Can AS know if an desktop icon already exists in a location

Question

this code moves a file on the desktop to a specific location.
tell application "Finder"
set desktop position of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Shawn:Desktop:The Matrix Effect - Video.webloc" to {1800, 1000}
end tell
Can you ask Applescript if an icon is already there, if so then just add 100 pixels in the code so the new icon is offset a bit. Thanks

Answer 1

For most (but not all) properties, if you can set them then you can also get them (check the application dictionary to verify the properties you're after).
Therefore, in this case, all you need to do is first get the desktop position, then you can make whatever adjustments you like:
tell application "Finder"
  set thePos to desktop position of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Shawn:Desktop:The Matrix Effect - Video.webloc"
  -- now you have the icon position so move it
  set desktop position of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Shawn:Desktop:The Matrix Effect - Video.webloc" to {(item 1 of thePos) + 100, (item 2 of thePos) + 100}
end tell
If you want some kind of collision detection (to see if there's an icon in that place already) you'll need to get the desktop position of each item on the desktop and iterate through them. It'll be relatively easy to account for icon size (just add an offset to your checks), but handling the text label will be harder (there's no way I'm aware of to find the position of the file name).
(you don't say which way you want to move it, just amend the offsets as appropriate)