A lightweight modern C++11 library for Win32 API, using lambdas to handle Windows messages.
As far as I can remember, around 2002 I started wrapping all my Win32 routines in classes, to make them reusable to myself, to save my time. Through all these years it took the form of a real library, a thin abstraction layer over raw Win32. People who saw it often commented that it was good, so in 2017 I decided to publish it on GitHub.
Then I wrote CodeProject - WinLamb: using C++11 lambdas to handle Win32 messages, a comprehensive article explaining WinLamb's message handling model, with dialogs and also ordinary windows. Actually, features from C++14 and C++17 are used as well, as much as my compiler (Visual C++) allows it.
Beyond dialog/window message handling, WinLamb also has wrappers for most native Windows controls (textbox, listview, etc.), along with other utility classes (strings, file I/O, COM wrappers, etc.) which play nice together. These controls and utilities, however, are not mandatory: you can use your own classes upon the basic dialog/window infrastructure.
WinLamb by no means covers the whole Win32 API, simply because it's too huge. It just wraps some things. New features are constantly being added, though.
There is a great WinLamb presentation from Utah C++ Programmers here: https://youtu.be/2K52YX-vHv4
WinLamb is a header-only library. You can clone the repository or simply download the files; once referenced in your source code, it should work right away.
It has been tested with Visual C++ 2017.
There's an included win10.exe.manifest file, which you can add to your Visual Studio project. This manifest includes Common Controls and gives you Windows 10 support.
This is a simple Win32 program written with WinLamb. Each window has a class, and messages are handled with C++11 lambdas using message crackers. There's no need to write a message loop or window registering.
Declaration: My_Window.h
#include "winlamb/window_main.h"
class My_Window : public wl::window_main {
public:
My_Window();
};Implementation: My_Window.cpp
#include "My_Window.h"
RUN(My_Window) // optional, generate WinMain call and instantiate My_Window
My_Window::My_Window()
{
setup.wndClassEx.lpszClassName = L"SOME_CLASS_NAME"; // class name to be registered
setup.title = L"This is my window";
setup.style |= WS_MINIMIZEBOX;
on_message(WM_CREATE, [this](wl::wm::create p) -> LRESULT
{
set_text(L"A new title for the window");
return 0;
});
on_message(WM_LBUTTONDOWN, [](wl::wm::lbuttondown p) -> LRESULT
{
bool isCtrlDown = p.has_ctrl();
long xPos = p.pos().x;
return 0;
});
}I've written the following examples showcasing different things:
- Click lines (very simple example)
- FLAC/LAME frontend
- Chromium Peeker
More projects can be seen browsing winlamb topic.
Most files are named after the class they contain; for example, file "button.h" contains button class.
To create your windows, you inherit from these classes below. See the article and the examples to learn how to use them:
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
dialog_control |
Inherit from this class to have a dialog to be used as a control within a parent window. |
dialog_main |
Inherit from this class to have a dialog as the main window for your application. |
dialog_modal |
Inherit from this class to have a modal dialog popup. |
dialog_modeless |
Inherit from this class to have a dialog modeless popup. |
window_control |
Inherit from this class to have an user-custom window control. |
window_main |
Inherit from this class to have an ordinary main window for your application. |
Wrappers and utilities:
| Class | Description |
|---|---|
button |
Wrapper to native button control. |
checkbox |
Wrapper to native checkbox control. |
com::bstr |
Wrapper to BSTR string, used with COM. |
com::lib |
Smart class to automate CoInitialize and CoUninitialize calls. |
com::ptr |
Wrapper to a COM pointer. |
com::variant |
Wrapper to VARIANT object, used with COM. |
combobox |
Wrapper to native combobox control. |
datetime |
Wrapper to SYSTEMTIME structure. |
datetime_picker |
Wrapper to datetime picker control from Common Controls library. |
gdi::dc |
Wrapper to device context. |
gdi::dc_painter |
Wrapper to device context which calls BeginPaint/EndPaint automatically. |
gdi::dc_painter_buffered |
Wrapper to device context which calls BeginPaint/EndPaint automatically with double-buffer. |
download |
Automates internet download operations. |
executable |
Executable-related utilities. |
file |
Wrapper to a low-level HANDLE of a file. |
file_ini |
Wrapper to INI file. |
file_mapped |
Wrapper to a memory-mapped file. |
font |
Wrapper to HFONT handle. |
icon |
Wrapper to HICON handle. |
image_list |
Wrapper to image list object from Common Controls library. |
insert_order_map |
Vector-based associative container which keeps the insertion order. |
label |
Wrapper to native static text control. |
listview |
Wrapper to listview control from Common Controls library. |
menu |
Wrapper to HMENU handle. |
path |
Utilities to file path operations with std::wstring. |
progress_taskbar |
Allows to show a progress bar in the taskbar button of the window, in green, yellow or red. |
progressbar |
Wrapper to progressbar control from Common Controls library. |
radio |
Wrapper to native radio button control. |
radio_group |
Automates a group of native radio buttons. |
resizer |
Allows the resizing of multiple controls when the parent window is resized. |
scrollinfo |
Automates SCROLLINFO operations. |
statusbar |
Wrapper to status control from Common Controls library. |
str |
Utilities to std::wstring. |
subclass |
Manages window subclassing for a window. |
sysdlg |
Wrappers to system dialogs. |
syspath |
Retrieves system paths. |
textbox |
Wrapper to native edit box control. |
treeview |
Wrapper to treeview control from Common Controls library. |
vec |
Utilities to std::vector. |
version |
Parses version information from an EXE or DLL. |
wnd |
Simple HWND wrapper, base to all dialog and window classes. |
xml |
XML wrapper class to MSXML2 Windows library. |
zip |
Utilities to work with zipped files. |
Licensed under MIT license, see LICENSE.txt for details.
React
Typescript
Django
Laravel
Facebook
Microsoft
Google
Alibaba
D3
Tencent