MKOB: Display application appropriate icon in taskbar when running

[AESilky]

Currently when the MorseKOB application is running the icon displayed in the taskbar is the default Python Launcher icon:

Users would find it easier to select the application if the taskbar icon was a more appropriate 'key', 'sounder', 'kob', or similar icon.

[leskerr]

I added the old MorseKOB icon to the MKOB title bar. We can replace it with a different icon later if someone gets creative. I've included this change in the latest commit to the lk-57-Fix-reader-window-jitter branch. I'll create a pull request for this branch once I've converted the GUI to Tkinter.ttk widgets.

I don't know how to change the program's icon on the task bar, even though I once found a way to do this for MorseKOB 2.5.

[AESilky]

Thanks for putting this in.

Can you put a dash '-' in place of the space ' ' in this icon filename: 'MorseKOB Icon.ico' => 'MorseKOB-Icon.ico'

Spaces are handled, but not convenient, in command-line, scripts, etc.

[AESilky]

I would create a folder for icons (or such) and put the .ico file there. We might add more icons for things in the UI and this will be a good place for them.

There are a few 'Python file structure' guides (though I didn't find one that specifically called out images and icons): (for example) https://realpython.com/python-application-layouts/

[AESilky]

I found: "You can't add a custom icon to a plain Python script" in https://stackoverflow.com/questions/16782047/how-to-add-an-icon-of-my-own-to-a-python-program.

It mentioned py2exe (http://www.py2exe.org/) for windows. With that, you don't need to install Python and you can assign an icon for the application.

I found this, which might suggest a more generic solution: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/33134594/set-tkinter-python-application-icon-in-mac-os-x

[leskerr]

Can you put a dash '-' in place of the space ' ' in this icon filename: 'MorseKOB Icon.ico' => 'MorseKOB-Icon.ico'

I'd be happy to change the filename and move the file to a different directory. Instead of just putting in a dash for the space, should we give it a more Python-like name? Maybe all lowercase? What would you call the icon file if you were doing it from scratch? All I did was blindly copy the file from the MorseKOB 2.5 project, so don't be influenced by that.

And where's the best place to put the icon file? In PyKOB/images? PyKOB/MKOB/images?

This is not an immediate issue, because I discovered today that the mechanism I was using to put the icon on the title bar causes Python to crash with Linux. So I've disabled it until we can figure out what works on multiple platforms.

[leskerr]

It mentioned py2exe (http://www.py2exe.org/) for windows. With that, you don't need to install Python and you can assign an icon for the application.

This is huge! I was afraid coming up with a dead simple installation procedure for the MorseKOB app might be Python's Achilles heel. This could be the solution.

[AESilky]

Also found PyInstaller:

PyInstaller freezes (packages) Python applications into stand-alone executables, under Windows, GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris and AIX.

A guide to using it: PyInstaller Tutorial

It might be better since it indicates it is cross-platform.

[AESilky]

I would put the icon in: PyKOB/MKOB/resources

[leskerr]

Also found PyInstaller:

Wonderful! I can't wait to try it.

[AESilky]

Implemented in MKOB 4.1