User Interface Programming

Tech Tips are small chunks of Windows pro­gram­ming information that are too small or specialized for a full article.

This page lists all the Tech Tips I’ve written for Win­dows De­vel­oper Maga­zine, in reverse chrono­logi­cal order (newest first).

All ac­com­pa­ny­ing code is written in C.

---

9 Do/While Macros Souped Up and Revisited (Second Movement)

Windows De­vel­oper Maga­zine, October 2003

 NEW  On the vagaries of assertion macros in C and C++.

8 The Advantages of MessageBoxIndirect()

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, April 2002

MessageBox() is well known to Windows pro­gram­mers. Its close relative, MessageBoxIndirect(), is less well known, but offers several interesting possibilities that MessageBox()does not.

7 Compile-Time Assertions

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, January 2001

winnt.h contains a little-known macro that can perform assertion checks as you compile. This Tech Tip explains how.

6 Custom Folder Icons

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, August 2000

The right settings in a hidden desktop.ini file can give any folder a special icon when viewed from Explorer. This Tech Tip explains how; here’s the gist of it:

[.ShellClassInfo]
IconFile=MyProg.exe
IconIndex=2
InfoTip=MyProg Program Folder

5 The PathCompactPath() Bug

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, February 2000

PathCompactPath() is a shell function you can use to replace part of a string containing a filename with “…”, so it will fit in a menu better, for example. In­cred­i­bly, this function will actually scribble outside the buffer you give it under certain con­ditions!

This Tech Tip explains the bug and how to fix it.

4 An Improved Directory Sizing Utility

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, March 1998

This Tech Tip revisits a previous tip (by Peter D’Agostino, Windows Developer Magazine, September 1997) to provide improved directory size information.

3 Enter With Care

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, February 1998

This Tech Tip presents a solution to the behavior of the Enter key in dia­log boxes that have both a default pushbutton and multi-line edit con­t­rols.

You can read this article online.

2 Right-aligned Numeric Fields

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, July 1997

This Tech Tip describes a simple trick for producing right-aligned numeric fields in dia­log boxes.

1 The Hourglass Cursor

Windows De­vel­oper’s Jour­nal, February 1997

This Tech Tip explores the not-quite-simple problem of correctly displaying hour­glass cursors.

You can read this article online.

---

(Start bottom menu)

Top • Home • Articles • Book • Resources
Win­dows De­vel­oper Maga­zine • R&D Books • CMP Books
Amazon.com • Amazon.co.uk • Contact Petter Hesselberg

(End bottom menu)