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From: 231b3678@fergvax.unl.edu (Phil Dietz)
Subject: Re: ResEdit for the Amiga?
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Date:  4 Jun 91 05:25:57 GMT
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In <stevek.4958@amiglynx.UUCP> stevek@amiglynx.UUCP (Steve K) writes:

>Would it be possible to construct a ResEdit (MAC) type program for the Amiga? 
>If your not familiar with ResEdit (which I doubt) it is a program that lets
>you edit the aspects of other programs such as colors, icons, window types,
>window positions, menus, fonts, buttons & fields, etc. in a nice icon driven
>enviroment.  Can this be done on the Amiga, or are Amiga executables not
>standardized enough to tell one thing from another?

>-=*> Steve Krulewitz -------------------- UUNET!tronsbox!amiglynx!stevek <*=-
 
If you didn't know, the MAC resources that ResEdit uses, are simply a 
header at the start of a program.  All ResEdit does is load the
header of a file, lets the user change the values, then re-saves.
                                                        ^^^^^^^^
 
One side-effect of having these resources at the head of a file is that
the program you are editing is being tampered with.  If a person changes
a value to a bad value, the whole program is ruined (as a Mac's System
seems to do often). 
 
Being a CS major and a computer nut, you learn that stuff shouldn't be
tampered with (either by someone or by the computer as in self-modifying
code).  Any data that should be configurable by the user should be in an
external config file.  This method guarentee's a 100% safety for the
main executable, while offering configurability.....
 
But can the Amiga have a ResEdit?
 
It could, but the only things it could possibly tamper with would be IFF
files (picts, sounds, anims, etc.)  Each IFF file has a configurable
header that players use to show them.....but who needs to tamper with
a sound file? 
 
Phil Dietz

---                    
   I don't like to flame!                                    Phil Dietz 
   You know what?                              231b3678@fergvax.unl.edu       
   Newton and Leibniz suck big time!                  Univ. of Nebraska
