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Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox /

Chapter 8 - Control Panels / Control Panels Reference

Resources

This section identifies the resources you supply for a control panel and monitors extension. The required resources for a control panel are

• A machine ('mach') resource that describes the systems on which your control panel can run or signals the Finder to call your control device function to perform this check.
• A rectangle positions ('nrct') resource to define the number of rectangles that make up the control panel and their positions.
• An item list ('DITL') resource to specify all of the items that are to appear in the control panel. These items can include static text, buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, editable text, the resource IDs of icons and QuickDraw pictures, and the resource IDs of other types of controls, such as pop-up menus.
• An icon list ('ICN#') resource and other icon family resources ('ics#', 'icl8', 'icl4', 'ics8', 'ics4') to define the icons for the control panel file.
• A control device function ('cdev') code resource that contains the code to implement the control panel.
• A file reference ('FREF') resource to associate your control panels's icons with your control panel file so that the Finder can display the icons with the file type they represent.
• A bundle ('BNDL') resource to associate your control panel's signature, icon list, and file reference resources.
• A signature resource--defined using a string ('STR ') resource--to identify your control panel.

The following required resources are described completely in chapters of Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials and are not included in this reference section:

• For the item list ('DITL') resource, see the chapter "Dialog Manager" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials.
• For the icon family, file reference ('FREF'), bundle ('BNDL'), and signature resources, see the chapter "Finder Interface" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials.

The two remaining required resources--machine ('mach') and rectangle positions ('nrct') resources--are described in this section. The font information ('finf') resource is also covered in this section; it is an optional resource that you can supply to specify the font to be used for static text items.

Note

You can include additional resources in your control panel file that are not required. See "Providing Additional Resources for a Control Panel" on page 8-22 for more information.

The resources required for an extension to the Monitors control panel are

• A card ('card') resource that contains a Pascal string identical to the name of the video card. (This is the name in the declaration ROM of the card.) Because a monitors extension can include as many card resources as you like, one extension file can handle several types of video cards.
• A monitor ('mntr') code resource that contains the code to implement and handle the controls and features of your monitors extension.
• A rectangle ('RECT') resource to describe the size and shape of the area used to display your controls.
• An item list ('DITL') resource to specify which items you want to appear in your monitors extension. You can add additional controls for superusers, separating them from the other controls with a horizontal dividing line.

Of these required resources, the card ('card'), monitor ('mntr'), and rectangle ('RECT') resources are described in this reference section. See the chapter "Dialog Manager" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials for information about the item list ('DITL') resource.

For information about the optional resources you can provide for a monitors extension, see "Supplying Optional Resources for a Monitors Extension" beginning on page 8-56.

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Subtopics

The Machine Resource

The Rectangle Positions Resource

The Font Information Resource

The Control Device Function Code Resource

The Card Resource

The Monitor Code Resource

The Rectangle Resource