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Non Mac OS X Bundled data-fork based Resources

Q: What OS versions support data-fork based resource files when used in application bundles?

A: Support for data-fork based resource files was implemented in CarbonLib 1.4. Any version of the Mac OS that can run CarbonLib 1.4 (or later) fully supports data-fork based resource files. (This would be Mac OS 8.6 and later.) Because this support is packaged inside CarbonLib it's only available while your CarbonLib app is running. Any of your applications resources that need to be accessible to non-CarbonLib apps (such as the Finder) should still be placed in your application's resource fork, not in a data-fork-based resource file. For example: your application's resource fork should still contain 'SIZE', 'vers', 'BNDL', 'FREF', 'open', 'kind', and 'cfrg' resources, because these resources are all inspected by non-CarbonLib code in the system software, which doesn't know about the data-fork based resource files. Resources that are only necessary after your app is launched (like 'MENU', 'MBAR', 'WIND', etc.) can be in the data-fork based resource file.

[Aug 20, 2003]

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