# Miscellaneous Utilities

## bmp2vbm

The utility `bmp2vbm` converts a Window or OS/2 `.bmp` format bitmap file into a `.vbm` Vicon bitmap format file. The `.vbm` file is then used with a `vIcon` object definition. The `bmp2vbm` utility will not convert all `.bmp` files. Specifically, it can't handle old format `.bmp` files, nor can it handle compressed `.bmp` files.

Windows has many tools to generate `.bmp` files. For X, the widely available tool `xv` can generate `.bmp` files from various source formats.

`Bmp2vbm` is a command line tool - run it from a Unix prompt, or from an `MSDOS` box on Windows. The command line format is: `bmp2vbm inputname outputname iconname`. You should specify only the base file names: `bmp2vbm` will automatically supply the `.bmp` and `.vbm` extension. The `iconname` specifies the name used to generate the date (e.g., `iconname_bits`).

## Other Utilities

The directory `v/icons` includes over 30 different monochrome icons in `.vbm` format suitable for building command pane tool bars. Most of these icons were derived from various Windows sources, and I would encourage their use for the standard functions they define. Some of these include creating a new file (new.vbm), opening an existing file (open.vbm), cut, copy, and paste (*.vbm), printing (print.vbm), and so on.

There is a demo program in the `v/icons` directory that can be compiled and used to see what all the icons look like. All the icons are 16 by 16 bits, and will match standard buttons in height on Windows. The height of standard buttons on X depends on the default system font.

As usual, contributions of other Vicons is more than welcome. I hope to build up the icons directory to several hundred icons.