Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!UIAMVS.BITNET!AWCTTYPA
From: AWCTTYPA@UIAMVS.BITNET ("David A. Lyons")
Newsgroups: comp.sys.apple
Subject: why resources are Good
Message-ID: <8902032352.aa26934@SMOKE.BRL.MIL>
Date: 4 Feb 89 14:55:26 GMT
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Organization: The Internet
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X-Unparsable-Date: Thursday 02 Feb 89 12:11 PM CT

>Date:         Wed, 1 Feb 89 22:50:26 GMT
>From:         Doug Gwyn <haven!adm!smoke!gwyn@AMES.ARC.NASA.GOV>
>
>In article <25074@apple.Apple.COM> keith@Apple.COM (Keith Rollin) writes:
>[examples of using "resource forks"]
>
>But all those could just as easily have been achieved by using
>ordinary data files.  Why is a "split personality" file particularly
>useful?

Sure, everything you can do with resources could be achieved some
other way, but it would _not_ be as easy.  Advantages include:

(1) the resource fork is _part of_ the file, meaning you don't have
to remember to copy any data files along with your program & worry
about keeping them in the same directory as the program.

(2) the format of the resouce fork is not only standard, but it is
managed completely by the resource manager so your program doesn't
have to deal with it--it just asks for the resources that it wants
when it wants them.

(3) the formats of many specific types of resources are standard,
meaning that you can use widely-available programs to edit your own
program's standard resources _as well as_ other programs' standard
resouces.  (If you have a Mac and ResEdit, browse through the System
file's resources and the Finder's resources sometime.  Find a
magazine article or something that tells you about "LAYO" resources
you can customize in the Finder.)

While programmers _could_ certainly provide users with the same level
of customizability that resrouces provide, I assert that they usually
don't.  And without a _standard_ way of storing stuff like window/
menu/dialog/alert templates, the benefits of interactive
interface-designing are mostly lost.  If you have to write your _own_
interface editor, you might as well just hard-code all the rectangle
coordinates into your program (writing the interface editor would
take far too long unless you knew you would write a _lot_ of
programs you could use it with).

Anybody want to tell me how the NeXT's "interface builder" relates
to resources?  I don't know much about it.  Does it spit out source
code that you can include in your program?

--David A. Lyons              bitnet: awcttypa@uiamvs
  DAL Systems                 CompuServe:  72177,3233
  P.O. Box 287                GEnie mail:    D.LYONS2
  North Liberty, IA 52317     AppleLinkPE: Dave Lyons