Presdec User Manual

SYNOPSIS

There are some applications for this program: It could be used to make the examples from the PalmOS SDK useable for the free GCC / PilRC environment, or to easily localize applications without the need for source code (respecting copyright issues of course).

Presdec has the following features, that separates it from other programs of similar functionality:

• Written in Java, to make it usable on a wide range of Computers and Operating Systems.
  It has been tested (a little :-)) on Linux with the 1.1 JDK and Windows 95 using the 1.2.1 JDK.
• Nicely structured and well documented source code is available.
• Output is very readable, contains no unprintable characters, and may be sorted by resource ID to improve human analysis.
• All resources, even unknown ones, may be saved in binary form to make generation of new PRC file possible.
• Presdec is freeware and will always be freeware.

CONTENTS

Copyright and License information
Requirements for running presdec
How to install presdec
      Unix
      Windows
      Mac
      Other Systems
Using presdec
      Command Line
      Options
Bugs
History
The Future

COPYING

Presdec is freeware. That means it may be copied without charge, provided the following copyright notice remains intact:

        Presdec is Copyright Thomas Holland, thomas@innot.de
        To get the latest version free of charge take a look at the presdec homepage.
    

The program may be made available online, and on low cost CD-ROMs. If it is bundled with other software and sold commercially then the author requires one copy of the complete software package as license fee. (I love new programs :))

If you take any part of the sourcecode for your own projects something similar to the following copyright notice has to be included either in the source code (if it is freely available) or at program startup (if source is not made available):

        This Program contains code from the presdec application, 
        Copyright Thomas Holland, thomas@innot.de
    

REQUIREMENTS

PilRC 2.0a or higher
If you plan to compile the generated resource files you need PilRC with version 2.0a or higher (at the time of this writing 2.3 is the most current version). Earlier versions of PilRC do not support all attribute tags generated by presdec.
 

INSTALLATION

Unix/Windows

1. Unpack the distribution file, presdec.zip. You can do this either by using the jar program that comes with Sun's JDK:
   

       jar xvf presdec.zip

   or by using a public domain version of unzip:

       unzip presdec.zip

    
   Either method will yield these files:

   README	Like readme.html but without any fancy styles
   readme.html	You are reading it right now :-)
   presdec.sh	Unix shell script wrapper for starting presdec
   presdec.bat	DOS batchfile wrapper for starting presdec
   example/pilrctst.prc	Example prc file for testing presdec
   presdec.jar	Archive with all required classes
   presdec_src.jar	Archive with the presdec java sources*
   Makefile	GNU Makefile for building presdec*

    
   ^*only in the source distribution
    
   

2. Edit presdec.sh (for Unix) or presdec.bat (for Windows) and set the environment variables to match the place where you put presdec.jar
    
3. On Unix systems, do the following to make presdec executable:
   

       mv presdec.sh presdec

       chmod +x presdec

   
   
4. For easy access you can copy presdec (for Unix) or presdec.bat (for Windows) somewhere in your Path, e.g. /usr/bin/ or c:\windows\
    
5. Do not unzip presdec.jar. It's executed directly by the presdec shell script / batch file.

 

MacOS:

Presdec is not 100% pure Java, since it only has a command line interface for setting options. But if someone tells me how to get it working on a Mac I will include a description here.
 

Other Systems:

If you write an wrapper script for some other OS you can mail them to me and I will include them in future versions of presdec.
 

USAGE

presdec [-abBdhOsvV] [-o outputname] [-p pathname] [-t bitmaptype][prcfile]

Only one prcfile may be specified on the command line. If no prcfile is specified, a file requester will pop up, which allows selection of a prcfile.

Options:

-a	Generates all resource attributes in the rcp file, even if they are default values for PilRC. The default is to leave those attributes off to keep the output short. Examples of default attributes are: MODAL, USABLE, SAVEBEHIND etc.
-b	Save resources that are not part of the resulting rcp file in binary form. The name of the binary resource files is ttttxxxx.bin, where t is the 4-letter type and x is the ID value of the resource in hex. Examples of binary resource files are:       code0000.bin CODE resource with id 0     data0001.bin DATA resource with id 1     tmid0709.bin Midi music data resource with id 1801   These files, together with the output of PilRC compiling the rcp file, can be used to build a new prc file. (Attention: this has not really been tested)
-B	Save all resources as binary files. This option is similar to -b, but this time all resources are written in binary form, even those that are part of the GUI and are decompiled into readable form. Examples:       tFRM0a8b.bin Form data resource with id 2700     tSTR03e9.bin String resource with id 1001   The resulting files can all be linked together again to reconstruct the prc file.
-d	Dump resources in a human readable way. Some resources, which contain only binary data, can be dumped in a human readable way by using this option. The actual output depends on the type of resource and is only intended for information, not for further processing. Currently supported for:     data resources   -  Hex dump and reloc information
-h	Prints out a short help text.
-o outputname	The name of the generated rcp file. Default is the name of the prc file with a new suffix of ".rcp".
-O	Do not generate a rcp output file. Useful in conjunction with the -B option to simply split the prc file into separate resources.
-p pathname	Path for the rcp output file and all extracted resources. Default is the current directory.
-s	Sort the resources in the rcp file according to id, type and some additional rules. Very often resources with similar id values are used together in the GUI. But in the final prc file this relationship is lost since the building tools will sort the resources by size or by type only. To make the rcp file more readable presdec will place all global resources (APPLICATION, VERSION etc.) at the beginning of the rcp file. All other resources are first sorted by their ID. Then all resources, that are referenced within a FORM or ALERT resource (see MENUID, HELPID and FORMBITMAP) are placed right behind that form. Finally all Objects within a FORM are sorted by their left and top coordinates.
-t bitmaptype	Type of conversion for bitmap resources. All bitmap and icon resources (Tbmp and tAIB) will be converted before being written to disk. Currently the following (b/w) bitmap formats are supported by presdec:   bitmaptype description extension remarks pbmascii PBM Type 1 (b/w, ascii file format) .pbm default ascii Simple conversion to printable text for quick viewing with any text viewer. .asc not supported by PilRC bmp Windows Bitmap file .bmp   none No bitmap files are generated.       The filename for each bitmap is tttxxxxx.ext, where ttt is "icn" for icons (special kind of bitmaps) or "bmp" for all other bitmaps, xxxxx is the decimal ID of the bitmap and ext is the extension as defined by the converterbitmaptype.
-v	Print some diagnostic messages to stdout
-V	Print some information about the structure of the prc file to stdout

 

BUGS

But don't forget to tell me about any modification...
 

HISTORY

FUTURE

Please feel free to send me comments, suggestions and bug reports.

Langen, den 26. Juni 1999