Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!hplabs!nsc!voder!apple!lsr
From: lsr@Apple.COM (Larry Rosenstein)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga
Subject: Re: Feeping Creaturism
Message-ID: <7549@apple.Apple.Com>
Date: 3 Mar 88 19:58:05 GMT
References: <8802181921.AA19069@cory.Berkeley.EDU> <682@sandino.quintus.UUCP> <700@nuchat.UUCP> <5295@utah-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: lsr@apple.UUCP (Larry Rosenstein)
Organization: Advanced Technology Group, Apple Computer
Lines: 26

In article <5295@utah-cs.UUCP> thomson@cs.utah.edu.UUCP (Richard A Thomson) writes:
>
>I don't really know what a resource fork is, but a terse explanation by my
>friendly mac guru leads me to believe that it's not the demon you make it
>out to be.  What's really so wrong with it?  Is source code transfer your
>problem?  Apparently you just sent the mac file as two separate ascii files;

In fact all the development systems on thr Mac provide a pure text resource
format, and a corresponding resource compiler for creating the actual
resource.  The MPW system even has a resource decompiler, which allows you
to create a resource graphically and still be able to get a textual form.

The resource fork provides a nice mechanism for storing typed data that can
be accessed by name or ID.  It is used on the Macintosh as an alternative to
hardwiring data into the application.  Originally, this was for the phrases
that appear in an application (for the purpose of translating to another
language), but it is also used for things like application preferences
(window position, size, color, ...).

There are a variety of programs that modify resources, which allow users to
customize some aspects of their applications.

-- 
		 Larry Rosenstein,  Object Specialist
 Apple Computer, Inc.  20525 Mariani Ave, MS 32E  Cupertino, CA 95014
	    AppleLink:Rosenstein1    domain:lsr@Apple.COM
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