Extracting Resources from MacOS X Resource Files

[Richard Gaskin]

Dave wrote:

> I tried the getResource command in revolution, it doesn't seem to  
> work with Mac OS X .rsrc files. For instance when I run this script  
> from a button:
> 
> on mouseUp
>    local myFilePathName
>    local myResourceData
>    local myResult
> 
>    put "/Users/Dave/Desktop/iTunesImages/myFile.rsrc" into  
> myFilePathName
> 
>    put getResources(myFilePathName) into myResourceData
>    put the result into myResult
> 
> end mouseUp
> 
> myResourceData and myResult are both empty, yet when I look at the  
> file with ThemePark it show the Icons and Files ok. The myFile.rsrc I  
> used here was taken from iTunes in the Resources folder inside the  
> App Package.
> 
> What I really want is to convert the pngs and icns into JPEG images.

The getResources function works on the resource fork only, added back in 
the OS 8.5 days and increasingly Apple is migrating away from using 
resource forks so it's not so useful under OS X.*

So while that explains why you're not getting what you're looking for 
with that, I'm confused about what's in iTunes .rsrc file.  It seems its 
icons are stored in  several dozen .icns files within the bundle's 
"Resources" folder.  With a tool or external that can extract the image 
data from them (could conceivably be done with a script too) it would 
seem those icns files are where you would obtain those images.

Yet the iTunes .rsrc file weighs in at more than 10MB.  What's in it?


* I'll take this opportunity to make another prediction about Apple: 
one of the next major changes to the OS seems likely to be migrating 
away from HSF to the same file system used by Unix/Linux.  The downside 
to this migration is the final end of the old resource forks, but the 
upside would be complete compatibility with most of the non-Microsoft 
world while further marginalizing Windows, drawing attention to it being 
a technological island.

Similar in scope to the other major transitions (68k->PPC, Classic->OS 
X, PPC->Intel) this will be somewhat disruptive during the transitional 
phase, but will also carry an upside for vendors as the previous 
transitions did by artificially enhancing demand for software upgrades 
which would otherwise be dependent on features alone.

I'll go further out on a limb to predict this will be announced within 
the next three years.

--
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World
  Revolution training and consulting: http://www.fourthworld.com
  Webzine for Rev developers: http://www.revjournal.com