Re: Getting label strings from form resources (i.e. form is NOT active/open)?

[Ken Krugler]

In all the discussion about displaying the build date/time, I didn't 
see anybody mention that you should use the formats specified by the 
user.

Which means that The Right Thing to do is to store the build date as 
a soft constant (tint) with an ID >= 1000, then use the DateTime.h 
routines to format it properly. So for PilRC that means implementing 
__TIME__ (or whatever) as something that generates the build date as 
a Palm OS seconds since 1904 value.

I don't know if .rc files have the same issue as using .r files with 
CodeWarrior, in that what I want is for the file to be recompiled 
every time I regenerate the .prc, not just when the IDE thinks that 
it needs to happen. Currently I need to use an external script to 
force this to work properly.

Anyway, the approach I use (with Rez) is as follows:

1. Create a .r file with:

#include "UIResDefs.r"

resource 'wrdl' (1000)
{
        {
                $$Year,
                $$Month,
                $$Day,
                $$Hour,
                $$Minute
        }
};
2. In the code:

// Word list resource from the xx.r file, and indexes into it.
const DmResID BuildDateWordList = 1000;
enum
{
        iBuildYear = 0,
        iBuildMonth,
        iBuildDay,
        iBuildHour,
        iBuildMinute
};
and

        Char buildDate[dateStringLength + 1];
        DateToAscii(PU_GetIndexedUInt16(BuildDateWordList, iBuildMonth),
                PU_GetIndexedUInt16(BuildDateWordList, iBuildDay),
                PU_GetIndexedUInt16(BuildDateWordList, iBuildYear),
                (DateFormatType)PrefGetPreference(prefDateFormat),
                buildDate);
        Char buildTime[timeStringLength + 1];
        TimeToAscii(PU_GetIndexedUInt16(BuildDateWordList, iBuildHour),
                PU_GetIndexedUInt16(BuildDateWordList, iBuildMinute),
                (TimeFormatType)PrefGetPreference(prefTimeFormat),
                buildTime);
where PU_GetIndexedUInt16 just loads the requested (by index) value 
from the word list resource. Then in the code I load up the version 
string resource (the tver=1000) and finally...

        // Load "Version ^0 (^1 ^2)"
        Char templateStr[32];
        SysCopyStringResource(templateStr, VersionTemplateString);
        Char* versStr = TxtGlueParamString(templateStr,
                                        versP,
                                        buildDate,
                                        buildTime,
                                        NUL);
	FormType* frmP = FrmInitForm(AboutForm);

	FieldType* fldP = (FieldType*)FrmGetObjectPtr(frmP,

        FrmGetObjectIndex(frmP, AboutVersionField));
        FldSetTextPtr(fldP, versStr);
        FldRecalculateField(fldP, true);
I know, what a pain...

-- Ken

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