tonyw wrote:The Shell icon is supplied in SYS:System, so I don't understand why it wasn't there in your installation (or, alternatively, why you would have deleted it). It contains all the custom settings for opening the window.
That's simply because I had deleted it (together with the associated CLI command - BTW, I wonder which twist of evolution brought CLI and Shell.info to be separated&connected like that). The reason is explained in my previous post:
"... SYS:System/Shell, as that's something I've never used in my life".
Even using a default icon like ENVARC:Sys/def_iconify.info, we will still run into the same problem if it isn't there (because someone has deleted it, for instance). The only way to prevent the icon.library falling over is to make sure that we have something to pass to it. Without an icon, we could iconify the console but we could never recover it.
Absolutely. I was not even remotely suggesting there should not be a fallback solution - actually I suggested the opposite (
"Isn't it there an API call to get default icons (just wondering)? If yes, it could suffice to request the default tool icon" from my previous post)
Additionally, I think there's another thingie that needs clarifying and that seemed to have passed unobserved. At some point you said:
There are several suitable "def_xxx" icons in ENVARC:Sys/, not including "def_shell" which the console was also looking for. There are "def_iconify" and "def_kingcon" (shudder). I can test to see if one of these is present,
and I replied:
I did have def_iconify.info, and the shell still crashed
The point here is that despite the fact the shell looks for alternative icons when SYS:System/Shell.info is not available, it still crashes even if ENVARC:Sys/def_iconify.info is there. Note: def_shell.info instead works (and personally I find it even a better solution: neater and free from the snapshotting problem, as mentioned earlier); I haven't made a test with def_kingcon.info.
Of course, this will be solved automatically once the list of alternatives is replaced by a single general solution.