About Resource Files
To include resources in your Windows-based application with RC, do the following:
- Create individual files for your cursors, icons, bitmaps, dialog boxes, and fonts.
- Create a resource-definition script (.rc file) that describes the resources used by your application.
- Compile the script with RC. For more information, see Using RC (The RC Command Line).
- 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.