There is an exe in system32 called edit.com . It is an old text editor. I'm wondering how they made a console app have a gui, and work with the mouse? Thanks
There are no shortcuts.The mouse had to be interfaced with through assembly code.You would call interrupt 33 to have access to several functions like reading the mouse motion counters and button states. Then you'd read the CPU registers to get those numbers. From there on you could do everything else in C, including the GUI-like interface. There's no shortcut to that either - it must be manually done, each individual square has to be painted the correct color.
edit.com is REALLY old. It was written before the Windows GUI was really popular. They probably use special DOS functions to create the graphics and recognize the mouse.
Well prior to Windows 3.1 there used to be an operating system call DOS and I believe the mouse thing came with DOS 5.0 or DOS 4.0.
Your best bet for adding mouse and color support to a console is to use some kind of TextArea control and make your own console instead of using the DOS console. You could also look into ncurses for Windows but I don't recommend it. If you just want color you could also look at this tutorial.
Related
First, I'm fairly new to how programs interact with X11 window managers. I frequently use ngspice for circuit level simulations and one of the most commonly used tasks is to plot waveform using Nutmeg post processor. Whenever multiple X11 windows are invoked through terminal.app , for some reason all the windows stack on one another. Is there a way or hack to open any new x11 window not overlapped/stacked on an existing window?
Thanks for reading.
Window placement is handled by the window manager. I see that you tagged this MacOS, so I am guessing that you are running X11 applications through MacOS. I don't use MacOS, so I'm not sure what your WM is, but it's really up to the WM to decide. If you have some Xlib or XCB functions to work with, you can probably set some hints for placement using XChangeProperty (Xlib) or xcb_change_property (XCB). There is no way to guarantee that the WM will do anything with them, but it may. You can also move and resize windows using XConfigureWindow/xcb_configure_window.
In a nutshell, placement is handled by the WM, which may do it however it wants, and windows aren't required to listen to any requests made by other applications. All you can do is try some things and see what works.
I just bought a new keyboard, and I'm interested in tracking exactly how many keypresses/strokes I make during the entire life of the keyboard. (I would want to just record keyUp, as I don't care about repeats)
I've been googling around for the best way to do this, but I don't even know what approach to take, so I'm having trouble searching intelligently.
Also, the only language I've really worked with is C#. Haven't done anything with C/C++ or WinAPI
Is it difficult to modify the Win 7 drivers directly?
I do want to be able to record keystrokes from the moment the computer boots, but this may not be easily done.
I would prefer to use an existing driver or hook, as I really don't care to get into learning device drivers right now.
I've looked briefly at Ctrl2Cap, but I don't know how to modify something like that to suit my case.
Other questions I looked at,
Writing a keyboard device driver
Low level keyboard Hook not at UI thread
This one indicates writing a USB Filter driver may work, but I have no clue where to start on that.
Disabling the keyboard in windows c++?
It is not necessary to go the driver route, which is not for the faint of heart. You can use use a low level keyboard hook which will work fine from .NET.
I did a quick bing and found the following on codeplex
http://globalmousekeyhook.codeplex.com/
It should get you going
If you want to do that you need to use Kernel Level Keylogger. It's grabs the keystrokes before the operating system takes effects and this one 99% invisible for detection techniques. Then you can grab the Windows Log On screen typed things like password/username etc.
#ChrisTaylor's key logger not work for WinLog-on Screen I reckon. If you can install the keyboard driver filter before the system keyboard device driver take a action you can handle windows user login screen also. But In order to install this driver level key hook you need to have administrator privileges.
I found Unix and Windows Keyloggers from Github. Free to play with this https://www.adlice.com/kernelmode-rootkits-part-3-kernel-filters/ and have fun!
That, what you want is dangerous!
With the same code everyone can create keylogger*
But if you not a virus creator then I recommend you to search "hotkeying in C/C++" or something like that and hook keyboard with hotkeys!
I have written HotKey Maker in VB6 which can make hotkey from every button of keyboard.
But I really not interested in viruses :)
Good Luck !
*Virus which hooks your keyboard and send all what you wrote in keyboard to Virus owner
This library does exactly what I am talking about on Linux systems: http://ichi2.net/pyosd/
My knowledge of Win32 API is limited but it seems to me that unless you create a window and enter the win32 main loop, you cannot do it. Some Googling also confirmed that.
Even so, are they newer GUI frameworks or technologies that would make it happen on windows?
Thanks
You don't need no stinkin' GUI frameworks. You can either:
Draw directly on the desktop. Of course, this is not generally considered a good idea, since it's mucking around with the internals of another application. Drawing this way is also quite fragile because your changes are erased each time the desktop repaints itself.
Create a transparent, layered window that you draw onto, which will appear over the desktop. If you specify that this window should be a top-level window, you could also have it appear over all of the other windows on the desktop.
There is absolutely nothing that forces windows to be rectangular gray-colored boxes, and since each window provides a device context that you can draw into, you can let your imagination run wild.
I am writing a program to sit in the background on osx 10.6, listen to keystrokes and record them, grouping them by window title. (No, I am not writing malicious software. I do not need this program to be sneaky in any way, I just want to have a safety net for when I have typed a huge email and then accidentally refresh the page (APPLE-R) instead of opening a new tab (APPLE-T)) I have already found apple's EventMonitorTest example for the keystroke capturing code, now I just need to find the "key window" title.
Does anyone know where I can find examples for this kind of functionality? Thank you!
A couple of possibilities:
You could use the Accessibility API (though of course keep in mind that 64-bit Carbon does not support this)
You could use the CGWindow functions introduced in Leopard
I suspect the first option will be easier to do this with, since the CGWindow API is somewhat low-level and treats all windows (application windows, menu bars, dock icons, etc.) more or less equally.
I'd like to play animations on the Windows desktop without relying on 3rd-party products such as StarDock DeskScapes or Windows DreamScene. What APIs should I look into?
you can read this thread...
http://www.gamedev.net/community/forums/topic.asp?topic_id=113986
it is long, but in it, is a discussion of writing to the desktop...
hope this helps...
~Bolt
I've never done this, but here's the approach I'd take.
Inject a dll into explorer via SetWindowsHookEx.
Grab a handle by using GetDesktopWindow.
Subclass the Desktop using GetWindowLongPtr & SetWindowLongPtr.
Do all your fancy rendering in the new WndProc you've hooked up.
Be aware that breaking the Desktop window will probably lock up your machine, as all its decedent windows (read: every window for that User) will likely be adversely affected.
Also, given the um rich compatibility history of Windows, be on the lookout for dummies meant to absorb abuse. In particular, I wouldn't be at all surprised if GetDesktopWindow does not in fact return the Desktop window you're looking for. You might have to do some digging with Spy++ or the like, basically.