This chapter tells you how to define Win32 resources and incorporate them into your projects.

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Note that you may also use the CodeWarrior® Resource Editor to create and manipulate resources visually. It's in the Thrill Seeker's portion of the CodeWarrior CD.

Topics in this chapter are:

• Including Resource Files in a Project
• Win32 Resource Compiler

Including Resource Files in a Project

There are two kinds of resource files that you can include in a Win32 project:

• A resource script (extension .rc) is a text file containing descriptions of the desired resources. The CodeWarrior Win32 resource compiler will compile these descriptions into the corresponding resources, which will then be placed in your project's object file.
• A resource file (extension .res) contains the resources themselves, already created by the resource compiler and ready to be incorporated directly into your object file.

In either case, you can have no more than one resource file in a project. You must either combine all your resource descriptions into one resource script to be passed to the resource compiler, or precompile them all into a single resource file and include that in your project.

Win32 Resource Compiler

The Win32 resource compiler (RC) is a plug-in tool for the CodeWarrior integrated development environment. It reads standard Win32 resource scripts and compiles them into resources that are then linked into your project's object file.

The CodeWarrior resource compiler accepts resource scripts in the same format as those used by the Microsoft® resource compiler. Their syntax is fully documented in the Microsoft Win32 Reference, and in the Win32 SDK online help. See in particular the following topics:

• "Creating a Resource-Definition File"
• "Single-Line Statements"
• "Multiline Statements"
• "Common Control Parameters"
• "Common Resource Attributes"
• "Sample Resource-Definition File"
• Topics describing individual resource statements (listed in Table 7.1) Topic titles for resource script statements:

ACCELERATORS Resource	ICON Resource
AUTOCHECKBOX Control	LANGUAGE Statement
AUTORADIOBUTTON Control	LISTBOX Control
AUTO3STATE Control	The Listbox Control Class
BITMAP Resource	LTEXT Control
The Button Control Class	MENU Resource
CAPTION Statement	MENU Statement
CHARACTERISTICS Statement	MENUEX Resource
CHECKBOX Control	MENUITEM Statement
CLASS Statement	MESSAGETABLE Resource
COMBOBOX Control	POPUP Resource
The Combobox Control Class	PUSHBOX Control
CONTROL: General Control	PUSHBUTTON Control
CTEXT Control	RADIOBUTTON Control
CURSOR Resource	RCDATA Resource
DEFPUSHBUTTON Control	RTEXT Control
DIALOG Resource	SCROLLBAR Control
DIALOGEX Resource	The Scrollbar Control Class
The Edit Control Class	STATE3 Control
EDITTEXT Control	The Static Control Class
EXSTYLE Statement	STRINGTABLE Resource
FONT Resource	STYLE Statement
FONT Statement	User-Defined Resource
GROUPBOX Control	VERSION Statement
ICON Control	VERSIONINFO Resource

Resource scripts for the CodeWarrior resource compiler are fully compatible with those accepted by the Microsoft resource compiler, with the following exceptions:

The CodeWarrior resource compiler handles doubled double quotation marks in the same way as the C compiler, rather than like the Microsoft resource compiler. For example, the Microsoft resource compiler compiles the string
   ""Hi Mom"

to

   "'Hi Mom'

In the CodeWarrior resource compiler,

   """Hi Mom"

compiles to

   "'Hi Mom'

and is combined to become

   'Hi Mom'

To place a double quotation mark inside a string, use \" instead of "".

The CodeWarrior resource compiler ignores directory paths in file names. For example, a resource statement such as
   12 BITMAP .\..\..\res\bits\junk.bmp

is read as

   12 BITMAP junk.bmp

Use the Access Paths settings panel to specify the directory in which to locate files. Refer to the IDE User Guide for details.