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Edit resource forks in OS X with Rezilla
Authored by: iu-macboy on Dec 13, '06 09:19:57AM

I thought OS X finally did away with resource forks... as in... supported them for legacy apps, but ventually they were to be phased out. Is this true, or are developers still using resource forks for new apps?

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Edit resource forks in OS X with Rezilla
Authored by: sjmills on Dec 13, '06 12:07:22PM

Resource forks are still in use in many places. Each Mach-O bundle can have a <executable-name>.rsrc in the Resources folder which contains non-localizable resources. Plus Localizable.rsrc for all the localizable things that aren't better placed elsewhere (like strings in Localizable.strings).

Resources are still a completely valid way to store things, especially lists of things. Like a hunk of data that might get loaded for every tool in a drawing app might have tool-specific data in a corresponding-ID resource.

The only reason one would NOT use a resource fork file is if the app or data is going to be used on another platform, but for those of us writing Mac software, who cares!? (We do keep our portable data in their own data fork files and compile them into resources on the Mac.)

Yes, Rezilla is a great replacement for ResEdit, but it's still not what I would call a finished product. And Resorcerer hasn't been worked on for years. It runs *mostly* OK OSX and on Intel (via Rosetta), but it seems to leave behind copies of files you were working on when ever you quit.



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Edit resource forks in OS X with Rezilla
Authored by: chyna4xena on Dec 14, '06 07:11:42PM

Resource 'fork' or resource 'file' ?

They're different things. A file can store resources in the data fork, and still not have a resource fork.

Resource forks are absolutely deprecated, and should not be used at all by programmers writing today. Most unix utilities are not aware of them, and they do not play well in the modern, multi-platform world.

I think the files you refer to above are storing resources in the data fork, they don't have a resource fork. Most .rsrc files, including the "Localised.rsrc" files, are of this nature.

The only resource forks I can find on my computer are inside Resourcerer's package, and strangely, inside the Adobe Acrobat 7 Pro package!



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