Hi, maybe someone can help with a little annoyance I have: Using Visual Studio, when I view resource files (*.rc) as code, the editor somehow knows the syntax, as it clearly shows syntax highlighting, but it has no idea about the proper indentation of the resource definition blocks (MENU, ACCELERATORS, etc.). Annoyingly, it still takes control and messes with indentation levels as you type. It drives me mad, since I cannot find anywhere to control the behaviour. A settings section for resource files is not listed under Options | Text Editor. Is there any way to make indentation behave?
Last edit: Vidar Hasfjord 2022-07-09
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I am also annoyed by [the poor indentation behaviour for resource files in VS text editor].
Thanks for letting me know I am not alone! It is an irritating oversight by Microsoft that there is no settings section for resource file code formatting. If you stumble upon a good workaround in VS to make indentation work well, let me know.
It just occurred to me that our own TCoolEdit actually supports nice syntax highlighting for resource files. I just tested it, and in fact it provides excellent indentation behaviour as well — 4 spaces block indent, which seems to be the default for resource files generated by VS. Hence, for text editing of resource files, our beloved OWLMaker is a good option!
(Ironically, as I posted about this annoyance, I was actually working on our CoolDemo — which of course is a demonstration of TCoolEdit. So, as it turns out, that demo is better for editing its own resource file code than VS!)
That said, OWLMaker (or CoolDemo) has some limitations, such as lack of Redo. TCoolEdit does have support for Redo, but apparently it is not fully implemented.
PS. I haven't tried Resource Builder, but it looks nice. It seems it does have a text editor as well. Give us a review if you test it out.
Hi, maybe someone can help with a little annoyance I have: Using Visual Studio, when I view resource files (*.rc) as code, the editor somehow knows the syntax, as it clearly shows syntax highlighting, but it has no idea about the proper indentation of the resource definition blocks (MENU, ACCELERATORS, etc.). Annoyingly, it still takes control and messes with indentation levels as you type. It drives me mad, since I cannot find anywhere to control the behaviour. A settings section for resource files is not listed under Options | Text Editor. Is there any way to make indentation behave?
Last edit: Vidar Hasfjord 2022-07-09
I could not find any setting to control the behavior of the text resource editor in VC, and I am also annoyed by it.
There is an old thread here that discusses resource editing: https://sourceforge.net/p/owlnext/discussion/97175/thread/6d8201ea0f/?page=0
But it does not provide better alternatives.
Searching internet, I found this:
https://www.resource-builder.com/
Has anybody tried it?
Thanks for letting me know I am not alone! It is an irritating oversight by Microsoft that there is no settings section for resource file code formatting. If you stumble upon a good workaround in VS to make indentation work well, let me know.
It just occurred to me that our own TCoolEdit actually supports nice syntax highlighting for resource files. I just tested it, and in fact it provides excellent indentation behaviour as well — 4 spaces block indent, which seems to be the default for resource files generated by VS. Hence, for text editing of resource files, our beloved OWLMaker is a good option!
(Ironically, as I posted about this annoyance, I was actually working on our CoolDemo — which of course is a demonstration of TCoolEdit. So, as it turns out, that demo is better for editing its own resource file code than VS!)
That said, OWLMaker (or CoolDemo) has some limitations, such as lack of Redo. TCoolEdit does have support for Redo, but apparently it is not fully implemented.
PS. I haven't tried Resource Builder, but it looks nice. It seems it does have a text editor as well. Give us a review if you test it out.
Last edit: Vidar Hasfjord 2022-07-08