Shoutbox

quote:

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Originally posted by Ahmz_055
I tried searching for free unzip dll's but i couldnt find any - any pointers would be appreciated

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Search on the big VB sites like http://www.codeguru.com/vb/ , http://www.example-code.com/vb/ , http://www.vb-helper.com/ , http://www.vbaccelerator.com/ , http://www.vbusers.com/ , http://www.vbcity.com/ , http://sourceforge.net/ , etc.... or directly the sites like http://www.info-zip.org/ , http://www.zlib.net/ , etc... you'll find tons of examples and more links.... (and even the opensource real source codes and algorithms used by programs like pkzip, winzip, so if you up to it, you can even write your own (un)zipper from scratch see http://datacompression.info/Papers.shtml , ftp://ftp.uu.net/pub/archiving/zip/doc/  )

eg: search in google for
"vb unzip"
"vbaccelerator zip"
"basic zip"
"InfoZip"
etc...
search on the big VB sites for:
"unzip"
"dezip"
"zip.dll"
etc...
etc...

You'll find so much you'll be busy digging thru all the code for a few days (and discovering that some wrapping projects are total crap/bloated/etc... (like ChilkatZip, which is a wrapper of a wrapper of a dll or something of that sort) and that others are extremely efficient. You'll discover that there are many project which wrap around a dll and other which will use ocx's. Some are very small, others are bloated and big). In short, too much to list here all...

quote:

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Originally posted by Ahmz_055

ResHacker.. I only use it for ONE feature in the patch, it's not for editing string values (that's done with code) - but for editing a MENU - so any pointers there would be appreciated too.

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Only for 1 function? That's even worse then Anyways, if you know how to manipulate string resources, then you also know how to manipulate other resources as it is essentially the same, only the resource structure is a bit different of course.

but, editing string values (that's done with code) <= do you mean by 1) handling the resource structers (reading the compiled structures in / decompiling / editing / compiling / writing back) or by 2) patching some values inside the exe/dll ???

with 1) you can inster/delete/etc whataver you want (=good, decent way)
with 2) if you want to edit a string which is 100 bytes long, you can't make it 50 bytes or 150 bytes, your bound to the 100 bytes. (= not handling resources at all, you're just patching some bytes. This method isn't adviceable)

I ask this, because if it is method 1, you can handle any standard resourcetype you want, including menu's, dialogs, stringtables, whatever. It all is the same...

But I think you do method 2, which is all in all nothing more then patching some bytes and has very little to do with resource handling themselfs. In this case you might want to search (again) on those big VB archives, there are tons of examples of how to read and manipulate resources. Also readup on Windows API's, as these will be needed for this. And once you know what a compiled resource is and how it is structured, you can do whatever you want with it without reverting to 3rd party full blown applications which you need to hide inside your application so it looks like your application is doing it all.

It all comes down to research and learning from other people's code though. And there are tons and tons of examples laying around. All to do is typing some logic searchphrases in google like "vb resources",  "vb zip", etc...

And if you come across something which you need to pay for, then dish it, it will be useless and wasted money as all this stuff is for grabs on the big vb source websites...

hope this helps