Porting to Win32™: A Guide to Making Your Applications Ready for the 32-Bit Future of Windows™

440 Pages·1996·14.23 MB·English

by  Thomas Lauer (auth.)

Porting to Win32
1M
Springer-Science+Business Media, LLC
Thomas Lauer
Porting to Win32™
A Guide to Making Your
Applications Ready for the 32-Bit
Future of Windows™
With 67 Figures
DOS Diskette Included
Springer
Thomas Lauer
Jm Bruehl17
55288 Udenheim
Germany
This is a translation from the German Die 32-Bit-Expedition: Win 32,TM Windows™ 4.0 und
Windows NT. TM LeitJaden und Referenz zur Portierung van Windows 3.x-Programmen, published
by Springer-VerIag Berlin © 1993.
Windows, Win32, Win32s, and Windows 95 are registered trademarks of Microsoft. Windows
NT is a trademark of Microsoft Corporation.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data.
Lauer, Thomas.
Porting to Wm32 /
Thomas Lauer.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-387-94572-9
1. Application software. 2. Microsoft Wm32. 1. TItIe.
QA76.76.A65L37 1995
005.26-dc20 95-23946
CIP
Printed on acid-free paper.
© 1996 Springer Science+Business Media New York
Originally published by Springer-Verlag New York, Ine. in 1996
AlI rights reserved. This worlc may not be translated or copied in who1e or in part without
the written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Busmess Media, LLC), except for
brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly aoaIysis. Use in connection with any
form of information storage and retrievai, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by
similar or dissimilar m.ethodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden.
The use of general descriptive names, 1rade names, trademarks, etc., in this publication,
even if the former are not especially identified, is not to be taken as a sign 1hat such names,
as lmderstood by the Trade Marlcs and Merchandise Ma1Xs Act, may accordingly be used
freely by anyone.
Production managed by Frederick H. Bartlett and Terry Komak; manufacturing supervised
by Jeffrey Taub.
Photocomposed copy prepared from the author's Microsoft Word files.
987654321
Additional material to tbis book can be downloaded rrom bttp://extras.springer.com.
ISBN 978-0-387-94572-9 ISBN 978-1-4612-0727-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4612-0727-6
Contents
Contents at a Glance
Introduction and Overview. .............•....•.•...........•........................ 1
1 Fundamental Aspects and Preliminary Considerations .......... 7
1.1 Windows: 3.x (16 Bit) versus NT and 95 (32 Bit) .......................... 7
1.2 Win32 and the Competition ........................................................... 17
1.3 Basic Architecture of Windows NT .............................................. 22
1.4 Basic Architecture of Windows 95 ............................................... .40
1.5 What Changes on My Source Codes are Required to
Support the Win32 API? .................................................................. 44
1.6 A Look on the Win32 SDK. ............................................................5 8
1.7 Is My Application Substantially Improved After Porting
to Win32? ........................................................................................... 62
1.8 ... And What About the Effort? .................................................... 66
1.9 The Little Brother: Win32s ............................................................. 71
1.10 Summary ........................................................................................7 8
2 Strategies to Portable Programming ....................................... 81
2.1 Starting Points and Objectives ...................................................... 81
2.2 Two Alternatives for Porting .........................................................8 9
2.3 Methodical Advice to Planning a Port.. .......................................9 3
2.4 Tools and Other Assistance ...........................................................9 8
2.5 STRICT Software, Portable Software ......................................... 105
2.6 Naming of Variables: The Hungarian Variant... ....................... 113
2.7 Which Platform for Windows 3.1: Win32s or Win16? ............. 122
2.8 Some Hints for Porting OS/2 Programs .................................... 126
2.9 Summary ........................................................................................ 132
3 Portable Programs in C and C++ ............................................ 135
3.1 Some Fundamental Considerations ........................................... 135
3.2 ANSI C, What Else? ...................................................................... 139
3.3 The C Pre-processor ...................................................................... 142
3.4 Simple Data Types ........................................................................ 149
3.5 Structured Data ............................................................................. 159
3.6 Pointer Subtleties ........................................................................... 171
3.7 Coding Practice ............................................................................. 175
3.8 Compiler Warnings and Error Messages ..................................1 78
3.9 And What about C++? ................................................................. 197
v
Contents
4 PoMable Windows Programming ........................................... 201
4.1 Some Signposts for Portable Windows Programs ................... 201
4.2 Using the Enlarged Win32 Data Types ..................................... 205
4.3 WINDOWSX.H: A Way to Portable Programs ........................ 212
4.4 Message Processing and Parameter Packing ............................ 227
4.5 Portable Macros to Communicate with Child Windows ........ 234
4.6 Changes in the Base Functionality ............................................. 241
4.7 Changes in the Window Management ...................................... 262
4.8 Changes and Improvements in the Graphics Device
Interface (GDI) ................................................................................ 278
4.9 The Programming of DLLs ......................................................... 290
4.10 Unicode: Plus and Minus .......................................................... 300
4.11 Some Guidelines for Binary Compatible Win16
Applications .................................................................................... 309
4.12 A Study Trip: From MS-DOS to Win32 ................................... 314
5 Win32 Development Tools and
Their Use .................................................................................. 319
5.1 The Creation of Win32 GUI Applications ................................. 319
5.2 Particularities for Text Mode Programs .................................... 336
5.3 DLLs: What Has Been Modified? ............................................... 339
5.4 What Do the Borland Tools Offer? ............................................ 349
5.5 Latest News: Visual C++ 2 and Win32 Enhancements ........... 351
Appendices .............................................................................. 355
Al Important Data Types Compared' ............................................. 355
A2 PORT.INI: Enhanced and Clarified ........................................... 359
A3 The Message Cracker Signatures ............................................... 369
A4 The Example Program Used to Demonstrate Warnings
and Error Messages ....................................................................... 379
A5 The New _stdcall Calling Sequence ......................................... 387
A6 Some Hints for Pascal and Modula-2 ........................................ 393
A7 The Contents of the Enclosed Disk ............................................ 401
Annotated Bibliography .......................................................... 403
Glossary ................................................................................... 409
Index ......................................................................................... 421
VI
Contents
Table of Contents
Introduction and Overview ........................... 1
1 Fundamental Aspects and Preliminary
Considerations .............................................. 7
1.1 Windows: 3.x (16 Bit) versus NT and 95 (32 Bit) ....................... 7
Old: Windows 3.x ....................................................................................8
And new: Windows NT ....................................................................... 10
And what about Windows 95? ............................................................ 14
1.2 Win32 and the Competition ....................................................... 17
IBM and OS/2 ........................................................................................ 17
Xas UNIX ............................................................................................... 19
The most important technical features in comparison ....................2 1
1.3 Basic Architecture of Windows NT .......................................... 22
The NT executive .................................................................................. 23
Basic kernel features ............................................................................. 25
The NT subsystems ............................................................................... 31
MS-DOS and Win16 support ............................................................... 32
Big boss: the Win32 subsystem ...........................................................3 4
Communication with the Win32 subsystem ..................................... 37
1.4 Basic Architecture of Windows 95 ........................................... 40
Virtual: machine manager and device drivers ................................. .41
Two personalities: Win95 system OLLs ............................................. 42
1.5 What Changes on My Source Codes are Required to Support
the Win32 API? ........................................................................... 44
The linear 32-bit address space ........................................................... 45
Separated address spaces, isolated applications ............................. .48
User input: Mouse and keyboard ....................................................... 51
GDI coordinates and company ........................................................... 54
MS-DOS and CPU specifics .................................................................5 5
Using undocumented features ............................................................5 5
Difficulties in OLL programming .......................................................5 7
Conclusions ............................................................................................5 8
VII
Contents
1.6 A Look on the Win32 SDK ..............................................•.......... 58
Win32 SDK: a single version for NT and 95 ..................................... 59
Programming with the SDK ............................................................... 60
1.7 Is My Application Substantially Improved After Porting to
Win32? ....................................................................................... 62
Just porting? .......................................................................................... 63
Or immediately include improvements? .......................................... 64
1.8 ... And What About the Effort? ................................................. 66
Some clues, anyway ............................................................................. 70
1.9 The Little Brother: Win32s ........................................................ 71
What is Win32s and what does it do? ............................................... 71
Pluses and minuses for the developer ............................................... 75
1.10 Summary .................................................................................... 78
2 Strategies to Portable Programming ......... 81
2.1 Starting Points and Objectives ................................................. 81
Preferably STRICT ............................................................................... 82
At the very least, fully protected mode compatible! ....................... 84
K&R or ANSI C? ................................................................................... 85
And the goal? Either one-way porting ............................................. 86
... Or programming for Win16 and Win32? ..................................... 87
2.2 Two Alternatives for Porting ..................................................... 89
Bottom up .............................................................................................. 89
Top down ............................................................................................... 89
Which method is better? ...................................................................... 90
2.3 Methodical Advice to Planning a Port ..................................... 93
Big projects require some planning ................................................... 93
Self-defined guidelines and helper libraries ..................................... 95
2.4 Tools and Other Assistance ..................................................... 98
Add-on libraries as helpers ................................................................. 98
And what about class libraries for C++? ........................................... 99
More tools: PORTTOOL and the SDK documentation ................. 101
Tools for developers coming from OS/2 ........................................ 103
CompuServe, a gold mine of information ...................................... 104
2.5 STRICT Software, Portable Software ..................................... 105
Okay, STRICT! But what's the best way? ........................................ 107
Some hints for C++ programmers ................................................... 111
VIII
Contents
2.6 Naming of Variables: The Hungarian Variant ........................ 113
Advantages of Hungarian notation .................................................. 113
More to the utilization ........................................................................ 115
Some suggestions ................................................................................ 118
2.7 Which Platform for Windows 3.1: Win32s or Win16? ........... 122
Pro Win32s ........................................................................................... 123
And contra? .......................................................................................... 124
2.8 Some Hints for Porting OS/2 Programs ................................. 126
Tools and methods of approach ........................................................ 127
Some hints for text-mode programs ................................................. 129
Porting OS/2 PM applications .......................................................... 130
2.9 Summary ................................................................................... 132
3 Portable Programs in C and C++ .............. 135
3.1 Some Fundamental Considerations ....................................... 135
3.2 ANSI C, What Else? ................................................................. 139
The most important advantages of ANSI C .................................... 139
A few words about Pascal and Modula-2 ....................................... 140
3.3 The C Pre-processor ................................................................ 142
Some simple tricks with #define ....................................................... 142
Complex macro definitions: a dash of portability .......................... 146
3.4 Simple Data Types ................................................................... 149
Own data type definitions ................................................................. 150
... and related problems ..................................................................... 153
About erroneous casts and other wrongdoers ................................ 154
May I introduce myself: sizeofO ....................................................... 156
Always good for a surprise: BOOL! ................................................. 157
3.5 Structured Data ........................................................................ 159
Unions: memory economy, shady maneuvers or what? ............... 160
Structured use of structs .................................................................... 162
Structures and memory layout ......................................................... 166
3.6 Pointer Subtleties .................................................................... 171
FAR? NEAR? Neither-nor: FLAT! ............................................... 171
Segment and offset arithmetics: hands off! ..................................... 173
IX
Contents
3.7 Coding Practice ....................................................................... 175
Macros, prototypes, and libraries .................................................... 175
3.8 Compiler Warnings and Error Messages .............................. 178
Warnings and errors in detaiL ........................................................ 179
3.9 And What about C++? ............................................................. 197
4 Portable Windows Programming ............. 201
4.1 Some Signposts for Portable Windows Programs ............... 201
Syntax versus semantics: two perfect examples ............................ 202
Windows portability: an overview .................................................. 203
4.2 Using the Enlarged Win32 Data Types .................................. 205
WORD, the second ............................................................................ 205
Where does the pointer point? ......................................................... 207
New polymorphic types: LPARAM and WPARAM .................... 211
4.3 WINDOWSX.H: A Way to Portable Programs ........................ 212
The simple helper macros ................................................................. 213
To the fullest: message crackers ....................................................... 215
Examples: WM_COMMAND .......................................................... 217
... and WM_MOUSEMOVE .............................................................. 221
The most important benefit: portability .......................................... 224
4.4 Message Processing and Parameter Packing ...................... 227
The little brothers of the message crackers ..................................... 228
Helper macros to reassemble the message parameters ................ 233
4.5 Portable Macros to Communicate with Child Windows ....... 234
Some common definitions ................................................................. 235
Class-specific macros ......................................................................... 236
4.6 Changes in the Base Functionality ........................................ 241
The access to data of preceding instances ....................................... 241
Memory management: the local and global heaps ........................ 245
Solved in a completely different way: shared memory ................ 249
A ticket to the 1/ 0 system and back, please!. ................................. 251
Long or short: the treatment of filenames ....................................... 255
INI files and registry .......................................................................... 258
4.7 Changes in the Window Management ................................... 262
The calling sequence of window procedures ................................. 263
DOE and colleagues ........................................................................... 264
Cooperation with other programs ................................................... 269
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