Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!wucs1!wuphys!mrk
From: mrk@wuphys.UUCP (Mark R. Kaufmann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: documenting resources
Message-ID: <542@wuphys.UUCP>
Date: 29 Apr 88 15:16:02 GMT
Reply-To: mrk@wuphys.UUCP (Mark R. Kaufmann)
Organization: Dept. of Physics, Washington Univ., St. Louis
Lines: 64
Summary: summary of replies


A couple of weeks ago (<534@wuphys.UUCP>),
I asked the following question of the net:

How does one document the resource "code" that is "written" using ResEdit?

The responses kept trickling in, and this article attempts to summarize
all of those responses. (Sorry it has taken so long.)
Thanks to all of you who replied; I have not included your names here.
------------------------
There are several resource-decompilers available; they eat a resource
file and spit out ASCII text which is suitable for input into one of the
standard resource-compilers.

In particular:
MPW (Macintosh Programmers Workshop)
includes a pair of tools called a resource compiler and resource decompiler.
They've defined a textual specification language for describing resource
contents; the compiler (Rez) converts text files to resources;
the decompiler (DeRez) converts resource files to Rez source format.
You can build resources using ResEdit or whatever, then
use the decompiler to make a textual equivalent for documentation purposes,
including hard copy.
Some resources simply become hex dumps, but others are
converted into a more readable form.
You can create you own templates (using a language similar to C) for
the DeRez'ing so you can get
something more intelligable than a straight hex dump.
Both formatted and unformatted (hex dump) forms are accepted by Rez to
create a resource file.  The formatted version
requires the templates which are included with MPW.  The templates include
most all resources (DITL, DLOG, STR , WIND, vers, SIZE, etc.).

[MPW is available from APDA, 290 SW 43rd Street, Renton, WA  98055, USA.
Disclaimer: I have no connection with APDA at all!]
------------------------
There are also PD/shareware resource compilers & decompilers.
Try looking in the SUMEX archives for names like "DeRez", "ResTools", etc.

I believe there is a public domain/shareware program (ResDecomp?) to
convert resources into a textual form that would be accepted by RMaker,
which other development systems use to compile resources.
------------------------
One person says:
However, most people I know have never felt the need for hard copy of
resource files.  I just build them as I need them and keep plenty of
backups in case ResEdit turns around and bites me.

Someone else:
I don't find myself documenting resources for archival purposes.  Maybe
for describing them to others....(writing an article?)
------------------------
One person, oster%SOE.Berkeley.EDU@jade.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) asks:
Does anyone know
if there is any facility like '#define' in Rez? It would be useful for
example, to define a grid of editable text items, and have their size contained
in a single '#define'.

================================
Mark R. Kaufmann
UUCP: ...!ihnp4!wuphys!mrk
      ...!uunet!wucs1!wuphys!mrk
Internet: mrk@wuphys.wustl.edu
================================