Reverse Engineering SimpleText: Modifying Window Size in Classic Macintosh Software
By
mmoogle
Toasted just enough. A reliable bake, gently seasoned.
Summary
The article details the author's technical journey to modify SimpleText, a classic Macintosh text editor, to open with a smaller window at startup. What initially seemed like a simple patch requiring only constant value changes turned into a complex reverse-engineering process involving ResEdit, code resource disassembly, and understanding 68K assembly language. The author shares their learning experience about Macintosh system calls, resource forks, and the challenges of modifying legacy software.
Key quotes
· 4 pulledSomeone asked to have SimpleText open a smaller text window at startup. Initially, I assumed this would be a fairly easy fix by just overwriting a few constant values in SimpleText code.
It turned out to be a pain -- but I learned a lot along the way.
You need to have the code editor (from one of the Apple developer CDs) in your ResEdit preference file in order to disassemble code resources within ResEdit.
Then, open each 'CODE' resource of SimpleText and search for _SizeWindow (A91D).
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