WinAPI MSG structure determine which key was pressed - winapi

Question

Microsoft docs contain MSG structure page, which tells:
wParam
Type: WPARAM
Additional information about the message. The exact meaning depends on
the value of the message member.
lParam
Type: LPARAM
Additional information about the message. The exact meaning depends on
the value of the message member.
What is this "additional meaning"? They don't even link this page with others, which explain all of the possible additional meanings.
I had some very ugly code, which determined what registered hotkey was pressed, which looks like this:
RegisterHotKey(NULL, 1, MOD_NOREPEAT, VK_F2);
...
MSG msg;
while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, WM_HOTKEY, WM_HOTKEY) != 0)
{
switch (htonl(msg.lParam) >> 8)
{
case VK_ESCAPE:
// handle escape
case VK_F1:
// handle F1
// possibly handle some more buttons
default:
// handle stuff
}
}
As you can see, it is not the most elegant way to do this. Not elegant at all.
So, is there a better way (the best way) to determine which key was pressed from the MSG structure returned from GetMessage/PeekMessage?
EDIT: I understand that "meaning depends on the value of the message", give me the link to the page which maps "value of the message"->"meaning", please, instead of writing comments on how stupid am I. Much thanks.

Answer 1

AFAIK, there is no unified message->meaning map page, but the document page of each individual window message. You need to know the message you want to use first, and then find the corresponding meaning in the document.
For example, the WM_HOTKEY you are using, according to the document:
wParam
The identifier of the hot key that generated the message. If the
message was generated by a system-defined hot key, this parameter will
be one of the following values.
lParam
The low-order word specifies the keys that were to be pressed in
combination with the key specified by the high-order word to generate
the WM_HOTKEY message. This word can be one or more of the following
values. The high-order word specifies the virtual key code of the hot
key.
is there a better way (the best way) to determine which key was pressed from the MSG structure returned from GetMessage/PeekMessage?
Determine the pressed hot key through the wParam parameter (The identifier of the hot key). The second parameter of RegisterHotKey specifies the identifier of the hot key
RegisterHotKey(NULL, 1, MOD_NOREPEAT, VK_F2);
...
switch (msg.wParam)
{
case 1:
// handle VK_F2
default:
// handle stuff
}