ResCompare is a programmer’s utility that compares resource files. Use it to
• find out what resources you changed while working at home late last night,
• find out what resources the rest of the team changed in the project you’re all working on while you were on vacation,
• see what resources have changed between versions 1.0 and 1.0.1 of your favorite application,
• create a Patch application that will apply changes to applications and other files, which you can use to distribute upgrades of your software without sending a new copy of the entire application,
• or just get a quick list of the resources in any file.
How do I use it?
ResCompare is easy to use. Just start it up and choose Open… from the File menu. Pick a resource file to look at and ResCompare gives you a list of all the resources within that file. This list is pretty handy because it’s sorted by resource type and ID, and it also contains the name and size of each resource. You can print out the entire list, or you can select some resources and copy the formatted list of information to the clipboard.
But the real fun starts when you choose the Compare with… command ( K) from the File menu. This command lets you open a second resource file, and it compares each resource in the first file (the master file) with the resource having the same type and ID in the second file (the update file).
You can open the update file while the master file is being read. This generally speeds up the comparison process for larger resource files. Under System 7, you can drag any resource file onto ResCompare. (Note: If you can’t drag files onto ResCompare, try rebuilding your Desktop by restarting with the option and command keys held down; or, use Mike Engber’s free Save a BNDL utility.) If the front most window is a resource list that hasn’t been compared to anything yet, Res-Compare will compare the new file to it. Otherwise, ResCompare will open the new file.
After comparing, the resources that are identical are removed from the list (it doesn’t alter the files). All re-sources that were deleted from the master file are shown in red, with the “deleted” icon ( ) on the left margin. Any resources that were added to the update file are shown in green, and get the “added” icon ( ). Any resources whose con-tents, attributes or names have changed get the “changed” icon ( ), and are shown in blue. Here’s what a window looks like after comparing two resource files:
( You must get the applacation to see what i mean )
You can select resources from this list by clicking them. Use the shift key to extend your selection and the command key to form a discontinuous selection. You can also type a resource’s type and ID to scroll to the closest match and select it. Use Select All ( A) from the Edit menu to select all resources at once.
At the top of the window, the names of the master and update files are shown, along with their version numbers and the names of the volumes they reside on. In the Size column, you can see the “before/after” sizes of each resource. The little “no–write” icon ( ) is next to the update file to remind you that it cannot be changed. However, the master file doesn’t have a no–write icon. You can change its resources using the Update com-mand in the Change menu.
If you select one or more resources in the list and choose Update ( U), the update is applied to the selected resources. What does that mean? It means that if a resource was added to the update file, it gets added to the master file. A resource that was deleted gets deleted from the master file. A changed resource is copied from the update file to the master file, along with its attributes and resource name. In other words, the selected resources are changed in the master file so that they are identical to the update file. After updating, ResCompare removes the selected resources from the list (since they’re now identical).
If you click the icon, ResCompare swaps the master and update files. This is useful if you want to get some changed resources into your master file, and also put some resources you’ve changed into the update file.
You can also use the Font and Size menus in the usual manner to adjust the font used. You should probably switch to Helvetica before printing to a LaserWriter.
Editing Resources
Select one or more resources and choose Edit resources ( E) from the Edit menu. This command opens the master and update resource files in a resource editor (either ResEdit or Resorceror™) and displays the selected resources. If the resource editor isn’t running, ResCompare will launch it. Use the Choose editor… command from the Edit menu to select your preferred resource editor. These commands only work under System 7.
Viewing Resource Differences
ResCompare can show you the exact changes to a resource. After comparing files, select a resource and choose Differences from the Change menu. It may take ResCompare a few moments to compute the resource differences; but when it’s done, ResCompare will display a window like this.
( You must get the applacation to see what i mean )
The top portion of the window displays any differences found in the resource name and attributes. Differences in the resource contents are displayed in a hexadecimal format. Identical, inserted, deleted, and changed sections are shown in their respective colors. If you aren’t using a color monitor, you can refer to the byte offsets listed in the two left–hand columns. The left column is the offset within the master file, and the right column is the offset within the update file. A section has been deleted if it has no update offset, and it has been added if it has no master offset. If the section has both offsets, it has been changed if the hex dump is split into two sections. Otherwise, the section is identical in both files. The same information is also displayed in an ASCII dump in the right–hand column.
ResCompare will also show differences if you double–click a resource or select a resource and press return. You can use the Change menu’s Hide same parts command to suppress the display of the identical (black) parts. You can also select any portion of the differences and copy it to the clipboard as text.
This Program is a must if u want to start Kracking.
