resources

[richardfish]

I'm just starting Windows programming using C, and have been going through a tutorial - http://www.winprog.org/tutorial/index.html - however, I'm having trouble getting my compiler to include the resource file i want to include. I'm using Bloodshed Dev-C++. The error message I get is

C:\Dev-Cpp\Makefile.win [Build Error] No rule to make target `files/resource.rc"', needed by `Project1_private.res'. Stop.

I'm sure this is very much a rookie mistake, but a quick solution would be useful as I can't find anything about it in the documentation.

[bithub]

Does your resource script (resource.rc) file generate a header (like maybe resource.h)? If so, include that instead.

[richardfish]

Yeah, I have a resource.h file as well, and that is the only one that's included with the actual file. The complete project contains the files simplewindow.c, resource.h and resource.rc. Maybe it'll help if I post the actual code.

#include <windows.h>

#include "resource.h"

const char g_szClassName[] = "myWindowClass";

// Step 4: the Window Procedure
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hwnd, UINT msg, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
    switch(msg)
    {
        case WM_LBUTTONDOWN:   
        {
            char szFileName[MAX_PATH];
            HINSTANCE hInstance = GetModuleHandle(NULL);

            GetModuleFileName(hInstance, szFileName, MAX_PATH);
            MessageBox(hwnd, szFileName, "This program is:", MB_OK | MB_ICONINFORMATION);
        } 
        break;        
        case WM_CLOSE:
            DestroyWindow(hwnd);
        break;
        case WM_DESTROY:
            PostQuitMessage(0);
        break;
        default:
            return DefWindowProc(hwnd, msg, wParam, lParam);
    }
    return 0;
}

int WINAPI WinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance, HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
    LPSTR lpCmdLine, int nCmdShow)
{
    WNDCLASSEX wc;
    HWND hwnd;
    MSG Msg;

    //Step 1: Registering the Window Class
    wc.cbSize        = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
    wc.style         = 0;
    wc.lpfnWndProc   = WndProc;
    wc.cbClsExtra    = 0;
    wc.cbWndExtra    = 0;
    wc.hInstance     = hInstance;
    wc.hCursor       = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
    wc.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
    wc.lpszMenuName  = MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDR_MYMENU);
    wc.lpszClassName = g_szClassName;
    wc.hIcon  = LoadIcon(GetModuleHandle(NULL), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_MYICON));
    wc.hIconSm  = (HICON)LoadImage(GetModuleHandle(NULL), MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_MYICON), IMAGE_ICON, 16, 16, 0);

    if(!RegisterClassEx(&wc))
    {
        MessageBox(NULL, "Window Registration Failed!", "Error!",
            MB_ICONEXCLAMATION | MB_OK);
        return 0;
    }

    // Step 2: Creating the Window
    hwnd = CreateWindowEx(
        WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE,
        g_szClassName,
        "The title of my window",
        WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
        125, 140, 600, 400,
        NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);

    if(hwnd == NULL)
    {
        MessageBox(NULL, "Window Creation Failed!", "Error!",
            MB_ICONEXCLAMATION | MB_OK);
        return 0;
    }

    ShowWindow(hwnd, nCmdShow);
    UpdateWindow(hwnd);

    // Step 3: The Message Loop
    while(GetMessage(&Msg, NULL, 0, 0) > 0)
    {
        TranslateMessage(&Msg);
        DispatchMessage(&Msg);
    }
    return Msg.wParam;
}

#define IDR_MYMENU 101
#define IDI_MYICON 201

#define ID_FILE_EXIT 9001
#define ID_STUFF_GO 9002

#include "resource.h"

IDR_MYMENU MENU
BEGIN
    POPUP "&File"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "E&xit", ID_FILE_EXIT
    END

    POPUP "&Stuff"
    BEGIN
        MENUITEM "&Go", ID_STUFF_GO
        MENUITEM "G&o somewhere else", 0, GRAYED
    END
END

IDI_MYICON ICON "menu_one.ico"

Edit: I changed some of the code in the first section above here when I realised it was the wrong thing. Basically the program should be displaying a menu with the details I get from the resource file. I took the .rc file out of the project and this time it compiles, but it doesn't show the menu, or use the correct icon.

[dagdarian]

You might want to check out the MinGW Developer Studio as it comes with a resource editor, and imho is better than dev-c++.

MinGW Developer Studio Hompage

[publikum]

I guess you're using Winprog.org tutorials...

I found my way out with observing the defined constants, and using only the numbers to define menu, menu selections, etc..

So the code looks like that:

 101 MENU 
BEGIN
...
END

And when you use the menu, you should define an integer for substitution for IDR_MYMENU....

wc.lpszMenuName = MAKEINTRESOURCE(101);

[richardfish]

Isn't it the case that it will just make things more complicated and it's bad programming practice to use the actual numbers rather than the identifiers? I mean keeping tracking of the numbers alone is going to get very difficult with larger programs. Maybe I might have more luck trying to use MinGW -- I'll give it a go, thanks.

[publikum]

the other reason is that Dev-CPP doesn't compile the resource files, which you created in a project, but a resource files in a project folder (ex. C:\project\) which are most possible outdated. So try to change this files and try to compile once again and than report what happened.

So, on short:

You have a resource file in Dev-C++ project, called resource.h and you try to compile a project with identifiers, which are declared in project file resource.h. You have to copy the project file resource.h to file resource.h on the hard disk.