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Chapter 5 - Text Utilities / About the Text Utilities

Obtaining Resource Information

Many Text Utilities routines perform operations--such as modifying text or sorting strings--that require information from resources. Some routines determine which resources to use by checking a resource parameter; others check a script code parameter.

For a Text Utilities routine that uses a resource parameter, you can explicitly specify the resource you want to use, or you can specify NIL. The value NIL causes the routine to use the resources associated with the current script. The current script is either the system script (the script associated with the currently running version of Macintosh system software) or the font script (the script of the current font in the current graphics port), and is determined by the value of the international resources selection flag, which is represented by the global variable IntlForce. If the value of this flag is TRUE, the current script is the system script; if the value of the flag is FALSE, the current script is the font script. (See Figure 5-1.)

Figure 5-1 Determining the current script

The international resources selection flag is initialized at startup from the system script configuration ('itlc') resource. For most system scripts, the international resources selection flag has a default value of TRUE. If you want to change its value, you can use the SetSMVariable function with the smIntlForce selector. If you want to test its values, you can use the GetSMVariable function with the same selector. The GetSMVariable and SetSMVariable functions are described in the chapter "Script Manager" in this book.

The value of the international resources selection flag actually controls the operation of the GetIntlResource function, which is used by other routines to access the international resources. The operation of GetIntlResource is described in detail in the chapter "Script Manager" in this book.

Other Text Utilities routines use a script code parameter, in which you specify the unique number that defines the script system whose resources you want to use.

Constants for all defined script codes are listed in the chapter "Script Manager" in this book. If you wish, you can specify the following two special constants in the script code parameter: smSystemScript, which indicates that the routine should use the international resources of the system script, and smCurrentScript, which indicates that the routine should use the font script.