About Resource Files

To include resources in your Windows-based application with RC, do the following:

1. Create individual files for your cursors, icons, bitmaps, dialog boxes, and fonts.
2. Create a resource-definition script (.rc file) that describes the resources used by your application.
3. Compile the script with RC. For more information, see Using RC (The RC Command Line).
4. Link the compiled resource (.res) file into the application's executable file with your linker.

A resource file is a text file with the extension .rc. The file can use single-byte, double-byte, or Unicode characters. The syntax and semantics for the RC preprocessor are similar to those of the Microsoft C/C++ compiler. However, RC supports a subset of the preprocessor directives, defines, and pragmas in a script.

The script file defines resources. For a resource that exists in a separate file, such as an icon or cursor, the script specifies the resource and the file that contains it. For some resources, such as a menu, the entire definition of the resource exists within the script.

The following topics describe the information a script file can contain:

• Comments, which are notes to be ignored by RC.
• Predefined macros, which take no arguments and cannot be redefined.
• Preprocessor directives, which instruct RC to perform actions on the script before compiling it.
• Preprocessor operators, which are used with the #define directive.
• Pragma directives
• Resource-definition statements, which name and describe resources.