In article <200310241814.47542.osuchj@avalon.net>, Jonathan Osuch <osuchj@avalon.net> writes:
Okay, so what is the following (in the make file) doing for me?
rc.res: rc -r $*.rc
winfract.res: winfract.rc mathtool.rc mathtool.h coord.dlg winfract.h \ dialog.h zoom.dlg rc -r winfract.rc
rc is the resource compiler. A .rc file is a text file containing a resource script that defines Win32 resources. Visual Studio 6/7 contains a resource editor that lets you edit resources through a GUI. In Win32, 'resources' are stored in the executable file when your exe is linked. The idea of a resource file is to be able to edit the UI elements of your application, or localized elements of your application, without having to modify the code. (There are resource editors that work directly on the resources embedded in a binary, for instance.) Suppose you have an application that is localized into English, French and German. You can put a string table in the resource file that will hold the localized strings used in UI elements -- dialog box titles, button text, combo box labels, and so-on. You can refer to elements in the string table with a string name or integer ID in your code to obtain the necessary strings. If you put them in resources, then a translation company can translate your resources and your code will then be localized into the translated language. Other things commonly in resources are dialog box layouts (including child controls), version resources (what's shown for the EXE version tab in Windows Explorer), hotkey resources, cursors, bitmaps, and custom resource data. See <http://tinyurl.com/s9zo> for the MSDN documentation on resources.
winfract.hlp: winfract.rtf mathtool.rtf hc winfract
hc is the help compiler. It takes source files and a project file and builds a winhelp .hlp file. This is the 'old' style of help file that's been in windows forever. Nowadays, MS prefers people to make HTML help files (.chm) instead. The resource compiler is in the 'Platform SDK' -- I think this is what Tim referred to as the Windows SDK, but they call it the Platform SDK now. The Platform SDK is a free download and contains headers, libraries and ancilliary tools for Windows development. Generally, even if you have Visual Studio, you occasionally install the Platform SDK if you want to access features in Windows that are newer than your release of Visual Studio. This is similar to how you should install the DirectX SDK to get the right libraries and headers instead of relying on what shipped with your copy of Visual Studio. The help compiler is in the Help Workshop also freely available from MS. See <http://tinyurl.com/sa13>. The resource compiler is included in Visual Studio. I believe the help compiler is also included somewhere on the Visual Studio distribution media, but its a separate install and not installed with studio by default. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ: <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/> Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty <http://pilgrimage.scene.org>