Building standalones

[J. Landman Gay]

Shari wrote:
> 
> As this is for compiling on Mac, OSX and Windows, a resource fork is out.

You'll need three different standalones, one for each platform. Since
the Mac versions will only run on Macs, having a resource fork is not a
problem. MetaCard will always create a resource fork for a Mac
standalone anyway -- it has to, since all the MC code resources are
there, and Mac applications built for OS 9 and below always require a
resource fork. Since the fork is there anyway, there is no problem
adding a few more resources of your own.

To get a custom icon, go ahead and do it the same way you did in
HyperCard. You can edit the icon resources in the resource fork after
the build.

After building a Windows standalone, there won't be a resource fork. For
the Windows build, you will need a pre-prepared icon with very specific
properties (16 bit, 4 color, built with a Windows tool usually. I can't
get Graphic Converter's "ico" format to be accecpted by MC.) The Windows
icon needs to be specified in the Windows information dialog in the
standalone builder, before the build is done. You can't easily add a
windows icon to a standalone after the fact, since most tools that can
do that look for 32-bit icons and MC doesn't support those (I wish it did.)

Another tip for a Windows build: if you don't put anything into each
field in the Windows info dialog, you will get MetaCard's defaults after
the build. You can substitute a few spaces for actual text if you want
the field to look empty. These fields are what people see when they
choose "Properties" on the standalone's contextual menu in Windows.

So the general rule is: add Windows resources and information before the
build, add Mac resources afterward.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com