Comments by PotatoSoup (Top 20 by date)

PotatoSoup 10-Dec-20 6:02am View

I think that I found part of the answer to the Unicode parsing, (which was not part of the original question) "Four bytes are needed for characters in the other planes of Unicode, which include less common CJK characters, various historic scripts, mathematical symbols, and emoji (pictographic symbols)." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UTF-8). That means, I think, that if I can see and parse Plane 1 Unicode then I can see and parse Plane 1 through Plane 16. Thus all 17 planes are available to be seen and parsed by my CLI program. I was working on that while I was working on changing the code over to GUI. Multi-tasking. While waiting for my subconcious to catch up with the logic that I had studied of one part, I went on to another.

Thanks for trying to help. I do appreciate it.

C++ can be used to program a CNC machine as well as it can be used to read and parse Unicode. C++ is not a CNC machine and not part of Unicode. I got that already. But, thank you for offering that logic.

I am using C++ as a tool. I know that C++ is not Unicode nor the other way. It is OK. I am using one in reading the other.

I want to be able to drag-n-drop or copy-n-paste into a text box in my program using any and all Unicode (planes 0 through 16) and then parse that. That is very important. It is a foundation of what I am trying to learn to do.

Then I want to be able to parse those Unicode symbols both via full words and via separate symbols. I started this question's post asking how to go from a CLI interface to a GUI interface. I am still working on that, and over time I am starting to grasp more of the logic of placing the Unicode into a CreateWindowExW [thing] and working with it. (I am extremely new at this). I can work in each CLI and GUI separately, in Unicode, and I can parse wchar and wchar_t, but I was having problems converting from CLI to GUI.

Placing CLI output into a GUI text box should have been easy. I have done it before. But, the logic seemed to have disappeared. I went to do that and I could not do it. It is simple. I have done it before, but I do not remember how. So I asked here. With the wrong words. I might as well have asked Einstein why one plus one equals two, and watched him faint at the question.

Thanks.

Still working on that part of getting CLI output to a GUI text box. I am getting it though. Almost.

By the way, the Japanese figured out how to use Unicode almost as fast as it was released by the Unicode Consortium. I have attempted to ask the Japanese, but I do not (currently) understand the Japanese language. I asked the Unicode Consortium, but they do not seem to know how to use Unicode via C++, which I already have shown can be done with the previous post. Or whatever it was that is called, using, or abusing C++, etc.

Earlier I was asked "Why"? I have been giving some background into why. I hope that helps. It is a different subject from going from CLI output to GUI text box output, but it addresses, "Why".

So, I am here. Where giants of code live.

Again, thanks.

PotatoSoup 10-Dec-20 4:23am View

I used some Plane 0 Unicode for testing. That was easy to do "abc123" etc.

I found some examples of Plane 1 Unicode at http://www.i18nguy.com/unicode-plane1-utf8.html which I used for testing by copying the Unicode characters and Unicode strings into my program. I verified that the bytes were correct which my program told me I was getting via https://onlineunicodetools.com/convert-unicode-to-bytes.

For example:
The Script Etruscan "𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀" placed between two Plane 0 Unicode symbols "a" and "b" for testing "a𐌓𐌀𐌔𐌍𐌀b" gave me this:

My CLI program reported:

Unicode Plane 0 a =01100001
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 î=10001100 ô=10010011
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 î=10001100 Ç=10000000
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 î=10001100 ö=10010100
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 î=10001100 ì=10001101
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 î=10001100 Ç=10000000
Unicode Plane 0 b =01100010

And the Script Linear B Syllabary "𐀶𐀪𐀰" etc gave me this:

Unicode Plane 0 a =01100001
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 Ç=10000000 ╢=10110110
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 Ç=10000000 ¬=10101010
Unicode Plane 1 ≡ =11110000 É=10010000 Ç=10000000 ░=10110000
Unicode Plane 0 b =01100010

I checked out my original question's string in my CLI program and found this:

For "I like cats = 猫が好きです": (English text and Japanese text)

Unicode Plane 0 I =01001001
Unicode Plane 0 =00100000 (There is a blank that is not showing)
Unicode Plane 0 l =01101100
Unicode Plane 0 i =01101001
Unicode Plane 0 k =01101011
Unicode Plane 0 e =01100101
Unicode Plane 0 =00100000
Unicode Plane 0 c =01100011
Unicode Plane 0 a =01100001
Unicode Plane 0 t =01110100
Unicode Plane 0 s =01110011
Unicode Plane 0 =00100000
Unicode Plane 0 = =00111101
Unicode Plane 0 =00100000
Unicode Plane 0 τ =11100111 î=10001100 ½=10101011
Unicode Plane 0 π =11100011 ü=10000001 î=10001100
Unicode Plane 0 σ =11100101 Ñ=10100101 ╜=10111101
Unicode Plane 0 π =11100011 ü=10000001 ì=10001101
Unicode Plane 0 π =11100011 ü=10000001 º=10100111
Unicode Plane 0 π =11100011 ü=10000001 Ö=10011001

Which is interesting, but it is all in Plane 0 Unicode.

So, C++11 can work with Plane 0 Unicode and with Plane 1 Unicode. But, I did not find symbols to test it with Plane 2 and above.

I looked for Plane 2 Unicode and above, but I did not find any Unicode characters and Unicode strings to use for testing. A lot is not filled in yet by the Unicode consortium but, maybe some in the later Planes might be. I am asking here if any of you know where I can find these symbols that I can copy and paste into my C++ code to check if I am getting the correct Byte returns.

I am doing this in CLI for now. I will try later to get it into a GUI and text box.

I am still a beginner. There is still lots of stuff that I do not know. I might have used incorrect terms. But at your level I hope you know what I am asking.

I typed this fast, and it is late ~4:37 am, I am tired, and I might have some spelling errors. Trying not to.

Constructive comments please.

Thank you all.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 16:50pm View

Thank you Richard MacCutchan and all the rest of you here.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 16:03pm View

Thank you.

I am retired from an industry where I was required to learn and comprehend and be able to apply very fast. Within minutes. I was a general industrial repair man, called in to repair or replace mistakes by others that often required me to learn new applications on-site almost immediately and fix or repair quickly at potential great cost to my employer if I failed.

I have found C++ to be an incredibly intense strain to success at that speed. I have found that with C++ I have NOT! This is a new world. A new foreign language of its own intensity and structure.

I worked with others that had the same demands upon them and we freely offered help to each other quickly without any judgmental comments. I am not yet used to those two changes. I will get there. Thus, in this new field, I shall adjust.

That all said, I think that I have fallen in love with C++ programming. I might even suggest that this is probably one of the best mental exercises that the retired could do.

I apologize. Your comments were, I hope, as among fellows with friendly teasing. I see that now. I again apologize. Please forgive me.

Thank you.

Thank you all.

Every one of you.

Thank you.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 15:38pm View

Looking at your example. Trying to understand what I have been reading about some of it.

(1)

I have been reading about WinMain vs wWinMain and I am not certain that I understand the best application for each.

Microsoft uses, "PWSTR pCmdLine," and "pCmdLine contains the command-line arguments as a Unicode string." ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/learnwin32/winmain--the-application-entry-point ). I was using, "LPSTR lpCmdLine," because I thought it was better for both CLI and GUI. Now that I read that particular Microsoft page, I think that wWinMain with PWSTR is preferred for CLI and not for GUI. Which is it?

Also,
(2)

Which is better to use WinMain or wWinMain for my program if I want it to be later compiled on 32 bit Windows like XP 32 bit, and later compiled on 64 bit Windows 10? Or should I use WinMain on one and wWinMain on the other?

I see that you used PWSTR in your wWinMain where I used LPSTR in WinMain. Other than the [...]Main parts:

I am not certain what I am being told by Microsoft for the following.

(3)

Microsoft says, that PWSTR is "A 64-bit unsigned integer." ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/winprog/windows-data-types?redirectedfrom=MSDN ) I think that a DWORD is a 64-bit unsigned integer, which I thought works in the old XP 32 bit operating system. But, I see it here, so I am now not so certain if I correctly understand it. Does that mean that if I want my programs to be backward compatible to 32 bit systems like XP 32 bit, that I should not use this? I am not clear on what Microsoft is saying here.

(4)

I was reading that for "LPWSTR and PWSTR in the Windows Data Types": ( https://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/vstudio/en-US/52ab8d94-f8f8-427f-ad66-5b38db9a61c9/difference-between-lpwstr-and-pwstr ) "Yes, they are the same. The L in LPWSTR stands for "long/far pointer" and it is a leftover from 16 bit when pointers were "far" or "near". Such a distinction no longer exists on 32/64 bit, all pointers have the same size." Does that mean that I should use PWSTR in both 32 bit and 64 bit C++ code?

(5)

Microsoft says, "The LPSTR type and its alias PSTR specify a pointer to an array of 8-bit characters, which MAY be terminated by a null character." ( https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/openspecs/windows_protocols/ms-dtyp/3f6cc0e2-1303-4088-a26b-fb9582f29197 )
and, "The format of the characters MUST be specified by the protocol that uses them. Two common 8-bit formats are ANSI and UTF-8."

Microsoft says, "The LPWSTR type is a 32-bit pointer to a string of 16-bit Unicode characters, which MAY be null-terminated."

If I use in my Unicode string parsing (whether by the actual characters or by the hex(?) number) UTF-8 exclusively, does that mean that for me LPSTR is better?

If I use similar to the previous question, but more than UTF-8 (also UTF-16 and UTF-32), does that mean that for me LPWSTR is better?

Thank you.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 13:53pm View

I think that I shall begin by studying your use of the following:

SetWindowText(hWndEdit, L"\r\n\r\n\tThe rain in Spain falls mainly on the ground ...");

I think SetWindowText is something that I need to learn before going on. Then maybe I can learn how to use this to put the Unicode numbers that I get with .to_bytes representing the Unicode text into the text box. I probably miss-explained, and called things the wrong thing, but I am being helped.

If I get this to work, in my program, I hope to get back to you with it.

Thank you Richard MacCutchan.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 13:40pm View

No! It is not you and Rick. It is your ridicule of my unknowing. Probably you and Rick are extremely adapt at programming, which I am not. But, even though I am willing to beg, and willing to admit that I do not know even what it is that I do not know, I will still not take ridicule.

I lean heavily upon codeproject.com's "Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid". I see it as a shield against ridicule. Thank you codeproject.com for having that.

Thank you OriginalGiff for editing my post. I was typing fast and that was a missspelling. I tried to edit it.

Thank you.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 13:29pm View

THANK YOU.

I am not certain what you wrote.

But, I will now study it. I will probably have to read and study many of the commands that you used. But, at my level, I know that is what I have to do. Maybe I will then see some way through this fog of beginning. Thank you.

THANK YOU. Thanks to this site. I now have, even if it does not directly address my question, SOMETHING to at least guide me in some direction.

Thank you.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 13:25pm View

"putting text into an edit control is quite simple, if you take the time to study the documentation" Maybe for you. Not for me. I read the documentation and I have been struggling with it for days. I took the time. I studied the documentation. I am not at your level. I spent hours studying (looking up on this site and others) one word at a time of the documentation, and then when I was finished, I did not quite know what it was I was supposed to know. I did that multiple times. It became a fight to learn. Then I come here, and I get reminded that I am so far below the level of others here that they ridicule me for not knowing.

"But it seems that you would far rather waste your time insulting people who try to help you. You will obviously go far in life." Rejecting ridicule from someone is not insulting. They did not try to help. They tried to point out how stupid I am. I will go far and I will get through my unknowing of C++. I am not Stroustrup. I am not you. I am a beginner. I am so low in knowing this stuff that my simple question attracted ridicule from even you. That is sad. I had hoped for better from you at your expert level. Do you not remember being so new to programming that it was like a fog? I reject all ridicule. Ridicule, all by itself, if I understand it, comes from a weak mind. I beg for programming help.

Thank you for your help.

PotatoSoup 7-Dec-20 12:35pm View

At the bottom of this page it says, "Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid." Read that. So you are smart. So you know a lot of [something]. That line is still at the bottom of this page. People like you need to read it again, often. I do not need you to tell me that I "do not" know things. I already know that I do not know. What I also know is that I did not appreciate your degradation. "Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid." If you are so smart as to give advice, then you should be so smart as to read that line on the bottom of this page, "Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid." Read it.

"I have worked with Windows for about thirty years and I have never heard of one." did not "work to help developers". It was arrogant. I still reject that statement of yours as it being not helpful.

"Let's work to help developers, not make them feel stupid."

I submit to this site's management to decide whether I was right or wrong in rejecting those statements of yours. I will abide by their decision.

PotatoSoup 5-Dec-20 22:07pm View

Rick York,

"In Windows, the edit box has nothing to do with C++,". I thought that I was a beginner. I use C++ and in the code I use an edit box. There is a more correct name, but you claim to "several decades" of working with Windows "code", and yet you seem to have missed those codeproject.com pages that I listed earlier. That is two answers from beginners. I had hoped for someone beyond a neophyte to answer.

"WHY? Why are you calling to_bytes?" That is irrelevant to you. I am a beginner and I am attempting to learn. Why I want to learn is none of your business. You would have done better to make your own question, "I know nothing and I want to know why other people want to learn, so why?" Start your own post. You wasted time here.

In your attempt to impress, to which you failed. You missed stating when Microsoft Windows started using Unicode and the UTF to which Windows uses it. You just spewed out some catch phrases and wasted more time.

"If your question is about using to_bytes - that is an entirely separate issue from the control. The control accepts and expects Unicode text so that is what you need to give it." Read the question again. You are proving yourself to be arrogant and wasting time. nullptr might have a chance of being more than your response.

PotatoSoup 5-Dec-20 21:51pm View

Richard MacCutchan,

Maybe I need to read that first line of my question post for you. Here it is: "How do I put this into a C++11 edit box instead of the CLI?".

Maybe you need someone to read to you where I was using .to_bytes with CLI first.

Your answer was a waste. It was almost less than a nullptr. It did not even slightly address my question.

PotatoSoup 5-Dec-20 21:42pm View

Rick York, "What is a C++11 edit box? I have worked with Windows for about thirty years and I have never heard of one."

L"EDIT",

30 years? Maybe after 30 years you are just now learning C++ also. Maybe these real programmers can help you too. Maybe you need to read codeproject.com more.

30 years. It took me a while to decide to learn C++. I understand. It is OK. You probably should have just made that a question like, "After 30 years of using Windows, I am just now starting to learn programming, and I have not heard of edit box. What is it?" That would probably have been better.

These might help you.

https://www.codeproject.com/Messages/4095520/win32-edit-box-validating-text

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/25356724/how-to-map-help-id-of-a-error-messagebox-in-mfc

https://www.codeproject.com/KB/edit/#Beginners

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44588648/handler-for-when-an-edit-box-gains-focus-in-c-mfc-app

https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/6385/Controls-in-controls-A-line-numbering-edit-box

https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/6386/Rapid-data-entry-An-edit-box-with-a-history

https://www.codeproject.com/Articles/6382/Controls-in-controls-An-edit-box-with-an-icon

OK.

PotatoSoup 16-Jul-20 9:06am View

I tried this with a large bitmap with many very many small transparent areas and used a pre-made mask. It was fast. I have been studying why it worked and trying to learn from that.

Thank you.

PotatoSoup 9-Jul-20 11:24am View

Would administration please remove Solution 3 as I now see the responses. Now that comment that I made just takes up space. Thanks.

PotatoSoup 9-Jul-20 10:50am View

Continuing:

Help. What am I doing wrong? It seems logical to have the program create a mask or to load a pre-created mask, then use that. I am having trouble with this.

Would someone fix my code (with explaining of what they did) please?

PotatoSoup 9-Jul-20 10:45am View

Response to Solution 4:

Hours of trying to get that to work. I am lost in examples and I get errors like cannot convert BITMAP to HBITMAP, etc. That looks like the best option, but I feel like giving up and just using the long way of per pixel checking.

Thanks, but my compiler reassures me over and over that I am incompetetentt for that process.

I tried using the following with various adjustments:

HBITMAP CreateBitmapMask(HBITMAP hbmColour, COLORREF crTransparent)
    {
        HDC hdcMem;
        HDC hdcMem2;
        HBITMAP hbmMask;
        BITMAP bm;

        GetObject(hbmColour, sizeof(BITMAP), &bm);
        hbmMask = CreateBitmap(bm.bmWidth, bm.bmHeight, 1, 1, nullptr);

        hdcMem = CreateCompatibleDC(nullptr);
        hdcMem2 = CreateCompatibleDC(nullptr);

        SelectObject(hdcMem, hbmColour);
        SelectObject(hdcMem2, hbmMask);

        SetBkColor(hdcMem, crTransparent);

        BitBlt(hdcMem2, 0, 0, bm.bmWidth, bm.bmHeight, hdcMem, 0, 0, SRCCOPY);

        BitBlt(hdcMem, 0, 0, bm.bmWidth, bm.bmHeight, hdcMem2, 0, 0, SRCINVERT);

        DeleteDC(hdcMem);
        DeleteDC(hdcMem2);

        //MessageBox(Handle_of_MainWindow, L"Created a bitmap mask", L"Created a bitmap mask", MB_OK | MB_ICONEXCLAMATION);

        return hbmMask;
    }

I tried to replace the per pixel process with that, but no.

I tried creating a black and white two-color mask manually then loading it and using that like the following (replacing the per pixel process, but no.

//////        for ( iY = 0; iY < bmpInfo_001.bmHeight; iY++)
//////            {
//////                do
//////                    {
//////                        //skip over transparent pixels at start of lines.
//////                        while (iX < bmpInfo_001.bmWidth && GetPixel(hdcMem_001, iX, iY) == crTransparent)
//////                            {
//////                                iX++;
//////                            }
//////
//////                        //remember this pixel
//////                        int iLeftX = iX;
//////
//////                        //now find first non transparent pixel
//////                        while (iX < bmpInfo_001.bmWidth   && GetPixel(hdcMem_001, iX, iY) != crTransparent)
//////                            {
//////                                ++iX;
//////                            }
//////
//////                        //create a temp region on this info
//////                        HRGN hRgnTemp = CreateRectRgn(iLeftX, iY, iX, iY+1);
//////
//////                        //combine into main region.
//////                        //    int CombineRgn
//////                        //        (
//////                        //            HRGN hrgnDst,     // A handle to a new region with dimensions defined by combining two other regions. (This region must exist before CombineRgn is called.)
//////                        //            HRGN hrgnSrc1,    // A handle to the first of two regions to be combined.
//////                        //            HRGN hrgnSrc2,    // A handle to the second of two regions to be combined.
//////                        //            int  iMode        // A mode indicating how the two regions will be combined.
//////                        //
//////                        iRet = CombineRgn(hRgn_001, hRgn_001, hRgnTemp, RGN_OR);


                        HBITMAP hSkinMBmp = NULL;

                                                
                        iRet = CombineRgn(hRgn_001, hRgn_001, hBitmap_SOME_MASK_001, RGN_OR);

                        if(iRet == ERROR)
                            {
                                return;
                            }

//////
//////                        if(iRet == ERROR)
//////                            {
//////                                return;
//////

PotatoSoup 7-Jul-20 19:57pm View

Nothing wrong with Visual Studio 6.0 (up to sp5). I used it a lot in the past, but I have moved on and am now strictly C++ without .net and and without VS. If the guide that you got was for vs6.0, use it. You can make dlls in it that you might be able to use in your current program if your current program is 32 bit.

PotatoSoup 7-Jul-20 19:03pm View

The referenced article says that it has a known bug: "Needs a conversion from the 24 bit color space to the 16 bit color space."

My code works well with 8 bits per pixel. I use the 256 color pattern of 8 bpp so that I can manually adjust parts of the image quickly via selecting a single color in the pattern. I appreciate the offer of help. You did not know this limiting factor and I did not anticipate it being an issue. Thank you.

I like your idea of limiting the GetPixel. I will probably work on that. I do not know if I can do it, but I like that idea.

"the expensive CreateRegion and CombineRegion" Working on that looks promising.

"Isnt a BitBlt with transparent pixels possible?" I do not know if it can be used in this process. And, alpha-blending (which I think is required) has been difficult for me, thus I gave up on it for now.

You did not give me code, but you gave me logic to apply to my code, which might be almost better. I will be considering you advice. Thank you.

PotatoSoup 7-Jul-20 18:51pm View

Thank you Rick York.

Your first link says on the page: "The dialog is NOT a real shaped one, i.e. the hit testing is NOT based on the shape and transparency of the dialog. This means that the areas of the dialog that are color-keyed or whose alpha value is zero will NOT let the mouse messages through." I want to be able to mouse click through the transparent areas. Therefore I might not be able to use that example. But, thank you. I am studying it now.

Thank you for the second (multiple) link. I am studying it now.

I have not found what I asked for at this time on these links, so I cannot, at this time accept this answer, other than to say thank you for the offer.