I want to dynamically using a bash script/c++ code arrange windows that are present on the desktop on top of each other .I know the name of the applications whose windows will be present on the gnome desktop.
Is there any way to achieve this ?
Take a look at Devil's Pie. This is a window-matching utility that was especially written for the Metacity window manager, IIRC. It allows you to execute custom actions for certain types of windows. In your case, you could simply match all windows and set their respective positions/geometries (I don't know the manual of Devil's Pie by heart, but I am pretty sure that it can do this).
There's also a successor, called Devil's Pie 2, which uses Lua-based rules. However, I don't have any further information about it.
Related
I made a small program in C++ that can type text into a notepad document, it does so using FindWindow and FindWindowEx, but I was only able to do that because I knew the names of the windows I was trying to access (in this case it was "Notepad" for the doc and "Edit" for the text area).
If I didn't know the names how would I go about figuring that out? Lets hypothetically say I wanted to make text appear in Chrome's URL box, how would I figure out what the name of that box is so I can use FindWindowEx on it?
The least painful approach to automating 3rd party applications is to use UI Automation. It allows you to navigate UI hierarchies as well as operate on the individual objects.
All native windows controls support UI Automation out of the box. UI Automation also works with frameworks, that do not implement their UI using native controls (e.g. Qt). Particularly with Qt, tools like Spy++ will not give you the information you need.
Run the other app and then use a tool like Spy++, Winspector, etc to look at the other program's window hierarchy to find what you need.
i work on a Windows CE 6.0 Image and added a Audio driver to my Solution (my solution is based on a image without audio). Sound works fine but i dont know how i can add the standard Windows CE 6.0 Sound Settings dialog to the control panel.
MSDN says the following:
"The Windows CE Control Panel allows users to set a variety of system-wide properties, such as mouse sensitivity, network setup, and the desktop color scheme. You can select specific functionality to include in your Control Panel by specifying them in your Cesysgen.bat file."
Can anyone explain how this works exactly via Cesysgen.bat? In my project i cant find any entry for cplmain in my Cesysgen.bat.
Could it be that those standard Applets are integrated into the control panel automatically? (maybe with "getProcAddress()" when a specific driver is loaded?) - This idea comes from "cplmain.def", there is written:
EXPORTS
CPlApplet
; These functions are exported for componentization
; We use GetProcAddress on ourselves to dynamically discover
; what components we have
I found a quite good explanation from Andrew Pearson here:
http://www.itlisting.org/4-windows-ce-embedded/a57eef4103191b7a.aspx
but i tried a few different things an nothing worked! So this confuses me even more. The only statement there i really understand now is:
The control panel, unfortunately, is about the single most confusing thing
to build in the whole tree.
Yes it is! Would be nice if anyone had an idea.
Kind regards,
Martin
I've created custom control panel applets before, and to be honest, trying to modify the existing applet is about the worst thing you can try. Generally what I do is just create a whole new applet, which is really just a DLL renamed to have a .cpl extension and that exports the CPlApplet entry point.
There's an example in MSDN that shows the expected values the OS will pass in to get your icon, tell you to start and those types of things.
Basically just build your own applet as a completely separate project, then include it in the MODULES section of your BIB file. Don't even mess with the existing train wreck of control panel code.
Win32 look nasty, how to make it look better by custom skins?
I mean something like Adobe products, iTunes, Autodesk 3dsmax and Softimage XSI, Windows media player, Blender, Comodo firewall, Winamp, Babylon client, and few download managers etc.;
there are many similar applications out there but I can't find any proper tutorial or guideline, it looks like secret recipe!
only -two- tutorials available online:
old and useless: http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/20497/Draw-Skin-Window-Using-Pure-Win32-API
only cover opaque background (and this is what I avoid, I need more about GUI components):
http://www.flipcode.com/archives/Win32_Window_Skinning.shtml
Is there any book or proper guideline to learn how to build skins for Win32api?
Edit: I accept David Rodríguez comment, down there ↓↓
I have done this before using C++ Builder. The approach I took was to create a form, set it to be borderless and color the entire form the same color. Then I set the form transparency to this color. I then add images to the form which create the desired skin.
I'm sure this can all be done through standard win APIs, but I can't describe (or advise) doing it solely through API calls.
The operating system handles "skinning" for you automatically.
In "classic" mode (or Windows 2000 and earlier versions), this gets you a, well classic-looking interface. The windows are drawn just like they always were since Windows 95. Presumably, this is what you are referring to when you say that "Win32 look nasty". However, you need to realize that many people like this look and specifically choose to enable it on their machines. [WARNING: Personal opinion coming up!] I'm one of those people, and judging from the screenshots that get posted here from developers' machines, I'm definitely not the only one.
Windows XP actually introducing the "skinning" or theming engine, which lives in a set of Windows DLLs. By explicitly linking to version 6 of ComCtl32.dll, your application would automatically get these visual effects. Some people said this version of Windows looked "Fisher-Price", while others were perfectly happy with the term "gaudy". The option was retained to allow the user to switch to the "classic" theme (as described above), if desired.
Windows Vista completely overhauled Windows's theming engine and introduced a new UI known as "Aero". This provides flashy-looking windows and controls, complete with transparency effects—that is, as long as your graphics card supports it. Again, by explicitly linking to version 6 of ComCtl32.dll, your application would automatically get all of these styles applied.
It's worth noting that through all of this, Microsoft has provided users with the ability to customize the colors (and fonts and other things) used in the user interface. For example, Aero defaults to blue. If you don't like blue, you can change it. I change my UI colors periodically for fun and to re-energize myself. If you can't read or don't like the font, you change it, too.
Thus, if you choose to do something different with your application, defining your own custom color palette and ignoring the options chosen by the user through the provided customization interface, your app is going to look broken and stick out like a sore thumb on the user's desktop. When designing a UI, the last thing you want to do is to be or look different.
In short, upgrade your computer to Windows Vista or later and enable the Aero interface if you want flashy. Don't override the user or try to custom draw all of your controls. You'll just end up with an application that is hard to use, doesn't work as expected, is a pain in the rear to maintain, and just generally looks worse than if you'd simply left it alone.
To provide a Windows Explorer-like view of the user's system, we have been using the shell controls from LogicNP (formerly Sky Software), but these have deficiencies, e.g., no support for Win7 libraries. The vendor has not responded to our inquiries about updates, so we're looking to replace the package.
Requirements:
ActiveX (no managed code or MFC)
Tree and list views of the system
Per-item checkboxes
32- and 64-bit versions
Any recommendations for a replacement product?
TIA.
Based on the fact that you said you need to support Windows XP:
I accomplished this by using the Shell API to enumerate files & folders and then I used custom drawing to draw the correct icons for each shell item in a standard listview control. It was a fair bit of work and I don't know exactly what you need your shell view to accomplish, but this may be the best option.
This might be a good place to start reading:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb776889.aspx
What is the best way for, using WinApi, find a given control in a external program window?
For example, I'm trying to change Internet Explorer's url text box. I am having trouble getting programatically the handle to the text box. I know its type is "Edit" but I'd like to avoid having to search through all the child windows for the "Edit" control (that's how I'm currently doing).
Is there any kind of unique identifier for a given control on a window? I tried using "Control ID" but it doesn't seem to be working.
Thanks
When you're delving into the windows of another application that wasn't designed to give you any particular special access to its windows, then you don't really have any simple solution. Functions like FindWindowEx, GetWindow, EnumChildWindows, and the rest are what you have to work with.
However, it's often not a great idea to even do this. Internet Explorer may have certain types of windows in a certain hierarchy in the particular version that you're developing against right now. But those windows and hierarchy may be different in previous versions and could be considerably different in future versions. You have no guarantee about these things.
In some cases, you might do well to investigate if there are alternative and more official ways to control the other program. For instance, Internet Explorer exposes a COM object that can be used for many purposes. Because this is an official interface, you have better guarantees about what previous versions this will be supported on and that it won't break for future versions.
The best way to do it is find it step by step.. E.g. Find the IE window with FindWindow, then find the child of that with FindWindowEx, then find the child of that with FindWindowEx ... until you get down to the textbox.
There is 1 program I can think of that will generate VB code from dragging a icon from the application to any part of any other application.. VB is way old but it'll give you a very good idea how to do it!
It's called API Spy, found under 'Downloadable Applications (Windows Only)' on http://patorjk.com/blog/software/