Creating a .res file

[Melba23]

Hi,

When I compile a script which includes any resources the first thing that appears in the small compiling window is the message "Creating resource file". For one of my scripts, which contains a fair number of icons and other resources, this takes very nearly half the time of the whole compile.

As the resources are unlikely to change, but I am often tinkering with the code of the script, is there a way to get the resource file compiled ahead of time, so that the overall compile time can be reduced?

I had a look at ResHacker, but it seems to allow only 1 resource to be saved at any one time. It does allow the creation of a .rc file, but this appears to be a list of resource names only.

Is there an AutoItWrapper directive which will produce a .res file? There seems to be one for everything else, but I cannot find one for this.

And if I manage to produce a .res file, how to include it in the compile process?

Thanks in advance for any pointers,

M23

[Jos]

Which version of autoit3wrapper are you using, because this is removed for a while since i coded the builin resource update functions.

EDIT: 02/16/2008

*** Updated AutoIt3Wrapper_Gui/AutoIt3Wrapper v1.10.1.4 (Jos)

- Added: Buildin Resource update functions instead of requiring RC.exe and Reshacker.

This also enables the resource update of x64 compiled scripts.

RC.exe is the program that used to create the res file from the generated rc file

Jos

Edited January 29, 2009 by Jos

[Mobius]

@Melba23,

If you like Reshacker you could also::

create an empty (zero byte) file with a .res extension and either open it up with the reshacker gui and add resources from scratch,

or use reshackers excellent scriptable functions to add / Update mass amounts of resources ahead of time.

The wrapper method is probably loads easier and cleaner to implement, but I do not use standard build methods.

check out the reshack documentation for information regarding the scriptable functions. (which are similar to cmdline ones.)

Ed: Spelling

Edited January 29, 2009 by Mobius

[Melba23]

Mobius,

Thank you for that tip about Reshacker. It is obvious when you think about it - I was fixated on saving the resources from the .exe and never thought of using the originals!

Jos,

I am using the 20-12-2008 download (I also have the latest beta since our "include source code" discussion yesterday). There is no RC.exe in my AutoIt folders (or anywhere else for that matter).

If I were to use the Reshacker method, how then to use the .res file when compiling with AutoItWrapper?

Thank you both for your quick replies.

M23

[Jos]

When you see this "Creating resource file" it is actually adding the resources to the output file, not creating a RES file.

Jos

[Melba23]

Jos,

Understood. I will continue with the AutoItWrapper directives and use the additional compile time to make some tea!

M23

[Jos]

You could give it a try using RES.exe to create a standard RES file and run reshacker every compile to input these standard resources.

Could be this is faster...

[Melba23]

Jos,

I will try over the weekend. I am betting your Wrapper directives will win, though!

M23

[Jos]

Not so sure about that.

The reason I spent to time to code it all up in AutoIt3 native code was the fact that I had to include the res.exe + dlls and that people had to download reshacker and on top of that the main reason was that reshacker doesn't support x64 compiled script which the internal code does.

Jos

[Melba23]

Jos,

Looking at just the compile time, ResHacker is very much quicker.

But if you factor in the time to create the .res file in the first place - and the time I spent learning how to get it all working! - I am not so sure.

In the case I spoke of - resources rarely changed, but code often tinkered with - a .res file is probably the way to go. But for anything else:

AutoItWrapper Rules

as I suspected!

Many thanks for all the effort you have put into it - I know I speak for many when I say: "Bedankt"

M23

[Zedna]

Look here at my older solution

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.ph...st&p=169711

I prepared RES file from RC file first and then I added this RES file to compiled EXE file by reshacker -add

I used batch file for that but you can use #AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add for that.

EDIT:

here is example for adding resources by reshacker

#AutoIt3Wrapper_useupx=n

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, test_1.txt, rcdata, TEST_TXT_1, 0

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, image1.bmp, bitmap, TEST_BMP_1, 0

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, image2.bmp, bitmap, TEST_BMP_2, 0

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, binary1.dat, rcdata, TEST_BIN_1, 0

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=ResHacker.exe -add %out%, %out%, C:\WINDOWS\Media\tada.wav, sound, TEST_WAV_1, 0

#AutoIt3Wrapper_run_after=upx.exe --compress-resources=0 "%out%"

http://www.autoitscript.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=51103 Edited January 30, 2009 by Zedna