Windows 8 Preview – Part 2 – EZGUI and the Windows API

Now that I have solved the problem with the video driver, Windows 8 is looking much better. I have a lot more to test, but the EZGUI Windows 8 test program I wrote (see previous post for link to download) works perfectly.

So what does this test program actually test in the Windows API:

• Dialogs (Forms)
• Windows Timers
• MDI (Multiple Document Interface)
• Rebar child forms
• Pager child forms
• Tiled bitmaps drawn in WM_PAINT (background draw)
• Stretched bitmaps drawn in WM_PAINT  (background draw)
• Complex regions generated from a Bitmap (non-rectangular windows)
• OwnerDraw 3D Buttons
• Drawing into Memory DC’s (part of ownerdraw)
• Ownerdraw ComboBox, Listbox and Listview controls
• Custom Draw (via WM_NOTIFY)
• Common Dialogs (displayed from property listbox control)
• Proprietary Drag and Drop engine (ie. Visual Designer stuff)
• Displays all the Standard Windows controls
• Displays the majority of Windows Common controls
• API Drag and Drop (ie. drag listbox, drag icons, Explorer drag and drop files
• MCI (video and midi)
• GDI Drawing via proprietary Turtle Graphics engine
• GDI Drawing via proprietary Canvas control
• Proprietary 2D Sprite engine (pushes Windows DIB API’s to the max)
• Precision Timers (Game loop used in sprite section)
• Proprietary OpenGL 3D engine
• Windows message processing
• Subclassing
• Superclassing
• Custom Window Class creation
• Code Pointers
• Direct memory data access

This test demonstrates the benefits of proper API coding. EZGUI 5.0’s runtime can be used on Windows 95 to Windows 7 and now Windows 8 demonstrates it has maintained the core Win32 API.

To be continued …