Win32 Basic Window Source

These tutorials focus mainly on OpenGL, Win32 programming and the ODE physics engine. OpenGL has moved on to great heights and I don't cover the newest features but cover all of the basic concepts you will need with working example programs.

Working with the Win32 API is a great way to get to the heart of Windows and is just as relevant today as ever before. Whereas ODE has been marginalized as hardware accelerated physics becomes more common.

Games and graphics utilities can be made quickly and easily using game engines like Unity so this and Linux development in general will be the focus of my next tutorials.

Win32 Tutorials

Source Code for a Basic Window

Listing of resource.h

#define IDI_ICON 101

Listing of resource.rc

#include "resource.h" IDI_ICON ICON "icon.ico"

Listing of main.cpp


// Win32 Tutorial No.1

// Alan Baylis 2004



#include <windows.h>

#include "resource.h"



const char ClassName[] = "MainWindowClass";



LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc( HWND    hWnd,

                          UINT    Msg,

                          WPARAM  wParam,          

                          LPARAM  lParam )

{

    switch (Msg)

    {

        case WM_CLOSE:

            DestroyWindow(hWnd);

        break;



        case WM_DESTROY:

            PostQuitMessage(0);

        break;



        default:

            return (DefWindowProc(hWnd, Msg, wParam, lParam));

    }



    return 0;

}



INT WINAPI WinMain( HINSTANCE  hInstance,

                    HINSTANCE  hPrevInstance,

                    LPSTR      lpCmdLine,

                    INT        nCmdShow )

{

    WNDCLASSEX    wc;



    wc.cbSize           = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);

    wc.style            = 0;

    wc.lpfnWndProc      = (WNDPROC)WndProc;

    wc.cbClsExtra       = 0;

    wc.cbWndExtra       = 0;

    wc.hInstance        = hInstance;

    wc.hIcon            = LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON));

    wc.hIconSm          = LoadIcon(hInstance, MAKEINTRESOURCE(IDI_ICON));

    wc.hCursor          = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);

    wc.hbrBackground    = (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW + 1);

    wc.lpszMenuName     = NULL;

    wc.lpszClassName    = ClassName;



    if (!RegisterClassEx(&wc))

    {

        MessageBox(NULL, "Failed To Register The Window Class.", "Error", MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);

        return 0;

    }



    HWND    hWnd;



    hWnd = CreateWindowEx(

    WS_EX_CLIENTEDGE,

    ClassName,

    "Win32 Tutorial No.1",

    WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,

    CW_USEDEFAULT,

    CW_USEDEFAULT,

    240,

    120,

    NULL,

    NULL,

    hInstance,

    NULL);



    if (!hWnd)

    {

        MessageBox(NULL, "Window Creation Failed.", "Error", MB_OK | MB_ICONERROR);

        return 0;

    }



    ShowWindow(hWnd, SW_SHOW);

    UpdateWindow(hWnd);



    MSG    Msg;



    while (GetMessage(&Msg, NULL, 0, 0))

    {

        TranslateMessage(&Msg);

        DispatchMessage(&Msg);

    }



    return Msg.wParam;

}