UI, Resource Descripion and all those .h, .str, .res

intenditore

Despite I didn't want to ask you about that and fought much, I need help.
Don't be offended, but Resource Descripion topic on CPP docs looks too stingy to dive into the theme and feel comfortable. The explanation makes the whole idea somehow clearer than before, but there are hidden underwater rocks around I can't identify, and the only info you can harvest is the line where the error is, but nothing about the cause. So:

Isn't there a nice humanly-understandable guide into UI building with Resource description? I bet many need some better explanation than the one docs give. There are A LOT of questions - does the first id in .h "enum" must be the plugin id? Do we need to enum all the entries of .res or only the ones can call a Message()? What should be in c4d_symbols.h?..;
What could be wrong in my instance? Those are my res.desc. files (ids are named for the test). It all worked nice when there was only one button, but after I simply added more it's always giving me two errors cycling (until I kill the process).
What did I mess up?

ferdinand

Hi,

enumerations in C-languages delimit their elements with commas, while statements are delimited by semicolons. So in your h(eader) file your enum should look something like this:

enum
{
    ONE=1,
    TWO=2,
    THREE=3,
};

edit: To avoid any confusion here - the semicolons in the ~~res~~ and str files are correct.
edit2: I overlooked the additional semicolons, your res file is also malformed.

Cheers,
zipit

intenditore

@zipit many thanks, it worked out! But... Not for long
Again. I only added STATICTEXT entry

and now I get "Error reading resource file.... TautoLayer.res line 8.
What could be wrong... So confusing!
Nope, we still need a guide

ferdinand

Hi,

Elements in a resource file are delimited by their curly braces and their flags are delimited by semicolons. So you would have to get rid of the semicolons after the closing brackets in your screenshot, i.e. STATICTEXT YADAYADA { FLAG; ANOTHER_FLAG; } and not STATICTEXT YADAYADA { FLAG; ANOTHER_FLAG; };.

Edit: FYI there do exist manuals for Cinema's resource system. Some more complex stuff is not documented though.

General Resource Manual
Specific Description Resource Manual (This is what you are doing right now).

Cheers,
zipit

intenditore

I've studied those docs and couldn't get enough satisfaction

I've changed the semicolons for comas, and even deleted them all, but the error persists. I'm wondering what's happening there(

ferdinand

Hi,

there are no commas in a res file and you will need semicolons to delimit your flags (and also CYCLE elements). I understand that the system can be a bit confusing, but you should either reread my comments more carefully or study existing resource files.

You have to remove the semicolons after an closing curly bracket in your screenshot. You will need to keep those delimiting your flags. The principal syntax in a res file is:

ELEMENT {
    FLAG;
    ANOTHER_FLAG;

    SUBELEMENT {
        FLAG;
        ANOTHER_FLAG;
    }
}

Cheers,
zipit

intenditore

I feel stupid. You tell me the right things but even when I used semicolons and seemingly screwed it all up it all still was functioning
Anyway, this one works

But than I move the TXT_CREDIT to the top (changing ids accordingly!) and it gives two cycling errors relating to both .h (line and .res (line7) files

Docs don't give an answer

PluginStudent

Pro Tip: your installation of Cinema C4D contains the resource\modules\ folder.

In that folder, you find sub-folders. These sub-folders contain Cinema's resource files. So you actually have hundreds of example files for all of this.

And of course lots of examples on GitHub.

PluginStudent

And BTW, in your *.h file you miss the comma in line 7 : " = 1001,"

r_gigante

Hi @intenditore, thanks for reaching out us.

Thanks to @PluginStudent and @zipit seems like you're now back on track. One additional note is to always check that the .resfile is coherently using tab or spaces but not a mix of the twos which could instead cause unexpected troubles.

Best, R

intenditore

Brah... Third time spent fighting with stupid typos! :
@PluginStudent @zipit @r_gigante many thanks! I didn't assume you are using the same system inside the program and had no thought to take a look there!
Seems adding the "," helped it.
And, as I see, you must enumerate all the elements in your .h file, but though you can leave id blank.
Thank you!
%\