load-pixmap

Arguments: pathname &key name pixmap-to-return (icon-index 0) make-unique-name

Reads a pixmap from any device-independent bitmap file. These are typically .bmp files. You can also load .ico (icon) files on Windows, or X bitmap files on GTK. The arguments are:

• pathname: a pathname or path namestring naming the file from which to load the pixmap. The file should be either a .bmp (Windows bitmap), .ico (icon) or .cur (mouse cursor) file. An error is signaled if this file does not exist or if its contents are not in the standard format of one of the valid types of files.
• name: a symbol that will be used for the name of the pixmap. This symbol may be used in later calls to find-pixmap (if the pixmap is first cached by calling cache-pixmap), and appears in the print name of the pixmap. If nil, a unique symbol based on the name of the file from which the pixmap was loaded is created and used for the name.
• pixmap-to-return: either nil or an existing pixmap object to re-use. If nil, a new pixmap object is created and returned. If a pixmap, the pixmap is "filled in" with the information read from the file and then returned. This argument may be useful for updating a pixmap object from an edited (or alternate) file while keeping the pixmap eq to the former version of it.
• icon-index: a non-negative integer indicating which icon to read from a .ico icon file, where zero indicates the first icon. The default is zero. This argument applies only if pathname names a .ico icon file, and will be ignored if pathname names a .bmp pixmap file.
• make-unique-name: if true, ensures that the name for the pixmap (typically taken from the filename) is not already in use as the name of a cached pixmap.

This function returns the loaded pixmap.

See also save-pixmap (which creates .bmp files) and load-lisp-pixmap (which loads a Lisp file which will recreate a pixmap).

Copyright (c) 1998-2008, Franz Inc. Oakland, CA., USA. All rights reserved.
Documentation for Allegro CL version 8.0. The object described on this page has been modified in the 8.0 release; see the Release Notes.
Created 2007.4.30.