like is from users of GFA Basic - see, I just got a copy of GFA and would like to start doing some of my own programs, but being a novice at programming, I don't know where to begin, and computer languages are all too confusing to me to comprehend - so if anybody with experience at programming with GFA Basic Version 3.5 could nudge me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful! You can get in touch with me at: Dan Dreibelbis 72 Glendonwynne Rd. Toronto, Ontario, Canada M6P 3E4 Or you can E-mail me via GEnie (my address is D.DREIBELBIS) - I also am available through a number of BBSes that carry FIDONET or USENET. Special thanks to J. Hurwitz, who got me started on the road to this interesting and fulfilling project - and to Rick Flashman at Gribnif Software, who was able to set me straight on a few questions regarding this file. Ah, heck - thanks to Gribnif, period, for putting out exemplary products for the Atari ST/STE/TT line and giving quick fast support when things go wrong! NEODESK3, NEODESK, STENO, CARDFILE 3, are registered trademarks of Gribnif Software. Image Cat, CatsPaw, MUGSHOT!, and Multi-Viewer Graphica are registered trademarks of WizWorks! Software. WARP 9 is a registered trademark of Codehead Software. NO_ROACH is a software title by Atari Computer Corporation. TURTLE is a software title by George Woodside.