How String Tables are generated from RC files

Solution

16 Strings in each RC String Table

For RC files each String Table can hold up to 16 Strings while with Win32 executables the String Tables will always have 16 Strings. When an RC file is inserted in Alchemy Catalyst it treats the String Tables similar to those of a Win 32 executable.

Alchemy Catalyst will group all of the Strings throughout all of the String Tables from the RC file and will break up the Strings into String Tables of 16 Strings each. It does not break up the Strings into the String Tables that exist in the RC file.

The way Alchemy Catalyst creates these String Tables is to start with the first String from the first String Table in the RC file and it packs the first 16 Strings into the first String Table. Then Alchemy Catalyst will move on to the second String Table and do the same.

Empty String Tables in the UI

You may notice if you look through your RC file in the Alchemy Catalyst UI that there are empty String Tables displayed but there are no Strings missing in the UI that were extracted from the RC file.

What happens is even though Alchemy Catalyst will pack all of the String Tables with 16 Strings it will still have a String table in the UI to represent each String table that existed in the RC file.

As the initial String Tables have all been packed with 16 Strings there will be no resource Strings left to populate the last String Tables and this resultsin empty String Tables in the UI.

On extracting the RC file from the TTK

When a file translated in Alchemy Catalyst is later extracted from its TTK, the Strings will be written out to the same String Tables as they were in before insertion into the TTK.

Products or Versions Affected