Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mit-eddie!mintaka!yale!cmcl2!adm!news
From: DAVID@ches.cs.vims.edu
Newsgroups: comp.lang.pascal
Subject: Bitmaps in exe files
Message-ID: <26239@adm.brl.mil>
Date: 11 Mar 91 19:37:49 GMT
Sender: news@adm.brl.mil
Lines: 42


    With regard to incorporating bitmaps into program files as
requested by Dan.Bjorklund@samba.acs.unc.edu:-

     You can incorporate auxiliary data files into your program
with the help of the BINOBJ utility supplied by Borland.
     Let's assume your file, DATA.REC is a 'file of rectyp',
where *rectyp* is a type. Run BINOBJ using the command: BINOBJ
DATA.REC DATA.OBJ MYDATA. This will generate an OBJ file that
thinks it's a program with entry point MYDATA (or words to that
effect).
     In the program that uses the data, include the statement:

procedure MYDATA; external;
{$L DATA.OBJ}

     To access the data, define a variable, p of pointer type:

var  p : pointer;

and use typecasting to access the fields of the record:

  p := @mydata;
  with rectyp(p^) do begin
{   .... access the fields of the first record }
  end;
{to skip to the next record, re-assign p}

  p := ptr( seg(p^), ofs(p^)+sizeof(rectyp) );

{ or use similar assignments to calculate the pointer to any
  record in your data }

Hope this helps - I've managed to use this technique without
problems. If you need to update your data you have to go through
the whole routine with BINOBJ and then re-compile the program.
Something I've been looking at is incorporating a (hopefully)
unique tag in the file so I can scan the executable EXE file for
it, locate where the stuff is stored in the EXE file and replace
it *in situ* without having to recompile.

David Evans,  DAVID@CHES.CS.VIMS.EDU