Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!tandem!netcomsv!fletcher From: fletcher@netcom.COM (F. Sullivan Segal) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Subject: Re: ResEdit for the Amiga? Message-ID: <1991Jun4.151837.4168@netcom.COM> Date: 4 Jun 91 15:18:37 GMT References: <231b3678.676013157@fergvax> Distribution: na Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services UNIX System {408 241-9760 guest} Lines: 55 > >>Would it be possible to construct a ResEdit (MAC) type program for the Amiga? >>If your not familiar with ResEdit (which I doubt) it is a program that lets >>you edit the aspects of other programs such as colors, icons, window types, >>window positions, menus, fonts, buttons & fields, etc. in a nice icon driven >>enviroment. Can this be done on the Amiga, or are Amiga executables not >>standardized enough to tell one thing from another? > >If you didn't know, the MAC resources that ResEdit uses, are simply a >header at the start of a program. All ResEdit does is load the >header of a file, lets the user change the values, then re-saves. > ^^^^^^^^ > >One side-effect of having these resources at the head of a file is that >the program you are editing is being tampered with. If a person changes >a value to a bad value, the whole program is ruined (as a Mac's System >seems to do often). For editing the executable get a program like NewZap. There are a variety of tools for working with icons, IFF files, and AmigaDOS hunks. If you are interested in changing the loading order of the hunks in an executable, there are some hunk editors available in PD. Most programs will allow you to set their colors, or will use the WorkBench color set. For any programs which are recalcitrant, you can try looking for the NewScreen structure in the executable and modifying it. For windows you can either look for the NewWindow structure, or use one of the window moving/resizing programs like 'wsize', 'wlist' and 'wmove'. Note that these programs are incompatible with the data caches on 68030's. > >Being a CS major and a computer nut, you learn that stuff shouldn't be >tampered with (either by someone or by the computer as in self-modifying >code). Any data that should be configurable by the user should be in an >external config file. This method guarentee's a 100% safety for the >main executable, while offering configurability..... > A religious issue. Keeping a backup also guarantees that an original executable will remain available. Most programs do store their initialization parameters in a file in "s:" rather than in their own executable however. -- -F. Sullivan Segall _______________________________________________________________ _ /V\ E-Credibility: (n -- ME) The unguaranteed likelyhood that ' the electronic mail you are reading is genuine rather than someone's made up crap. _______________________________________________________________ Mail to: ...sun!portal!cup.portal.com!fletcher or fletcher@cup.portal.com fletcher@netcom.com