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Inside Macintosh: More Macintosh Toolbox /


Chapter 1 - Resource Manager

This chapter describes how to use the Resource Manager to read and write resources. You typically use resources to store the descriptions for user interface elements such as menus, windows, controls, dialog boxes, and icons. In addition, your application can store variable settings, such as the location of a window at the time the user closes the window, in a resource. When the user opens the document again, your application can read the information in the resource and restore the window to its previous location.

This chapter begins with an introduction to basic concepts you should understand before you begin to use Resource Manager routines. The rest of the chapter describes how to

To use this chapter, you should be familiar with basic memory management on Macintosh computers and the Memory Manager. See the chapter "Introduction to Memory Management" in Inside Macintosh: Memory for details. You should also be familiar with the File Manager and the Standard File Package. See Inside Macintosh: Files for this information.

For information on how to create resources using a high-level resource editor like the ResEdit application or a resource compiler like Rez, see ResEdit Reference and
Macintosh Programmer's Workshop Reference. (Rez is provided with Apple's Macintosh Programmer's Workshop [MPW]; both MPW and ResEdit are available through APDA.)

To get information on the format of an individual resource type, see the documentation for the manager that interprets that resource. For example, to get the format of a 'MENU' resource, refer to the chapter "Menu Manager" in Inside Macintosh: Macintosh Toolbox Essentials.


Chapter Contents
Introduction to Resources
The Data Fork and the Resource Fork
Resource Types and Resource IDs
The Resource Map
Search Path for Resources
About the Resource Manager
Using the Resource Manager
Creating a Resource
Getting a Resource
Releasing and Detaching Resources
Opening a Resource Fork
Opening an Application's Resource Fork
Creating and Opening a Resource Fork
Specifying the Current Resource File
Reading and Manipulating Resources
Writing Resources
Working With Partial Resources
Resource Manager Reference
Data Structure, Resource Types, and Resource IDs
The Resource Type
Resource IDs
Resource IDs of Owned Resources
Resource Names
Resource Manager Routines
Initializing the Resource Manager
Checking for Errors
Creating an Empty Resource Fork
Opening Resource Forks
Getting and Setting the Current Resource File
Reading Resources Into Memory
Getting and Setting Resource Information
Modifying Resources
Writing to Resource Forks
Getting a Unique Resource ID
Counting and Listing Resource Types
Getting Resource Sizes
Disposing of Resources
Closing Resource Forks
Reading and Writing Partial Resources
Getting and Setting Resource Fork Attributes
Accessing Resource Entries in a Resource Map
Resource File Format
Resources in the System File
User Information Resources
Packages
Function Key Resources
Standard Icons
ROM Resources
Inserting the ROM Resource Map
Overriding ROM Resources
Summary of the Resource Manager
Pascal Summary
Constants
Data Type
Routines
C Summary
Constants
Data Type
Routines
Assembly-Language Summary
Trap Macros
Global Variables
Result Codes

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© Apple Computer, Inc.
6 JUL 1996