The Resource Description Language

In this section, I cover the resource description language. Knowing this language, it is possible to do without a special resource editor. There are lots of resource-editing tools available. ^[i] Probably because of this, most books on programming pay little or no attention to the resource description language. In contrast to this approach, I won't even touch the resource-editing applications. Instead, I'll cover the structure and syntax of the resource description language in as much detail as possible. Note that the standard covered in this chapter will be interpreted the same way by both resource compilers. Rare exceptions will be considered separately.

Start with a brief listing of the most widely used resources:

• Icons

• Cursors

• Bitmaps

• Strings

• Dialogs

• Menus

• Accelerators

This list contains the most popular resources. It is only necessary to bear in mind that resources such as dialogs can include controls, which also must be defined within the framework of the window description. However, this topic will be covered later in this chapter.

^[i] Personally, I prefer to use either the resource editor from the Visual Studio.NET product or any simple text editor.