Finder-Related Resources
The Finder needs quick access to some key information about your application, including its signature and the icons to display for it and for the
documents it creates. You supply most of this information in the resource fork
of your application file.
The Finder extracts this information and uses it to maintain its own central database of the resources it needs. The Finder records the location of your application on disk in this database so that it can find your application quickly
when the user opens one of your documents.
For compatibility with the Finder, your application should have: • a signature resource, so that the Finder can identify and start up your application when a user double-clicks documents created by your
application
• a set of icon resources, to visually represent for the user your
application and any documents it creates
• a set of file reference resources, to link icons with the file types they
represent and to allow users to launch your application by dragging
document icons to your application icon
• a bundle resource, to group together your application's signature,
icon, and file reference resources
• a size resource, to tell the Finder how much memory to allocate for your application when it starts up and whether your application
supports various system software features
• either a name string resource in your application's documents (to
display the name of your application if the user tries to open or print a
document created by your application when your application is
missing) or a message string resource in your application's documents
(to explain why the user can not open or print a document used by your
application). For more information, see the section,
Note: Supply a name string resource for documents that you intend for
users to open with your application; supply a message string resource for
documents (such as a p references file) that your application uses but which
users should not open. You supply only one of these resources in a
document-never both.
Your application can also make use of these resources:
• version resources, so that users can easily find out the version of
your application and, if applicable, the version of your application's
superset of files
• a help resource, which the Finder uses to display your customized Balloon Help message for your application, control panel, system
If you sell or distribute data in the form of a document to be used by other
applications, you can assist users by providing
• an appropriate file type to allow users to open your document from
the Finder by dragging its icon to an application icon or by choosing the Open command from the File menu within an application
• a family of icon resources to represent your document to the user
• a name string resource or message string resource, so the Finder can assist users who try to open or print your documents from the Finder. For more information, see the section en titled,
• version resources, so that users can easily find out the version of
your application and, if your application file is one of a larger
collection of files, the version of the entire superset of files