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sys/win

In tiko. Windows programming support written in tiko by José Roca: helpers over the Win32 API, windows and dialogs, every common control, COM, rich edit, GDI+, Direct2D and WebView2. It ships with the toolchain as the sys package, source only: #import "sys/win" and nothing on the command line.

sys/win is Windows-only. Its modules build for -target windows-x86_64; importing one for Linux or macOS stops with sys/win is Windows-only as the first error.

Each module also brings in the Windows headers it is built on, so the whole Win32 API (HWND, SendMessageW, WM_COMMAND, RECT …) is there in any file that imports one.

The modules

Import	using name	What it holds
#import "sys/win"	win	Helpers for windows, the display and DPI, fonts, the clipboard, bitmaps, paths, resources, common dialogs, the Internet and Unicode text
#import "sys/win/gui"	gui	CWindow, CDialog and the other window classes, and one namespace of functions per common control (ListView, TreeView, Edit …)
#import "sys/win/com"	com	DVARIANT, DSafeArray, BSTRING, CDispInvoke and COM helpers
#import "sys/win/richedit"	richedit	CRichEditCtx, the RichEdit functions and the Text Object Model classes
#import "sys/win/gdiplus"	gdiplus	The GDI+ classes: CGpGraphics, CGpBitmap, pens, brushes, paths, fonts, effects
#import "sys/win/direct2d"	direct2d	Direct2D factories, render targets, brushes and geometries, DirectWrite and WIC
#import "sys/win/webview2"	webview2	CWebView2, an Edge browser control in a window, and its event handlers

The other modules import sys/win themselves; a program names each one it calls into.

Importing

#import "sys/win"
#import "sys/win/gui"

using win, gui

using lets every name be written bare: CenterWindow( hwnd ). Without it, write the module name first: win.CenterWindow( hwnd ). The control functions of sys/win/gui live in one namespace per control and are always written with it, ListView.AddColumn, Edit.GetText, after using gui as before.

Things to know

Wide strings. Parameters that take text are wstring ptr or byref wstring: pass a literal, a ustring or a wstring buffer. Functions that return text return a ustring.

The W forms of Win32. The Windows headers come in without UNICODE, so a bare Win32 name such as DrawText or SendMessage is the ANSI (A) function and LOGFONT is the ANSI structure. Either call the W names (DrawTextW, SendMessageW, LOGFONTW), as every page of this category does, or build with -d UNICODE, or set it in your tiko.toml (a file cannot #define UNICODE ahead of #import "sys/win"):

[target.main.defines]
UNICODE = "1"

The functions of sys/win itself are Unicode whichever you choose.

One name, two meanings. Where a helper has the name of a Win32 function, both are there and the arguments pick: GetWindowText( hwnd ) returns a ustring, while the Windows form still takes a buffer and a length. A narrow literal passed to SetWindowText goes to the Unicode helper, read as UTF-8.

Rectangles as tuples. Functions that measure a rectangle return the four edges as a tuple: var (l, t, r, b) = GetWindowRect( hwnd ).

Colours. RGB_* (a COLORREF for GDI, red in the low byte) and ARGB_* (an opaque GDI+ colour) constants come with sys/win/gui and sys/win/gdiplus; see Colours.

Examples. Every function has a short example. The examples assume hwnd is your window, hDlg a dialog and hCtrl a control; a page's full program at the top is complete and builds as it stands with tiko file.tiko. More programs, from a button in a window to a WebView2 browser, are in the toolchain's examples/win64/ folder.

sys/win

Page	What it does
Program basics	Reads the command line, shows message boxes, pumps messages and explains Windows errors.
Windows version and system	Reports the Windows version, build, edition and bitness, and the version of any file.
System folders	Returns the paths of the Windows, system and temporary folders and of known folders.
Window text and styles	Reads and sets a window's text, class, styles and icon, and redraws windows.
Window size and position	Reads and sets a window's position and size in pixels, and centres windows and controls.
Finding windows	Finds a control's form, top-level windows, controls by id, and the windows of a process.
Dark mode	Gives windows a dark title bar and rounded corners, and reads the light or dark setting.
Display, screen and DPI	Measures the desktop, the screen, the work area and monitors, and scales values for DPI.
Units	Converts between pixels, points, twips, HiMetric units, DIPs and dialog units.
Fonts	Creates fonts, reads the fonts Windows uses and changes the font of a window or control.
Clipboard	Puts text and other data on the clipboard, reads it back and empties the clipboard.
Bitmaps	Creates, loads, saves and draws bitmaps, captures the screen and saves icons.
Paths and files	Splits paths into folder, name and extension, and detects UTF-16 and UTF-8 text.
Resources	Reads raw data embedded in a program's resources into a string or out to a file.
Common dialogs	Shows the open, save, folder and colour dialogs, and opens Control Panel applets.
Internet	Reads the connection state, combines and cleans URLs, and finds browsers and mail.
Strings	Converts case by locale, translates between code pages, formats sizes and splits fields.
Colours	Names the web colours twice: as RGB_* values for GDI and as ARGB_* values for GDI+.

sys/win/gui

Start with the sys/win/gui overview.

Page	What it does
CWindow	Creates a main window, adds controls to it and runs its message loop, scaled for DPI.
CTabPage	Creates a window that serves as one page of a tab control.
CDialog	Creates dialog boxes in memory, fills them with controls and shows them modal or modeless.
gui macros and helpers	Extracts control ids, notification codes and pointers from window-message parameters.
CXpButton	Creates a push button that draws itself, with images, toggle behaviour and custom colours.
CMaskedEdit	Creates an edit control that accepts input only in a set shape, such as a phone number.
CMemBmp	Creates an off-screen bitmap to draw on with GDI or GDI+, then save, print or display.
CGraphCtx	Creates a graphic control: a child window that keeps and repaints what you draw on it.
CPrint	Chooses a printer, measures its page, reads and changes its settings, and prints.
File dialogs	Shows the Windows Open and Save dialogs and reads the files the user picked.
CIFileDialogCustomize	Adds check boxes, lists, buttons and other controls to an open or save dialog.
File dialog events	Handles the events of an open or save dialog and of the controls added to it.
Explorer browser	Hosts a Windows Explorer folder view in your window and reports where the user navigates.
Button	Checks, clicks and labels push buttons, check boxes, radio buttons and split buttons.
Label	Sets and reads the text, icon, bitmap, cursor or metafile of a static control.
Edit	Reads, changes, selects and formats the text of single-line and multiline edit controls.
Combo	Adds, finds, selects and reads the items of a combo box, and sets its list and edit box.
CBEx	Inserts, reads and changes the items of a ComboBoxEx control, a combo box with images.
ListBox	Adds, finds, selects and reads the items of a list box control.
ListView	Adds columns and rows to a list view and reads, selects, sorts and groups its items.
TreeView	Adds, finds, expands, selects and styles the items of a tree view control.
Header	Adds, reads, sizes and reorders the columns of a header control.
TabCtl	Adds, selects, renames and removes the tabs of a tab control, and manages its tab pages.
ToolBar	Adds, changes and queries the buttons of a toolbar control and the images they show.
Rebar	Inserts, moves, sizes and queries the bands of a rebar, the container for toolbars.
Menu	Builds menu bars, drop-down and shortcut menus, and reads and changes their items.
StatusBar	Divides a status bar into parts and sets and reads their text, icons and tooltips.
ToolTip	Creates tooltips for controls and windows and sets their text, timing, colours and place.
ProgBar	Sets the range, position, step, colours and state of a progress bar control.
TrackBar	Reads and sets a trackbar's position, range, tick marks, selection and buddy windows.
UpDown	Reads and sets an up-down control's position, range, base, buddy window and acceleration.
Pager	Sets what a pager control scrolls, and reads and sets its position, buttons and colours.
MonthCal	Reads and sets the selected date, range, today and colours of a month calendar control.
DTP	Reads and sets the date and time, range, format and drop-down calendar of a date picker.
Animate	Opens, plays, stops and closes silent AVI clips in an animation control.
HotKey	Reads and sets the key combination in a hot key control, and the combinations it refuses.
IPAddress	Reads, sets and clears the address in an IP address control, and limits its four fields.
ScrollBar	Shows, hides, enables and positions a scroll bar control, and reads and sets its range.
SysLink	Measures a SysLink control, reads and sets its links, and finds the link at a point.

sys/win/com

Start with the sys/win/com overview.

Page	What it does
DVARIANT	Holds a COM VARIANT and converts it to and from tiko numbers, strings, dates and arrays.
DSafeArray	Holds a COM SAFEARRAY and destroys it, with all its elements, when it goes out of scope.
BSTRING	Wraps a COM BSTR string and frees it when the variable goes out of scope.
CInt96	Stores a 96-bit signed integer in a COM DECIMAL and does arithmetic on it.
CDispInvoke	Calls the methods and properties of a COM Automation object by name.
COM procedures	Creates COM objects and handles GUIDs, reference counts, event connections and variants.

sys/win/richedit

Start with the sys/win/richedit overview.

Page	What it does
CRichEditCtx	Creates a rich edit control in a CWindow and reads and sets its options and formatting.
CRichEditCtx: editing	Selects, finds, inserts and replaces text in a rich edit control, and undoes edits.
CRichEditCtx: files, formatting and the document	Loads, saves and formats rich edit text, and drives its Text Object Model document.
RichEdit	Sends rich edit messages to a control by its handle: text, selection, formatting and RTF.
CTextFont2	Reads and sets the character formatting of rich edit text: font, size, colour and effects.
CTextPara2	Reads and sets paragraph formatting in rich edit text: indents, spacing, tabs and lists.
CTextRange2	Reads, edits, searches and formats a span of rich edit text through the Text Object Model.
CTextSelection2	Reads and changes the selection of a rich edit control through the Text Object Model.
CTextRow	Inserts table rows into rich edit text and reads and changes row and cell properties.
CTextStory	Reads and replaces the text of a rich edit story and gives ranges over it.
CRichEditOleCallback	Answers a rich edit control's OLE questions, so that pictures and objects can be pasted.
Text Object Model	Lists the Text Object Model interfaces and constants, and the base of the TOM classes.

sys/win/gdiplus

Start with the sys/win/gdiplus overview.

Page	What it does
CGpGraphics	Draws lines, shapes, text and images with GDI+ on a window, a device context or an image.
CGpPen	Draws lines and outlines in GDI+ with a colour or brush, a width, dashes and caps.
GDI+ brushes	Fills shapes and text in GDI+ with a colour, a hatch pattern, an image or a gradient.
GDI+ line caps	Draws arrow heads and shapes of your own at the ends of lines drawn with a GDI+ pen.
Graphics paths	Builds shapes from lines, curves and text, and walks the points they are made of.
CGpRegion	Combines rectangles and paths into areas for filling, clipping and hit-testing in GDI+.
CGpMatrix	Moves, scales, rotates and shears points with a GDI+ affine transformation matrix.
GDI+ images	Loads, creates, edits and saves images with GDI+: bitmaps, metafiles and cached bitmaps.
CGpImageAttributes	Adjusts the colours of an image as it is drawn: colour matrices, gamma, keys, remapping.
GDI+ effects	Blurs, sharpens, tints and corrects the colours of bitmaps with the GDI+ effect classes.
GDI+ fonts	Creates GDI+ fonts and font families and lists the fonts installed or loaded from files.
CGpStringFormat	Sets how GDI+ lays out text in a rectangle: alignment, wrapping, trimming and tab stops.
GDI+ procedures and types	Starts GDI+, builds colours and rectangles, and converts, saves and prints images.

sys/win/direct2d

Start with the sys/win/direct2d overview.

Page	What it does
CD2D1Factory	Creates the Direct2D factory that makes render targets, geometries and stroke styles.
Direct2D stroke styles and multithreading	Holds Direct2D stroke styles, reads back their settings and locks a multithreaded factory.
CID2D1RenderTarget	Draws shapes, bitmaps and text with Direct2D and creates the brushes and bitmaps it uses.
Direct2D render targets	Draws into windows, device contexts and bitmaps, and saves and restores drawing state.
Direct2D brushes	Paints shapes, lines and text in Direct2D with a colour, a gradient, a bitmap or an image.
Direct2D bitmaps and colour contexts	Holds pixel images for a Direct2D render target, and the colour profiles they are in.
CID2D1Geometry	Measures, hit-tests and reshapes Direct2D geometries; the base class of every shape.
Direct2D geometries	Builds Direct2D shapes from rectangles, ellipses, lines, curves and arcs.
Direct2D helpers	Builds the points, rectangles, colours, matrices and property records Direct2D calls take.
Direct2D interfaces and types	Lists the Direct2D interfaces, structures and enumerations that sys/win/direct2d declares.
DirectWrite interfaces and types	Lists the DirectWrite interfaces, enumerations and structures of sys/win/direct2d.
DXGI interfaces and types	Lists the DXGI interfaces, enumerations and structures of sys/win/direct2d.
WIC interfaces and types	Lists the WIC interfaces, enumerations and structures of sys/win/direct2d.

sys/win/webview2

Start with the sys/win/webview2 overview.

Page	What it does
CWebView2	Hosts a Microsoft Edge browser in a window and drives it from tiko code.
WebView2 event handlers	Implements the WebView2 callback interfaces as classes to extend, one per event or result.
WebView2 interfaces and types	Lists the WebView2 interfaces, enumerations and structures that sys/win/webview2 declares.