Caching icon theme information

[Matthias Clasen]

On Wed, 2004-10-20 at 13:48, Frans Englich wrote:
> Such a cache would allow theme creators to maintain only an SVG set, and then 
> have a tool which generates PNG version which then are embedded into the 
> cache file(assuming the image caching is implemented).
> 
> In the "Icon theme specification: Standardizing icon names"[1] thread it is 
> evident that an "pseudo icon" mechanism is necessary, a method which allows 
> icon theme creators to say "this icon is also icon Foo, and icon Bar" -- 
> without copying/duplicating images or using symlinks. The standardized names 
> more or less relies on such a mechanism; many names allows flexibility, while 
> creators still have the possibility to cover those names with a smaller set 
> of actual images. Depending on how it's implemented, it also allows the 
> creation of high performing icon themes(embedded devices etc).
> 
> My idea of specification is that the icon data file has an IsAlso field which 
> is a semi colon separated string with the icon names it covers. For example, 
> the icon data file for icon "navigator-reload" could have 
> "IsAlso=system-reboot;document-reload;" and lookups on system-reboot would 
> load the navigator-reload icon, for instance.
> 
> However, that IsAlso directive doesn't allow it to be done in a efficient and 
> quick way. Perhaps this can be done with the cache? Like this:
> 
> Add a '4 CARD32 REAL_ICON_OFFSET' to Icon, which is the offset to the real 
> Icon. If set to zero, the icon is not a pseudo icon. 
> 
> Implications(AFAICT):
> 
> * The file size increases with 4*<number of icons>. 
> 
> * IMAGE_LIST_OFFSET wouldn't make sense for pseudo icons then, and it should 
> be zeroed. 
> 
> * It would complicate the cache generator.
> 
> * Converting to the standardized icon names once it's in the spec, will more 
> or less require support for the IsAlso directive, and hence the cache(or 
> doing it in some other way).

The icon cache is strictly a cache of the information found in the
file system. I don't think it should be a vehicle to implement 
extensions of the icon theme specification. If IsAlso can't be
implemented in an reasonable way without the icon cache, it should
be redesigned/rejected.

> 
> What is Icon::CHAIN_OFFSET btw? 
> 

The offset to the next member of the hash chain. We're essentially
dumping a hash table in the file here.