xplorer2 Resource Updating and Management for Dummies

A collection of especially useful xplorer² topics and ideas. New users may find it helpful to look here before searching the other forums for information. >>>>>> Please post new material in the relevant forum. (New stuff posted here will be removed.) Thanks. -fg-

Moderators: fgagnon, nikos

Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

FrizzleFry wrote:1.8.0.0 greek dll and it did not match the blank created with the 1.8.1.1 greek dll
Incidentally, there was a small change between .0 and .1 which included an extra bitmap which is read from the DLL resources rather than directly from the EXE (this was my Christmas present, I think :D), so a few more icons can be modded.  Previous to this it was ignored if included in the link library.  I have no idea if this change could affect the composition of a Blank.dll, but it may have.

For those interested, this was BITMAP 229 which contains the icons for the logical operators in complex find sequences:

Image

I modified them to the more universal 'C' language conventions, as personal preference.  I argued for inclusion of this resource as it didn't seem fair that everything else in the programme could be translated but foreign users were stuck with AND OR NOT words in English, which was just rude to all people everywhere.  (That said, I imagine most translator's couldn't give a flying hoot about it, but hey, now it's there - and at least C programmers of old can die happily now.  Remember you Java toyboys, there are more of them than there are of you. :twisted:) :D
pj
Gold Member
Gold Member
Posts: 471
Joined: 2006 Jan 26, 14:01
Location: Florida

Re: xplorer2 Resource Updating and Management for Dummies

Post by pj »

Kilmatead wrote:And thanks to the user pj in (not so always sunny) Florida for suggesting better error trapping, it inspired me to go completely overboard and overhaul the whole script from a mere 160 lines to 400+.  May hurricanes constantly knock at his windows.  And if he doesn't at least try this script, I'll personally see to it that the Buccaneers lose everything they play - not that I'd have to try too hard.

When I was 8 I had a pair of Green Bay Packers pyjamas from that sport for men who don't understand Rugby, and I thought they were the best things ever.  What's one "Bay" over another?  :wink:
Yes, well, about that whole "trying" thing and all the best laid plans, etc. Let's see: (a) both computers took a dive within 12 hours of returning home from Christmas with the kids and grand kids. (b) one now has a brand new Windows install (where was that darned "R"  Restore option supposed to show up???) so has to be reeducated to adulthood from infancy. (c) second computer finally recovered it's wits after much gnashing and hair pulling. (d) installed 1.8.1.1 with German (just to get a language DLL to play with) and now the column headings are still in German after selecting "English Translation" from the Help menu (and I know they correct themselves when X2 is restarted, just tweaking Nikos. Also, switching back to German puts the X2 window on the left side of the screen, regardless of where I have it, and this doesn't correct itself restarting X2. Just saying...) .

So resource hacking has now taken a back seat to (b), and the task of finally moving my data to another partition (just how the heck did I end up with 70 GIG in My Pictures?) so I can at last do image backups of the program partition.

Oh and about the Buccaneers, that high-priced (and over-paid) penal colony across the bay? If I ever alluded to liking anything but the penal colony based in Pittsburgh, I'd never see the grand kids again! Talk about football (American) fanatics. Sheesh! All I ever bleed is Kentucky blue anyway.:D

===============
PJ in (what, you want another weather report here?) FL
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Re: xplorer2 Resource Updating and Management for Dummies

Post by Kilmatead »

pj wrote:(d) installed 1.8.1.1 with German (just to get a language DLL to play with) and now the column headings are still in German after selecting "English Translation" from the Help menu (and I know they correct themselves when X2 is restarted, just tweaking Nikos. Also, switching back to German puts the X2 window on the left side of the screen, regardless of where I have it, and this doesn't correct itself restarting X2. Just saying...)
So... just to be clear, you're just ranting "on my dime", yeah?  And this has nothing to do with me, my script, or my pyjamas?
pj wrote:...just how the heck did I end up with 70 GIG in My Pictures?
Perhaps your unadulterated, unapologetic, and un-Luddite penchant for this might have something to do with it. :wink:

As Tom Hanks' character in Cast Away once said, "So, let me get one thing straight here... We have a pro football team now, but they're in Nashville?" - American football is much easier to follow if you're not on an island in the middle of a deep deep ocean.  I thought the sport stopped after Joe Montana retired?  It did, didn't it?  Everything after that is just an illusion of pretenders.

Thirty-five years later, and I still miss those pyjamas. :sad:
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

I love that high-contrast theme.

Is there a short (GASP! Choke!) method to achieve that result with my 32-bit x2?

****
Also, I'd love to run your idle mind on this: http://sikuli.org/
See if you can make gold out of that too!

Looks like a radical way to graphically tell the computer what to do, and make a script out of that so that the task can be automated. (So no headaches like composing scripts for AutoIT or Autohotkeys...)
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

narayan wrote:I love that high-contrast theme.

Is there a short (GASP! Choke!) method to achieve that result with my 32-bit x2?
What contrast theme?  The screenshots?  It's just Win7 Aero.  Nothing I did.  :shrug:  I don't think x64 vs. x86 is an issue with anything in this thread, unless the Americans start complaining about your insistence that Cricket is somehow a real sport with men wearing make-up.
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

No the icons you pointed out with red boxes and red arrows in two areas of "Additional Rules" window of x2 (see the 5th post above).

Let us say I'd just like to get those icons (and similar others) and place them instead of the original icons.

Now ideally I would like x2 to give me that GUI-driven option to just select any icon, and replace it with another by browsing through some ready resources.

I'd gladly use any third party GUI (the customization utility need not be contained within x2). Provided that the entire replacement is managed through GUI.

And this method would find huge support amongst the true-and-tested dummies (who can't use the resource hacker+scripts). After all, a full 99% of the x2 users are that.

(BTW can we cherry-pick icons from different theme tool bars, and save a hybrid set of icons for our use?)
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

...
Last edited by Kilmatead on 2011 Feb 20, 01:07, edited 2 times in total.
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

:D Yes I belong to that minuscule 1%, but speaking on the behalf of the rest.
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

"When I was a young boy and had never been kissed..." the world seemed a much wanton place of desires and dreams, secret languages of the soul, and the mysterious ways of womanly wiles.

After growing up and discovering that all that nonsense is really about spoilt children with nothing better to do than "enjoy themselves" and who never learned to suffer properly (there is, contrary to popular belief, a "proper" way to suffer), I figured out that unless you want something (usually money) from that 99% of humanity it is often best to simply avoid them and (preferably) sell their offspring on the Eastern-European free market.

If someone can't use scripts/utilities for practical reasons - fair enough, we can work with that - but on the other hand if they are simply afraid of what they do not know, then I am happy to leave them to the wolves, as I myself have been left many times in this cruel world.  In this instance, I'm not trying to "sell" anyone on the idea of resource-hacking any more than I would try to sell anyone the theories of Yoga and Pilates (in keeping with our apparently middle-aged housewife audience).

In fact, if they were all to commit mass-suicide-by-iPad (not sure how that would work, but it must be possible) the world would be a nicer place without a doubt.

So, for every few hundred million that happily jump off the cliff of marriage and taxes and children and want nothing more than to live in a completely unimaginative world, they are the authors of their own hell - the evening news comes on television at 6 - tune in, turn off, and sleep to old age.  If, however, every now and then some curious voice says "Wait, can you help me figure this Resource stuff out?" instead of just saying "Gimme Gimme Gimme" all the time, I will be only too happy to try my best and make sure that little Cindy Lou Who gets safely home to Whoville.

Everything else is just dross and cheap chattel.  Theodor Geisel knew this better than most - and if you really break it down to the basics, Resource Hacking is nothing more than arguing with the anti-protagonist [sic] of a Dr. Seuss book - everything in life is a personal form of subversive activity.  Rejoice in it.  :D
fastlane
Member
Member
Posts: 32
Joined: 2010 May 08, 19:20

Post by fastlane »

Nice work. Perhaps Nikos can clean up some of the dialogs like you have, as your work clearly points out some ugly sides of x2.. I mean why the need for all these extra tools to have x2 configured nicely.. just put it all in the main program so its easy for everyone.
fastlane
Member
Member
Posts: 32
Joined: 2010 May 08, 19:20

Post by fastlane »

Nice work. Perhaps Nikos can clean up some of the dialogs like you have, as your work clearly points out some ugly sides of x2.. I mean why the need for all these extra tools to have x2 configured nicely.. just put it all in the main program so its easy for everyone.
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

fastlane wrote:...why the need for all these extra tools to have x2 configured nicely...
As someone once coined "you can't please all of the people all of the time" - and as Nikos hasn't felt the need to change the modals since (apparently) the last ice-age - he seems happy with the status quo.  Indeed, I imagine a few long-term users wouldn't especially want anything to change (largely those who think XP is worth clinging to).  A few people have already expressed unhappiness with the upcoming main Icon change - so imagine what would happen if he "forced" a more extensive remodelling on people.  (And considering his recent foray into redesigning the Website, perhaps it's best if he doesn't quit the day-job just yet to try his hand at being a post-modern Gauguin. :wink:)

Thus, these sorts of utilities exist to keep the more discerning (or obsessed) users happy. :D  After all, the default windows (for all their sins) are still perfectly functional.  More or less.  If you squint a bit.  And cough like your prostate depends on it. Image
narayan
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1430
Joined: 2002 Jun 04, 07:01

Post by narayan »

(And considering his recent foray into redesigning the Website, perhaps it's best if he doesn't quit the day-job just yet to try his hand at being a post-modern Gauguin. Wink)
I second that.

I don't want a "Elephant dung" theme (aka "Cambodia chaki"). :twisted:
Kilmatead
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 4569
Joined: 2008 Sep 30, 06:52
Location: Dublin

Post by Kilmatead »

Kilmatead wrote:As for a GUI, you are out of luck - all these people who eat in MacDonald's need to learn that killing cows is a bloody business in real life - so sometimes you have to get your feet wet and do things the hard way... but the idea of a GUI is a little too nicey-nicey for real life.
<Sigh>.  As usual, one thing leads to another and before you know it you're married with children, nagging in-laws, mounting debts, and all the things you swore you wouldn't put up with when imagined the future back when you were 18, innocent, and free.

So it goes with this nonsense as well: about a month ago I needed a project to help me learn AutoIt (it seemed like a good idea at the time), so I decided to rewrite the x2ResHacker script from the beginning and turn it into what it should have been in the first place.  Largely the basic function is the same, except now the GUI adds the complete ability to manage the resources in any way you choose, without trusting a fairly complex command-line script to do what it's supposed to, with little to no feedback.

(The original post and the links/screenshots at the top of this thread have all been rewritten/edited to reflect the new changes.)

For those already familiar with the original scripts, aside from the extensive GUI integration, the main change is that you no longer need a foreign-language DLL to start with, as the script generates one all by itself from scratch for both foreign and domestic consumption.

Image

As you can see, the blank DLL structure itself is created in a simple 1024-byte block which contains no executable code whatsoever - it simply contains the combined embedded windows struct identifiers (in binary form) which are necessary to identify it as a resource container.  Ordinarily there's a few other superfluous details (like compiler/linker timestamps) which I've simply zeroed-out as they serve no real purpose to the end-user and do not impact on its simple functionality and ultimate purpose.

So, this Blank.DLL is recreated in purpose both ecumenically and ad hoc (to seriously mix our imageless metaphors) each time the main translation DLL (foreign or English) is to be built (garnering its other contents from the x2 executable as usual, or the pre-supplied language DLL in the case of foreign users), thus solving one of the main stumbling blocks for world domination.  (It still has the ResHacker dependency of course, as my script is nothing more than a fancy wrapper for it, but as that programme is intrinsic to resource hacking in the first place, this is no real limitation.)  Easy now ladies, even Elvis didn't have this much clambering of overwhelming public support and demand. :D

Basically (aside from reinventing the wheel), I decided the world needed yet one more Monument to Meaningless Pursuits, much like my ashtray which is filled with a million stubbed-out cigarette butts necessary for the creation of this madness.  The problem with looking for meaning in details is that you have to get your nose closely stuck into whatever mudpile you're studying, and that inevitably allows the Lilliputians to get their trebuchets ready to ensnare your nose despite your legs.  :shock:

In any event, enjoy the toy, for those users who may be interested (if any).

<Echoing sound of whistling ensues>, like that special reverberation you get from under the viaducts in Paris when it rains at 4 in the morning.  It's just one of those things. :wink:
User avatar
FrizzleFry
Platinum Member
Platinum Member
Posts: 1241
Joined: 2005 Oct 16, 19:09

Post by FrizzleFry »

I like the new GUI x2ResUpdater.

It is nice not to have to get the foreign language dll to generate the blank and English dlls. I figured there had to be a way to just create this file rather than having to rip it from a language dll.

I tried different options, selected some folders and modded some resources with no problems.

I would like to be able to just paste folders into the fields rather than having to use that terrible folder picker but it's not something that should be changed very often.

BTW, I just love that larger User command Organize dialog... I would not mind getting res files for some other annoying tiny dialogs... hint... hint :)
Post Reply