Advice wanted - to use resource files or not

[Jack Russell]

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls
and their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person
i.e. an end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,

[Brian Henry]

VS 2005 will have a much better resource managment system built in for stuff
like this, but as for resources now, do you mean the old stype RES resource
files you had to compile, or the .NET method of resourceing?

"Jack Russell" <ja***@norubbish.tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:O7**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls and
their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person i.e. an
end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,

[Stenis]

Are you using Visual Studio for developing your application? If so, creating
the .resx files should be easy (just set the Localizable property for the
form/user control to true)

You don't need Visual Studio to localize resources - check out winres:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...eworkTools.asp

Please note that localizing the application may mean more than just changing
the strings - sometimes you need to change the size or location of controls
because of text length or font changes - winres lets the localizer do all of
this.

Best regards,
Johan Stenberg (MSFT Visual Basic)

"Jack Russell" wrote:

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls
and their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person
i.e. an end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,

[Jack Russell]

Brian Henry wrote:

VS 2005 will have a much better resource managment system built in for stuff
like this, but as for resources now, do you mean the old stype RES resource
files you had to compile, or the .NET method of resourceing? The .net method. It is quite easy for me as a developer to make them but
I do not speak the languages. The people who do speak them do not have VS.
"Jack Russell" <ja***@norubbish.tpg.com.au> wrote in message
news:O7**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls and
their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person i.e. an
end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,

[Jack Russell]

Stenis wrote:

Are you using Visual Studio for developing your application? If so, creating
the .resx files should be easy (just set the Localizable property for the
form/user control to true)

You don't need Visual Studio to localize resources - check out winres:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...eworkTools.asp So can winres run "stand alone". What else does it need installed on the PC?
Please note that localizing the application may mean more than just changing
the strings - sometimes you need to change the size or location of controls
because of text length or font changes - winres lets the localizer do all of
this.

Best regards,
Johan Stenberg (MSFT Visual Basic)

"Jack Russell" wrote:

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls
and their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person
i.e. an end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,

[Stenis]

WinRes is part of the .NET framework SDK, so you'd need to install that on
the machine. And yes, it should run just fine without VS installed on the
machine.

Please note that I'm not an expert on WinRes myself, so I can't really give
you any more specific advice than to point you to the documentation for the
tool... sorry...

Best regards,
Johan Stenberg

"Jack Russell" wrote:

Stenis wrote:

Are you using Visual Studio for developing your application? If so, creating
the .resx files should be easy (just set the Localizable property for the
form/user control to true)

You don't need Visual Studio to localize resources - check out winres:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...eworkTools.asp

So can winres run "stand alone". What else does it need installed on the PC?

Please note that localizing the application may mean more than just changing
the strings - sometimes you need to change the size or location of controls
because of text length or font changes - winres lets the localizer do all of
this.

Best regards,
Johan Stenberg (MSFT Visual Basic)

"Jack Russell" wrote:

I am looking at "internationalising" a project.

I can understand resource files, creating them etc.

However the drawback with them seems to be you need to use Visual Studio
to create and maintain them.

It is easy for me to create a text file containing all of the controls
and their strings. I can then give this to a "non computer " person
i.e. an end user to produce a foreign language version. I then read that in.

Can anyone tell me the disadvantage of this approach and what aspect of
resource files I would be losing?

Many thanks,