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A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

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    #1

    A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

    Hi,

    I have several questions concerning API programming. These questions are the result of studing the Pie Chart of Peter Wayne but are also common Alpha questions to me after not finding a clear answer in the manual.

    1. I have a win32.hlp help file and all the functions are listed without an "A" at the end of the function name, e.g. SetFileAttributes gives an error but SetFileAttributesA will execute without an error. Why do I have to put an A at the end of the function name and is this always the case and is this Alpha Five specific?

    2. The syntax and the construction of "declarestruct" and "declare" are not as clear to me as is should be :-), I read the manual for this subject several times and studied examples but I think my syntax recognition has a flaw. I do know the difference between the two but the parameter are not as obvious to me as I thought. Are there maybe BNF notations of these syntaxconstructions?

    e.g. In the following construction of a structure:

    declarestruct text C1024text

    I know now that this says it is a structure with the name "text"(the first text) and it has one member "text" which is a buffer of 1024 characters (C1024text).

    When I create a dot variabele "temp.text" at wich part of the declare construction do I reference; the "text" or the "C1024text".

    3. The manual says that structures can be nested. I've looked for an example but found none at this moment. Does anyone has an example? All the examples I tries showes to me the most beautiful errors ;-)

    4. Declare. Which one is correct, the first or the second?

    declare user32 GetWindowText@GetWindowTextA LL(text)L

    declare user32 GetWindowText@GetWindowText LL(text) as L

    I found the first in the 'old' manual and the second in the last XBasic Reference manual with Date: June 5, 2003. In this manual is also listed:

    ------------manual text begin ---------
    [We declare GetWindowText to return a long, take a long 'window' handle as the first argument and a 1024 character buffer as the second argument and a long length as the third argument.]

    declarestruct text C1024text
    declare user32 GetWindowText@GetWindowText LL(text) as L

    ------------ manual text end ----------

    I think the text between [..] is wrong. Another question is why should I declare GetWindowText@GetWindowText before and after the @ the same? Is the A ommitted after the second GetWindowText?

    I hope someone can give me the right answers, the differences and the right text and some hints.

    Thanks in advance,
    Marcel
    Marcel

    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
    ---- Confusius ----
    Tags: None
    #2
    RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

    I've found something in message ID:15812. Selwyn Rabins has put there two API functions I'll study. Nice examples of declarestruct, declare and constant declarations for API calls. I'll hope this will bring to the target.

    Marcel
    Marcel

    I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
    ---- Confusius ----

    Comment

      #3
      RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

      I see a:

      declarestruct STARTUPINFO L1cb,&C1lpRserved, ......

      What does &C1 mean?

      Marcel
      Marcel

      I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
      ---- Confusius ----

      Comment

        #4
        RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

        &C1 means you are passing a Character variable by reference. The 1 indicates the length of the pointer, not the length of the string. Usually when passing by reference, the pointer length will be 1.
        Aaron Brown
        Alpha Software Development Team

        Comment

          #5
          RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

          Thanks Aaron,

          I'd put this particular question again on the board. You answered it at the moment I pushed the button.

          Thanks for your information. I searched the manuals both pdf and html for an & but could'n find anything.

          Marcel
          Marcel

          I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
          ---- Confusius ----

          Comment

            #6
            RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

            The declare and declarestruct syntax is...let's just say "baroque." I've done a fair amount of coding using these functions and it still takes a good deal of trial and error to get it working right.
            Aaron Brown
            Alpha Software Development Team

            Comment

              #7
              RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

              Hi Aaron,

              Did you ever used nested structures with the "declarestruct" statement. If you have can give an example of it.
              The next C-code has an nested FILETIME structure which I can't get working in Alpha.

              'typedef struct tagFILETIME {
              ' DWORD dwLowDateTime;
              ' DWORD dwHighDateTime;
              '} FILETIME

              'Alpha equivalent of the above structure.
              declarestruct FILETIME L1dwLowDateTime,L1dwHighDateTime

              'typedef struct _WIN32_FIND_DATAA {
              ' DWORD dwFileAttributes;
              ' FILETIME ftCreationTime;
              ' FILETIME ftLastAccessTime;
              ' FILETIME ftLastWriteTime;
              ' DWORD nFileSizeHigh;
              ' DWORD nFileSizeLow;
              ' DWORD dwReserved0;
              ' DWORD dwReserved1;
              ' CHAR cFileName[MAX_PATH];
              ' CHAR cAlternateFileName[14];
              ' WORD dummy;
              '} WIN32_FIND_DATAA

              'Alpha equivalent of the above structure.
              declarestruct WIN32FINDDATA L1dwFileAttributes,(FILETIME),....

              I would like to nest the FILETIME structure and the CHAR arrays. These are the part I can't solve at this moment.

              Thanks,

              Marcel
              Marcel

              I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
              ---- Confusius ----

              Comment

                #8
                RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

                Updated documentation for DECLARESTRUCT and DECLARE.

                http://support.alphasoftware.com/xbasic_reference/Language/declarestruct.htm

                http://support.alphasoftware.com/xbasic_reference/Language/declare.htm

                Also refer to TYPE ... END TYPE

                http://support.alphasoftware.com/xbasic_reference/Language/TYPE___END_TYPE.htm

                Comment

                  #9
                  RE: A5v5F - API call's, declarestruct and declare

                  Hi Edward,

                  Thanks! If you were a girl, I kissed you ;-)

                  Marcel
                  Marcel

                  I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.
                  ---- Confusius ----

                  Comment

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