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Introduction To Windows API

This document introduces the Windows API tutorial, which teaches programming in the Windows API with C. It discusses that the Windows API is used to create Windows applications by downloading the Windows SDK. The Windows API can be divided into several areas including base services, security, graphics, user interface, multimedia, and networking. It also provides an overview of the Pelles C compiler and discusses enabling Microsoft extensions to compile Windows API programs.

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Aye Sha
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125 views

Introduction To Windows API

This document introduces the Windows API tutorial, which teaches programming in the Windows API with C. It discusses that the Windows API is used to create Windows applications by downloading the Windows SDK. The Windows API can be divided into several areas including base services, security, graphics, user interface, multimedia, and networking. It also provides an overview of the Pelles C compiler and discusses enabling Microsoft extensions to compile Windows API programs.

Uploaded by

Aye Sha
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Introduction to Windows API

This is Windows API tutorial. This tutorial will teach you the basics and more
advanced topics of programming in Windows API with the C programming
language. It does not cover MFC. (Microsoft Foundation Classes is a widely
used C++ library for developing C++ applications on Windows.) This tutorial
has been created and tested on Windows 7. The examples have been built
using Pelles C compiler. If you plan to read this tutorial, you are advised to
download and install this compiler. (It is a freeware.) If you want to use some
other compiler make sure that is supports the C99 standard.

Windows API:

The Windows API is the application programming interface that is used to


create Windows applications. In order to create Windows applications, we must
download the Windows SDK. (Formerly known as Platform SDK.) The SDK
(Software Development Kit) contains header files, libraries, samples,
documentation and tools that use the Windows API to develop applications. The
Windows API is created for C and C++ programming languages. It is the most
direct way to create Windows applications. (If we install Pelles C, the Windows
SDK is already included.)

The Windows API can be divided into several areas:

 Base services
 Security
 Graphics
 User interface
 Multimedia
 Windows shell
 Networking

The Base services provide access to the fundamental resources on Windows.


These include file systems, devices, processes, threads, registry or error
handling. The Security area provides functions, interfaces, objects and other
programming elements for authentication, authorization, cryptography and other
security related tasks. The Graphics subsystem provides functionality for
outputting graphical content to monitors, printers and other output devices.
The User interface provides functionality to create windows and controls.
The Multimedia component provides tools for working with video, sound and
input devices. The functions of the Windows shell interface allow applications
to access the functionality provided by the operating system shell. The Network
services provide access to the network capabilities of the Windows OS.

Windows API is an abstract specification of the programming interface to the


Windows operating system. It consists of declarations of functions, unions,
structures, data types, macros, constants and other programming elements.
Windows API is described mainly by the MSDN (Microsoft Developer
Network) and resides in the Windows C headers. The official implementation of
the Windows API functions is located in dynamic libraries (DLLs). For
example kernel32.dll, user32.dll, gdi32.dll, or shell32.dll in the Windows
system directory. There are third-party implementations of Windows API: most
notably the Wine project and the Reactors project.

Windows API is a dynamic entity. The number of functions continuously grows


with every new version of Windows OS and new service packs. There are also
some important differences between the server versions and desktop versions of
the operating system. Some functions are not officially documented.
Pelles C:

Pelles C is an excellent C compiler and integrated development environment


(IDE) for the C programming language. It supports both 32-bit Windows (x86)
and 64-bit Windows (x64). It implements both C99 and C11 standards. Pelles C
has an integrated resource editor, bitmap, icon and cursor editor, and a hex-
dump editor. It is developed by a Swedish developer Pelle Orinius. It comes
with Windows SDK, so we can immediately start creating Windows
applications without further installations.

Pelles C is a freeware. We can download Pelles C from the following


link: Pelles C download.

No target architecture error:

In order to create Windows API programs, we have to enable


Microsoft extensions. They are not enabled by default; therefore, the
compiler produces the following error message: fatal error #1014:
#error: "No target architecture". To enable Microsoft extensions, we
go to the project options and select the Compiler tab. In this tab we
check the Enable Microsoft Extensions box.

MSDN:

The MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) is a central portal for Windows


development. It is a huge collection of material related to development of
Windows applications using Microsoft tools. (Third party software like Qt4 or
Java Swing is not covered.) It is the most complete reference for the Windows
API. The following two links are good entry points for the Windows API
reference: the Desktop App Development Documentation and the Windows API
list.

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