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GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:28 am
by PatrickWeisser
Hello Everyone,

I just got a new Sony Vaio SR290 series laptop, and I got it with XP to increase my compatibility with the older software I run. But to my surprise I'm having a problem with Borland Resource Workshop. It will open, but immediately generates a GPF error when I click on File, Open Project before I even specify an RC file. All my other 16-bit stuff runs just fine. Has anyone else had this problem with a new machine and found any solution? Workshop still works fine on my trusty 4-year old Vaio VGN-FS570 running XP, as well as on another older desktop XP machine I have, so it's nothing to do with any of the recent Windows XP updates.

As for moving away from Workshop, I have tried both Resource Builder 3 and ResEdit. Resource Builder makes pervasive changes to all my dialogs when I save to RC, and the changes it makes causes strange behavior in FiveWin -- like the dialogs for FiveWin folders opening outside the host window at the upper left corner of my screen. While ResEdit is not as severe in the changes it makes when saving the RC file, it does strip out my comments. And it does do some strange things like changing this:

CONTROL "", CID_SECONDARY_BIRTH_DATE_ASSIST, "SysDateTimePick32", 0 | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE, 144, 115, 14, 12

...to this:

CONTROL "", CID_SECONDARY_BIRTH_DATE_ASSIST, DATETIMEPICK_CLASS, 0, 144, 115, 14, 12

... and then it complains about DATETIMEPICK_CLASS being undefined when it loads the RC again. I am using the Date Picker, but I have no idea where ResEdit generated the constant DATETIMEPICK_CLASS from -- I did a substring search of the entire \FWH\ folder, my development folder, (and all subfolders) and found no occurrences. ResEdit will also change this:

CONTROL "", 110, "SysTabControl32", 0 | WS_CHILD | WS_VISIBLE | WS_TABSTOP, 0, 0, 343, 182

To this:

CONTROL "", 110, WC_TABCONTROL, WS_TABSTOP, 0, 0, 343, 182

..and then complain about WC_TABCONTROL not being defined when re-loading the RC.

I don't mind paying for a good resource editor. Does anyone know of one that is more like Workshop in the way it maintains the integrity of your resource file?

Thanks!

-Patrick

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine - Solved

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 9:02 am
by PatrickWeisser
The GPF seems to be caused only by the Open File dialog in WorkShop in my situation. I made an association between RC files and the WorkShop.exe file so that double-clicking on an RC file in the Windows Explorer will automatically open WorkShop and pass it the RC file to open. It works fine now. I've been working on this a while now so I think I may have read about someone else doing this so I can't take credit, I'm just glad I remembered and finally tried it. Thanks to whoever it was who originally posted the solution :)

But WorkShop is certainly showing it's age, so it would really be nice to have a 32-bit version of it. There may be some settings on the other editors I'm not aware of, but in my tests I found nothing that preserved the integrity of my existing RC file like BRW. Plus the ability to visually search through your dialogs without opening them for edit using the down-arrow key is really cool and something I've only seen in WorkShop. If Borland isn't interested in releasing a 32-bit version for profit, it would be a really nice gesture for them to release the existing 16-bit code into the public domain so that it would get done.

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 10:05 am
by Antonio Linares
Dear Patrick,

Have you tried PellesC ?
http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 5:08 pm
by dutch
Dear Patrick,

I've used VAIO SZ75 and got the same problem.
The problem is Fingerscan Software for VAIO notebook. Pls uninstall it, that's all. If you need to use it, just install and setup your password and save your fingerprint into bios. Then uninstall it. Now you can use fingerscan without software anymore.

Regards,
Dutch

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 6:46 pm
by PatrickWeisser
Thanks Antonio, I will give the resource editor in PellesC a try.

Thanks Dutch - I will turn off the fingerscan software on my new Vaio. The workaround of having BRW associated with RC files works great, but I don't use the Fingerscan anyway, and it might be causing other problems I'm not aware of yet.

-Patrick

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2009 7:19 pm
by PatrickWeisser
Antonio,

I installed PellesC, but when I open a resource (RC) file using File, Open in the PellesC IDE, it opens the RC file in a text editor, not recognizing it as a resource file. What is the proper way to open an RC file?

Thanks,

-Patrick

Pelles C

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:17 pm
by PatrickWeisser
Hey Antonio,

Thanks again for suggesting Pelles C. It looks really well designed and good to have as a fallback for Workshop, but to use it right now would require too many changes to our resource file. Also, our application has about 100 dialogs, and the feature of Workshop which allows you to scroll through all dialogs and see them visually without opening them is very useful -- especially for insuring a consistent look in all the dialogs. Seeing them all painted at high speed as I scroll with the down-arrow key is also a pretty cool effect :)

-Patrick

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 6:49 pm
by Enrico Maria Giordano
I agree. Currently does not exist a 32 bit resource editor as good as BRW... :-(

EMG

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:34 pm
by Antonio Linares
I also agree with you too :-)

BRW is simple, fast and very efficient.

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:38 pm
by Antonio Linares
Patrick,

> What is the proper way to open an RC file?

It seems that PellesC and Microsoft VSX (very good but so heavy!), work with RES files where you have the option to save the resources as RC files, but not to load RC files.

I like to work with RC files as you can edit them and modify them using a source code editor. Anyhow, we can do this and then compile the RC into a RES file and keep using it from these resources editors.

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:40 pm
by Rick Lipkin
I agree BRW is the best resource editor .. wish someone could find that code or Borland would release it to open source so someone could convert it to 32 bits ..

Rick Lipkin

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:45 pm
by Antonio Linares
Rick,

> Borland would release it to open source so someone could convert it to 32 bits

Yes, that would be great.

Rick, Patrick, James, for you that english is your mother tongue, have you considered to contact Borland and ask them about this ? Maybe there is a possibility to get it :-)

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 7:57 pm
by Rick Lipkin
Antonio

I would not have a clue who to contact .. if I recall Borland has sold off many of their assets .. IDE products, etc to Codegear I think .. correct me if I am wrong.

If anyone has an idea .. I will certainly try to make contact..

Thanks
Rick Lipkin

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:01 pm
by Antonio Linares
Rick,

I guess this info is outdated, but maybe those phone numbers are routed to valid ones:

http://info.borland.com/borlandcpp/cppc ... wkfct.html

http://www.borland.com/us/company/contact/index.html

Re: GPF In Borland Resource Workshop with New Machine

Posted: Mon Feb 16, 2009 8:50 pm
by Rick Lipkin
Antonio

I will try tomorrow .. 'Presidents day' and a national holiday here in the States .. I will report back in this thread and let everyone know what I find out.

Rick