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This Technical Note discusses the new 'fwst' resource added to some Control
Panels under System 7.0 and later.
[Feb 01 1992]
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A New World for Control Panels
System 7 changes many of the rules for Control Panels (cdevs), and these
changes are very well documented in Chapter 10 of Inside Macintosh
Volume VI. However, there is one thing not documented in IM
VI that you need to be aware of, as it could cause you confusion and
frustration-- the 'fwst' resource.
Two groups of developers should be interested in this information: Control
Panel developers and developers of virus and disk security software.
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What Is This 'fwst' Thing in My CDev?!?!?!
OK, we admit it. The System can add a resource to your Control Panel. But it
does it for a good reason, really!
Control Panels do not show up in the Control Panel desk accessory anymore. Each
Control Panel a user opens will show up in its own window. Because of this, the
Finder needs to have a way to remember (among other things) the position of the
Control Panel window on the user's desktop so that the Finder can position the
Control Panel in the same location every time the user opens it, thereby saving
the user from having to continually reposition the window.
A new resource type--the 'fwst' resource--was created to keep track of the
Control Panel window position (and other things). The contents of this resource
is private; you should make no assumptions about the contents, size, or use of
the components of the 'fwst' resource. The only public aspect of this resource
is that it is used by the Finder to position a Control Panel window
on the desktop.
The 'fwst' resource does not automatically get added to your Control Panel. If
a user opens your Control Panel and closes it without moving the Control Panel
window, then no 'fwst' resource is needed, since the default position for the
window has not changed.
However, if the user moves the window and closes the Control Panel, a 'fwst'
resource is added. This tells the Finder where to place the Control Panel
window when the user opens it up again. This obviously is a very user-friendly
thing to do. Users get consistent positioning of their windows, and are not
frustrated by having to shuffle windows all the time. Note, however, that it
could cause problems for you if you don't know that it may show up.
If you check your own resource fork for any reason (for example, scanning for
viruses) you need to know that the 'fwst' resource may be there. If it's there,
that is normal, and you should not treat that as a damages resource fork or a
viral infection. If you notice the 'fwst' resource being added to a Control
Panel and if you are a virus protection or disk security software developer you
should not alert the user that a resource has been added or that a viral attack
is taking place.
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One More Thing
The presence of an 'fwst' resource has one more effect that you may find
very frustrating, since until you know about it you can't figure it out.
Another resource that you normally add to a Control Panel is the 'nrct'
resource. This resource is used to specify a list of rectangles that your
Control Panel used in the pre-System 7 Control Panel desk accessory.
The 'nrct' rectangle resource is described in Inside Macintosh Volume
V, and the removal of the size restriction is documented in IM VI.
Basically, what IM VI says is that now, since each Control Panel has its
own window, your 'nrct' does not have to fit inside the old Control Panel
bounding rectangle. Your Control Panel under System 7 can be much bigger than
it was in any previous system. One thing that IM VI doesn't explicitly
say is that the first rectangle in your 'nrct' resource is the bounding
rectangle for the Control Panel window under System 7 and later.
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What Does This Have to Do With the 'fwst'?
The 'fwst' takes precedence over the 'nrct'. So, if you have a 'fwst' in your
Control Panel, any changes to the first rectangle in your 'nrct' will
not be recognized!
This can be very frustrating during Control Panel development. You've been
merrily debugging your Control Panel, moving it around the Finder, and making
sure everything works. You decide you need to add another item to the Control
Panel, and therefore you want the Control Panel window to be bigger. "Great,"
think you,"System 7 doesn't care how big I make it!" and you go into ResEdit
and change your 'nrct'. You go back to the Finder, open the Control Panel,
and nothing has changed!
What's happening is that the 'fwst' is overriding the 'nrct'. If you need to
change the 'nrct' of your Control Panel, make sure you check to see if
there is an 'fwst' resource in your Control Panel's resource fork. If there is,
delete it and make the necessary changes to your 'nrct'. With no 'fwst', your
'nrct' values will be recognized, and a new 'fwst' reflecting the correct
rectangle will be created if the window is moved. Use ResEdit, your favorite
resource editor, or Rez in MPW to remove the 'fwst'. Here's a command line you
can add to MPW build script for your Control Panel that will remove the 'fwst'
resource from the Control Panel automatically during the build process.
Of course, replace "{MyControlPanelName}" with whatever name or
variable you are using in your build script to identify your Control Panel.
And remember to remove whatever 'fwst' is in the Control Panel before your ship
your product. This will let the Control Panel come up on your user's machines
in the default location, and the user can decide where he or she would like the
Control Panel placed.
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References
Inside Macintosh, Volume V, The Control Panel
Inside Macintosh, Volume VI, Control Panels
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Downloadables
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Acrobat version of this Note (48K).
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