Programming Windows D Examples are now Online!

[Andrej Mitrovic]

On 6/21/11, bearophile <bearophileHUGS at lycos.com> wrote:
> I am not asking you to modify the code, but D with() was designed to reduce
> noise in code like:
>
>     wndclass.style = CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
>     wndclass.lpfnWndProc = &WndProc;
>     wndclass.cbClsExtra = 0;
>     wndclass.cbWndExtra = 0;
>     wndclass.hInstance = hInstance;
>     wndclass.hIcon = LoadIcon(NULL, IDI_APPLICATION);
>     wndclass.hCursor = LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
>     wndclass.hbrBackground = cast(HBRUSH) GetStockObject(WHITE_BRUSH);
>     wndclass.lpszMenuName = appName.toUTF16z;
>     wndclass.lpszClassName = appName.toUTF16z;

Yes, the original code is quite noisy, especially considering that a
lot of code uses pointers and state variables for strcpy calls and
things like that.

>
> The code in those examples is generally very noisy (I presume about as much
> as the original code). I have mixed feelings about it.

Yes, it's noisy because of a couple of things:

1. I haven't worked a lot on actually using D idioms. My main concern
was making the examples compile and work in the exact way as the
original examples. Having a 1-to-1 translation helps in catching bugs
(and I've had quite a few of those).

2. Generally calling into GDI is going to be much more noisy than
using some 3rd party GUI library, the same goes for various other
WinAPI functions as well. You have to manually acquire and release GDI
resources so this complicates things.

3. I've added some excessive noise in some code since I've used a lot
of to!string() and duplication workarounds to get the examples
compiling. This will be replaced with better code.

The examples will be continued to be improved and refactored, but I
had to start hosting them otherwise I'd never finish the project.