OpenEuphoria

Re: Win32Libv50: How make window invisible (initially?)?

• Posted by Brian Broker <bkb at CNW.COM> Sep 27, 2000
• 460 views

On Wed, 27 Sep 2000 01:10:04 -0700, Dan B Moyer asked:

>But how would one know what all those *other* constants in
>winconst.ew *refer* to, or where they are used, anyway?
>
>And where does "SetWindowPosition" *come from*? I can vaguely understand
>that you are calling some c-function somewhere, but where?  And probably
>most important, how do you know what goes where when you do "c_func(..."?

Dan,

The constants in winconst.ew are windows constants which are needed to use
the functions in the dynamic link libraries (DLL's) of the windows API.  To
find out what goes where and what constants are used for what, just search
http://msdn.microsoft.com/

For example, SetWindowPosition is actually called 'SetWindowPos'.  All
you'd want to know about this function can be found at

When you search for something at MSDN, you'll usually want to pick the link
that has "library/psdk/" in it.  psdk stands for Platform Software
Development Kit.  At the bottom of the page, it says "Library: Use
User32.lib" which means that this function is in 'user32.dll'.  You will
see what the parameters are and what constants it uses.  But it only gives
the names of the constants, not the values.  The values are in the header
files (in this case, they are "Declared in Winuser.h").  Now you could
either download the Platform SDK and fish those constants out of winuser.h
or take advantage of the work already done in winconst.ew, which is simply
the majority of Windows constants ripped out of different header files and
compiled into one Euphoria library.

But the best way to learn how to use DLL routines in your program is to
study win32lib itself.  Basically, it can be a real pain in the butt
working with the Windows API using Euphoria.  The hardest part is getting
your C structures correct, but Win32Lib has some lower-level routines that
make it a bit less hellish.  And, once again, the best way to learn how
it's done is to study the blood and guts of Win32Lib.

On the other hand, if you just want to write Windows programs, then you'll
soon appreciate how wonderful a library Win32Lib is.  (thanks again David,
et al)

-- Brian