--------------------------------------------------------------- VB-Res (Freeware Version) --------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright © 1996 Gregg Irwin All Rights Reserved. --------------------------------------------------------------- This software is FREEWARE. You may use it as you see fit for your own projects but you may not re-sell the original or a derivative. If you redistribute it you must include this disclaimer and all original copyright notices. No warranty is inferred or implied, as always seems to be the case with software these days. Use at your own risk. Keep away from small children. Don't exceed recommended dosage. I'm not liable, I'm not liable, I'm not liable. A commercial or shareware version may be forthcoming but that will depend on how much value people see in a tool like this. i.e. is it worth the effort to add all the features a commercial version should have? I haven't intentionally crippled the freeware version in any way. If you think a critical feature is missing it's just because I didn't have, or couldn't justify, the time to put it in. Of course I may not have thought about it either. Things like resource memory load options and a floating File Browser would be nice to have, I agree, but they don't impede the general usefulness of VB-Res. If you have any suggestions on how to improve VB-Res, or if you find bugs, I would be more than happy to hear about them. -- Gregg Irwin [72450,676] --------------------------------------------------------------- What is VB-Res? --------------------------------------------------------------- VB-Res is a resource compiler. It creates RES files for use with your VB projects. It was written entirely in VB, using no VBXs or OCXs. It can create both 16 and 32-bit RES files from either the 16 or 32-bit version of VB-Res. It's a Windows program so you no longer have to run RC.EXE from a command window. It doesn't support Dialog, Menu, or Accelerator resources because they can't be used from VB. It does support Bitmap, Icon, Cursor, StringTable, and custom resources. VB-Res will require all the runtimes that any VB EXE requires. They are not included, and there is no setup program. This means you have to have VB4 installed on your system in order to use VB-Res. Why? Because it's freeware, designed for use *with* VB, and corners had to be cut somewhere. --------------------------------------------------------------- How it works, basically --------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Create a new project. 2) Add resources (ICO, BMP, etc.). 3) Save your project. 4) Compile your project. Voila! --------------------------------------------------------------- Creating a New Project / Project Options --------------------------------------------------------------- Select File|New. Pretty tough, eh? At this point you have an empty, nameless project. Not very useful. When you save the project the first time, VB-Res will use the filename as a default "Name" for the project. The project Name is not linked to the file name so you can put anything you want in the Name field under Project|Options. The Name is what will be used in the title bar of the project window. You can also add a description for the project that will be shown at the bottom of the project window. You might use this as a note field as well. The 16 and 32 bit RES file names are the target files that will be generated by the compiler. Default names are set when you save the file the first time (or if you delete the names at some point). --------------------------------------------------------------- Adding Resources to Projects --------------------------------------------------------------- You can: a) Select File|Add File, which will give you a common dialog. b) Drag and drop files from the File Browser onto a project. c) Double click a file in the File Browser d) Select a file in the File Browser and hit e) Drag and drop a file from another project When you add a resource to a Project it is assigned a default resource ID. You can change the resource ID to be a different number or a string. To do this, first select the resource in the list, then right-click on the list. Select Properties from the popup menu and change the ID to whatever you want. If the first three items in the popup menu are disabled it means that no item is selected in the list. You can't change the memory options for the resource at this time. They will always be disabled in the freeware version. --------------------------------------------------------------- Editing Resources --------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing to do is configure VB-Res to use the editor(s) you want. Use the Options/Editors menu item to do this. Then... To edit a resource: a) Select a resource, right-click, and select Edit from the context menu. - or - b) Double click a resource in the list. Editors are launched with the resource file name as a command line parameter. Your editor must support this method in order to be used with VB-Res. Any decent editor should do this. --------------------------------------------------------------- Project Files --------------------------------------------------------------- .VBR files are project files. It's basically a MAK/VBP file for a VBRes project. --------------------------------------------------------------- String Tables --------------------------------------------------------------- .STB files are stringtable files. The format is: = One string per line. Example: '------------------------- '-- VB-Res StringTables '------------------------- &H1 = VB-Res &H2 = Freeware Version &H3 = Copyright © 1996 by Gregg Irwin ID *must* be a number, no names allowed. You can use Hex notation, if you want, by prefixing the number with "&H". No quotes around strings. Strings are Trim'd when compiled. Expressions (e.g. 1 + 2 ) are not supported for ID's. Comments in STB files can start with a semicolon or single quote (; or '). If the file extension for the stringtable file is *not* .STB then the first line in the file must be a header line indicating that it's an STB file. The header is: VBRES_STB_100 --------------------------------------------------------------- Credits --------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to the brave beta testers who risked life and limb in the pursuit of easier RES file creation. Dan Barclay Eric Brierley Michiel de Bruijn Craig Clearman Paul Clement Jim Deutch Dick Grier L.J. Johnson Ibrahim Malluf Doug Marquardt David McCarter Enis Moran Gary Nelson Karl Peterson Pete Roberts Ron Schwarz (I Hope I didn't forget anyone!) Extra thanks to Craig Clearman who provided some valuable snippets of code to help with long filename support. Extra special thanks to Karl Peterson who was the original guinea pig long, long ago when I first got the wild idea to write a resource compiler with pure VB code. Thanks Guys! --Gregg --------------------------------------------------------------- Version History --------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.00 April 9, 1996 --------------------------------------------------------------- * Initial release