Right, but... the resource fork could contain code, as well as window definitions, graphics, icons, dialog boxes, menus, language translations, strings, and more.
Of course, generally you'd write source code as text and hook up your interface. Resource definitions could be written as text or laid out using a GUI tool, of which ResEdit was just one. And everything would be compiled during development. But none of that was strictly necessary.
Interestingly, early Palm OS worked exactly the same way - using resources. They took the concept and implemented their own version based on how the classic Mac system worked.
So, you could fix a bug in an app using only a resource editor without having access to the source code. I've done this on both systems!
Right, but... the resource fork could contain code, as well as window definitions, graphics, icons, dialog boxes, menus, language translations, strings, and more.
Of course, generally you'd write source code as text and hook up your interface. Resource definitions could be written as text or laid out using a GUI tool, of which ResEdit was just one. And everything would be compiled during development. But none of that was strictly necessary.
Interestingly, early Palm OS worked exactly the same way - using resources. They took the concept and implemented their own version based on how the classic Mac system worked.
So, you could fix a bug in an app using only a resource editor without having access to the source code. I've done this on both systems!