There are two drawbacks to Win32::API that I've noticed so far. One could be easily remedied, while the other is probably not something I should hold my breath for...

hold your breath instead :-)
I'm working on a new release of Win32::API which will make your life a lot easier by supporting not only named types (eg. WORD, DWORD et al.) but structures too.

soon (I hope) you'll be able to say:

use Win32::API 0.40;

Win32::API::Struct->typedef 'POINT', qw(
    LONG x
    LONG y
);

Win32::API->Import(
    'user32',
    'BOOL GetCursorPos(LPPOINT lpPoint)'
);

my $point = Win32::API::Struct->new('POINT');
my $retval = GetCursorPos($point);

print "Cursor is at $point->{x}, $point->{y}\n";
[download]

oh, and BTW:

One example I'm thinking of is placing icons in the system tray. To be able to respond to mouse clicks, the function call that places the icon there must specify a callback that gets executed on a mouse click. AFAIK, there is no way to do this yet in Perl, and it may be impossible at the present.

well, there's Win32::GUI for this.

cheers,
Aldo

__END__
$_=q,just perl,,s, , another ,,s,$, hacker,,print;
[download]

as promised (and after a mere 6 months or so :-), I've released version 0.40 of Win32::API.

it may not be on CPAN at the time I write, but here's the link to download it from my site:
Win32-API-0.40.tar.gz

the synopsis I gave in my previous message still applies :-)

there is even support for callbacks, but it is very experimental: feedback is appreciated as always.

cheers,
Aldo

King of Laziness, Wizard of Impatience, Lord of Hubris

Wow man, you must not really be the King of Laziness, cause this is awesome! I really appreciate your work.

Very nice and Very handy package.
I'm having a problem, however... :-)

In short, I'm trying to use Win32::API to call CreateProcess.

All is well except for the LPSTARTUPINFO and LPPROCESS_INFORMATION parms I pass into the call. If I create these using pack(...) for the correct number of bytes, it works fine and I can get the PID back out of the PROCESS_INFORMATION object (my ultimate goal).

If, however, I create these parms using the Win32::API::Struct->new( 'STARTUPINFO' ) approach, the call fails. I'm even setting the .cb field to the size of the structure. The error I get back (using Win32::GetLastError()) is "Invalid access to memory location". Here's the function call I'm making (same in both cases):



<-----------snip------------>

# version 1 - succeeds
my $si = pack( "L17", ((0) x 17) );
$si = pack( "LL16", length( $si ), ((0) x 16 ) );
my $pi = pack( "L4", ((0) x 4 ) );

# version 2 - fails
my $si = Win32::API::Struct->new( "STARTUPINFO" );
$si->{cb} = $si->sizeof();
my $pi = Win32::API::Struct->new( "PROCESS_INFORMATION" );

my $retval =
CreateProcess( "c:\\winnt\\notepad.exe",
               0,    # unused - cmdline ptr, unused
               0,    # unused - proc attributes ptr
               0,    # unused - thread attributes ptr
               0,    # unused - inherit handles
               0,    # unused - creation flags
               0,    # unused - env pointer
               0,    # unused - current dir ptr
               $si,
               $pi
             );

<-----------snip------------>
[download]

Should CreateProcess be called the same way in both cases? When a ->new('STARTUPINFO') is called, is the memory zeroed-out upon creation? Any idea why the pack version succeeds and the Struct verion fails?

TIA!
D. Smith

David "Sniper" Rigaudiere

Hi, i want to use fuctions in my vc++ program that are declared in windows dll file. im beginner. can u suggest me that from where can i find the very basic information about that. i must be very simple. coz im totally new to this.

i mean to say. using windows dll fucntions in vc++ programs. like GetSystemInfo() function of kernel32.dll how can i use this and many othre functions in my vc++. plz suggest me very simple articles or tutorials. thanks