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From: espie@ibis.Stanford.EDU (Marc Espie)
Subject: Re:  ResEdit for the Amiga?
Message-ID: <1991Jun10.204334.14656@neon.Stanford.EDU>
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References: <mykes.3298@amiga0.SF-Bay.ORG> <30939@hydra.gatech.EDU> <3341@shodha.enet.dec.com>
Distribution: comp.sys.amiga.programmer
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1991 20:43:34 GMT
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In article <3341@shodha.enet.dec.com> ridder@elvira.enet.dec.com (Hans Ridder) writes:
>In article <30939@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt1619a@prism.gatech.EDU (James is just this guy, you know...) writes:
>
>> [is it a good idea to have ResEdit on the Amiga?]
>>The question is, would it be worth it?  After all it could make things
>>as difficult as on the Mac or even worse.
>
>What's difficult?  You can change the layout of windows and requesters,
>you can internationalize without recompiling the code (or without access
>to the code even.)  You can change menus around, etc.  Currently none of
>this can be done in a consistent manner from one application to another
>on the Amiga.  This would make both the developer's and the users' lifes
>alot nicer, in my book.
>
>>And, if folks get carried away with it, there will be all sorts of
>>extraneous data filling up these files and taking up space on my
>>harddisk (as is sometimes the case in a Mac...).
>
>I don't see where the "extraneous" data comes from.  All of these data
>are currently constants in the executable anyway, we're just talking
>about moving them into an external file, and adding a bit of
>housekeeping information.
>
>It would be plenty fast and small to make an IFF RSRC form, and define a
>few new chunks to hold the things we currently "hardcode" into the
>program (eg. NWIN, NSCR, and MENU chunks for NewWindow, NewScreen, and
>Menu structures.)
>
>>- James McIninch
>
>-hans
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Hans-Gabriel Ridder			Digital Equipment Corporation
>  ridder@elvira.enet.dec.com		Customer Support Center
>  ...decwrl!elvira.enet!ridder		Colorado Springs, CO

Let's put it that way: there are lots of programs out there which DON'T
hardcode this kind of information in the code. Taking into account the fact
that the system fonts can change their size NOW means that you can't decently
hardcode a window size or a menu position. Also, there are different amiga
out there. Different display sizes, different monitors with different
abilities. Different applications with different needs.

The issue of internationalization is another issue. It's perfectly possible
to put every message in another text file for easy translation (witness:
Lattice C error messages), but translating these messages will change lots
of display parameters (what about a gadget text ?) so that hardcoding
anything is a BAD idea indeed.

Furthermore, get a look at 2.0 code about that. ALL the OpenWindow OpenScreen
SetMenuStrip calls have been superseded by much more supple stuff, for which
you only need to code the part which is not standard.

There is not the amount of support (or lack of) for these things that exist
in the MAC OS. This makes for a faster OS, with lots of capabilities that
the mac OS lacks, for instance some diversity in looks so that I don't get bored
too soon :-).

More seriously, the application and its programmers are the only ones who know
how to change this kind of stuff. Specifying any kind of standard now means
designing a straigthjacket. You won't get people to agree about the way to
achieve ``resourceness''. The mac solution is not a solution. It's just another
way of life and programming. Guess why I bought an amiga...
----
    Marc Espie (espie@flamingo.stanford.edu)
