Article ID: 35762
Article Last Modified on 1/8/2003
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft QuickBasic Compiler for Macintosh 1.0
This article was previously published under Q35762
SUMMARY
This article explains the resources that are stored in the resource fork of Microsoft QuickBASIC (b) or (d) Version 1.00 for Apple Macintosh.
When you run ResEdit and open Microsoft QuickBASIC (b) or (d), you will see a list of resource types. You can change some of these resources to customize QuickBASIC. Please note that customizing QuickBASIC can be risky because it requires modifying QuickBASIC itself. The following are some possible changes:
- Define or change COMMAND-key equivalents for QuickBASIC's menu items.
- Change run-time error messages.
- Define new page sizes for the printer.
- Change the creator type of QuickBASIC so the Finder can distinguish the desktop icons of QuickBASIC's files from the icons of earlier versions of the BASIC Interpreter (2.00, 2.10, and 3.00). For a separate article describing the change, search on the following words:
icon and MSBB and MSBA
MORE INFORMATION
Note that the Finder uses the BNDL, ICN#, FREF, MSBB (or the lowercase msbb), and MSBA (or the lowercase msba) resources to give appropriate icons to QuickBASIC and the files created by QuickBASIC.
The following is an alphabetically-ordered list of the resources that are stored in the resource fork of Microsoft QuickBASIC (b) and (d) Version 1.00 for Apple Macintosh:
Name Description ---- ----------- BNDL Bundle resource. id# 128 standard bundle. id# 129 alternate bundle. The alternate bundle is automatically used if the creator type of QuickBASIC is changed to msbb (for binary QuickBASIC) or msba (for decimal QuickBASIC) (lower case is required). You may wish to change QuickBASIC's creator type if you plan to use both QuickBASIC and an older version of Microsoft BASIC Interpreter on the same disk. CODE QuickBASIC Interpreter CODE. CURS Stopsign CURSor used in QuickBASIC interpreter breakpoints. DITL Dialog ITem Lists. DLOG DiaLOG. The DITL and DLOGs are used together for QuickBASIC's various dialogs. FREF File REFerence. ICN# ICoN list. Icons for QuickBASIC's files and the QuickBASIC application. ICON ICONs used in QuickBASIC's animated dialog that displays whenever you compile a program. MBAB Application BNDL. MBAF Application FREF. MBAI Application ICN#. MBCB Application signature resource. The MBAB, MBAF, MBAI, and MBCB resources are copied to the resource fork of the compiled application, and their type is changed to BNDL, FREF, ICN#, and MBCB, respectively. MBCC Compiler Code. MBCO Default Compiler Options. MBCS Compiler extenSions. Filename extensions for compiler output files: lst, sym, and apl. WARNING: these are NOT Pascal strings, and your computer may hang if you Open As... STR in ResEdit. Instead, just double-click to open the desired extension resource, then click in the text area of the dump. You may simply type the desired extension. MBCV Compiler Version number. MBKI Keyword Information. Resources of type MBKI are named resources that contain the information that is displayed when you select Get Info... from the Search menu in QuickBASIC for help concerning a QuickBASIC statement. To edit one, select Open As... in ResEdit, and select STR. This allows you to add multiple lines to the information. Since these are Pascal strings, they are limited to 255 characters. MBLC Library Code. This resource contains library routines (for example, the ToolBox and DrawText statements). These are automatically copied to the resource fork of a compiled application if the "Include MBPCs & MBLCs" compiler option is selected in the Options... dialog box in the QuickBASIC Run menu. MBNC Null Code. MBNC resources become the CODE resources of an application that did not compile successfully. This code quits as soon as it starts. MBPC Pure Code. There is just one Pure Code resource shipped with QuickBASIC: the Eject routine. MBPC executable resources may be created with other high-level languages. These are automatically copied to the compiled application if the "Include MBPCs & MBLCs" compiler option is selected in the Options... dialog box in the QuickBASIC Run menu. MBRL Run-time Library, which contains support code necessary to make a compiled QuickBASIC program run. The appropriate QuickBASIC run-time library is automatically copied to the resource fork of the application if the "Include The Runtime Code" compiler option is selected in the Options... dialog box in the QuickBASIC Run menu. There are three different run-time libraries: Decimal Math; Binary Math; and 68881 Coprocessor Binary Math. MBSC Startup Code. MBTI Toolbox Information. Named resources with a type of MBTI contain the information that is displayed when you select Get Info... from the Search menu in QuickBASIC for help concerning the toolbox library and ROM routines. You may edit these the same way you do MBKI resources, selecting Open As... STR in ResEdit. MBTS ToolBox Syntax. This is the type-checking resource used by the ToolBox statement. (Note that the "ToolBox" statement is a routine of type MBLC). The QuickBASIC User's Guide contains instructions on editing the MBTS resource to provide type checking for more ROM traps. MENU QuickBASIC's menu templates. You may edit this resource to add or change command key equivalents for QuickBASIC's menus. You cannot change the hidden command keys like OPTION+COMMAND+I and OPTION+COMMAND+K, you can only change the ones where a command key is listed in the menu item. The following are some additions that you may find useful: Command Key Menu item ----------- --------- N New OPTION+F Find Next (appears as a script 'f') P Print... = Find Selected text (find equivalent text) A Save As... \ Options... (or use - or / which are traditional option symbols in other environments) The ID numbers for QuickBASIC's menus are as follows: Menu MENU ID ---- ------- Apple 256 File 262 Edit 258 Search 259 Windows 260 Run 261 File (runtime) 257 MSBB Microsoft BASIC signature resource for binary math version. This resource contains a Pascal string that is displayed when you highlight Microsoft QuickBASIC (b) on the desktop and choose Get Info... from Finder's File menu. msbb Alternate signature resource for binary math version. This is automatically used when the creator type of QuickBASIC (b) is changed to lowercase msbb. MSBA Microsoft BASIC signature resource for decimal math version. This resource contains a Pascal string that is displayed when you highlight Microsoft QuickBASIC (d) on the desktop and choose Get Info... from Finder's File menu. msba Alternate signature resource for decimal math version. This is automatically used when the creator type of QuickBASIC (d) is changed to lowercase msba. PREC PRint RECord. This resource may be edited to define different page sizes. This lets you print mailing labels or checks more easily. This resource is automatically copied to the resource fork of your compiled application. The QuickBASIC user's guide contains more information about changing this resource. SIZE MultiFinder memory allocation information. This may be changed to enable QuickBASIC to load larger source files. The README file on the distribution disks contains more information about changing this resource. STR STRing resources, such as error messages, etc. Note that the type "STR " has a space character after the R. These are Pascal strings. vers QuickBASIC version number. (Note that "vers" is lowercase.) WIND Default WINDow templates.
Additional query words: MQuickB
Keywords: KB35762