bart@reed.UUCP (Bart Massey) (05/09/86)
In article <21100039@orstcs.UUCP> nathan@orstcs.UUCP (nathan) writes: > Ten Challenges: > ... > Myers Challenge #7: > Apple's resource editor is huge, cumbersome, non-expandable, > and unreliable. The only thing to say in its favor is that it's > indispensable. (This is not to criticize the authors: it had to be > written before its problems could be understood.) But it's not > irreplaceable. Huge, yes. We'll see why in a moment. Cumbersome? Why? I think the user interface is rather painless, considering what it's doing. Unexpandable, no. We'll see why in a moment. Unreliable? As far as I'm concerned, for 1.0D4, at least, this *just isn't true*. I've done many, many things with it with nary a problem. If you don't have at least 1.0D4, though, you should get it... > I propose a core program which itself is little more than a > resource mover. It would load an edit module for each resource > type, as needed, from a separate file identified by the resource > name. The interface for such modules could be very similar to > that for DA's, so existing compilers could be used to create > the edit modules. Supporting a new resource type would require > *no* changes to the core program. Bugs would be easily localized. > The core program would be small enough to be a DA. Gee, what a coincidence! That's exactly how *ResEdit works now*! The reason that ResEdit is so large is that (a) the core program just plain needs to be a lot more complicated than the average DA, and (b) there are a bunch of editors in there already! There's even a facility for writing a resource description template, so that one doesn't have to write a custom editor for every new resource type! > If the interface for the edit modules were published, Apple > would be rid of a big maintenance headache, and "the rest of us" > programmers wouldn't have to be so paranoid about our resource > editor wiping out our new programs. Further, anyone could write > an editor for "his" resource type, and not have to wait for Apple > to get around to it. For more information on how to write your own custom editors, pickers, and resource templates for ResEdit, see the appropriate Apple technical notes. > Even Andy Herzfeld will thank you for > tackling this one, and Gassee will invite you to lunch. Thank you, Steve Pope and Ronny Sebok! ResEdit sure makes my life easier... Bart Massey ..tektronix!reed!bart
maclab@reed.UUCP (Mac DLab) (05/09/86)
> > In article <21100039@orstcs.UUCP> nathan@orstcs.UUCP (nathan) writes: > > Ten Challenges: > > ... > > Myers Challenge #7: > > ... I propose a core program which itself is little more than a > > resource mover. It would load an edit module for each resource > > type, as needed, from a separate file identified by the resource > > name. The interface for such modules could be very similar to > > that for DA's, so existing compilers could be used to create > > the edit modules. Supporting a new resource type would require > > *no* changes to the core program. Bugs would be easily localized. > > The core program would be small enough to be a DA. > Bart Massey responds: > Gee, what a coincidence! That's exactly how *ResEdit works now*! The > reason that ResEdit is so large is that (a) the core program just plain > needs to be a lot more complicated than the average DA, and (b) there > are a bunch of editors in there already! There's even a facility for > writing a resource description template, so that one doesn't have to > write a custom editor for every new resource type! Yes, ResEdit is "expandable", but Bart, you and I both know what a nightmare the pickers are -- they are a big pain to write, and overly complicated. I would suggest another challenge: I challenge someone to write, in English, an article on how to create a ResEdit picker. I know there is documentation already, but it is a joke, and it is not very widely distributed. A well- written document with a simple, solid, example could probably get published in MacTutor, and earn the author a few bucks. And by the way, I think Nathan's ten challenges are a great idea, and I trust we all shall rise to them! Scott Gillespie
jer@peora.UUCP (J. Eric Roskos) (05/19/86)
Talking about ResEdit, I have a trivial question...
Who is this Eric referenced in the "Bullet with his name on it"? I also
see his name on some system files, but don't remember seeing any Eric in
all the publicity photos that they had when the Mac came out.
What did he do to deserve the bullet?
It is certainly disconcerting to see a bullet with your name on it,
especially in a program as perverse as ResEdit...
"Now, I already named that DITL `12935' for you, what do you mean
trying to change it to `100'? I'll show you... I'll just
rename it `4' while you're not looking!"
--
E. Roskosshebanow@ernie.Berkeley.EDU (Mike Shebanow) (05/22/86)
The bullet is just a joke. It shows the current AppleTalk user name, which should be your name if you are using the newer System (3.0 and above). There is a 'STR ' resource in the system file which is owned by the AppleTalk driver for just this purpose. If you set the name with Chooser (or with ResEdit), the name in the About... dialog box will change too. I guess 'Eric' is someone who worked on the AppleTalk code. Andrew Shebanow