Presentation Outline

Introduction
Painting and Repainting
GDI
Introduction

Client area is the part of the window on

which a program is free to draw and deliver
visual information to the user.
When a program displays text or graphics
in its client area, it is often said to be
"painting" its client area.
Painting and Repainting (2)

Windows is a message-driven system.

Windows informs applications of various

events by posting messages in the
application's message queue or sending
messages to the appropriate window
procedure.

Windows informs a window procedure by

posting a WM_PAINT message.
The WM_PAINT Message
A window procedure receives a WM_PAINT
message whenever one of the following events
occurs:

hidden area of the window is brought into view when a

user moves a window or uncovers a window.

The user resizes the window (if the window class style
has the CS_HREDRAW and CW_VREDRAW bits set).

The program uses the InvalidateRect or InvalidateRgn

function to explicitly generate a WM_PAINT message.
The WM_PAINT Message (2)

Windows may sometimes post a WM_PAINT

message when:

Windows removes a dialog box or message box that was

overlaying part of the window.
A menu is pulled down and then released.
A tool tip is displayed.
The WM_PAINT Message (2)

In a few cases, Windows always saves the area

of the display it overwrites and then restores it.
This is the case whenever:

The mouse cursor is moved across the client area.

An icon is dragged across the client area.
Valid and Invalid Rectangles
Repainting is required only for the rectangular
area uncovered when the dialog box is removed.

That area is known as an "invalid region" or

"update region."

The presence of an invalid region in a client area

is what prompts Windows to place a WM_PAINT
message in the application's message queue.

Your window procedure receives a WM_PAINT

message only if part of your client area is invalid.
Valid and Invalid Rectangles(2)
Windows internally maintains a "paint
information structure" for each window.

This structure contains, among other

information, the coordinates of the smallest
rectangle that encompasses the invalid
region. This is known as the "invalid
rectangle.

Windows does not place multiple

WM_PAINT messages in the message
queue.
Valid and Invalid Rectangles(3)
InvalidateRect.

GetUpdateRect

BeginPaint

ValidateRect
An Introduction to GDI
To paint the client area of your window, we use Windows
Graphics Device Interface (GDI) functions.

Windows provides several GDI functions for writing text

strings to the client area of the window

TextOut (hdc, x, y, psText, iLength) ;

TextOut writes a character string to the client area of the

window.
The psText argument is a pointer to the character string, and
iLength is the length of the string in characters.
The x and y arguments define the starting position of the character
string in the client area.
The hdc argument is a "handle to a device context"
The Device Context
The device context is a data structure maintained
internally by GDI.

A device context is associated with a particular display

device, such as a video display or a printer.

Some of the values in the device context are graphics

"attributes." These attributes define some particulars of
how GDI drawing functions work.

With TextOut,
the color of the text,
the color of the text background,
font for the text to be displayed
The Device Context
When a program needs to paint, it must first
obtain a handle to a device context.

Windows fills the internal device context

structure with default attribute values.

You can change these defaults by calling

various GDI functions.

After a program has finished painting its

client area, it should release the device
context handle.
Getting a Device Context Handle:
You use this method when you process WM_PAINT messages.

Two functions are involved: BeginPaint and EndPaint.

These two functions require the handle to the window and the
address of a structure variable of type PAINTSTRUCT
PAINTSTRUCT ps ;

While processing a WM_PAINT message, the window procedure first

calls BeginPaint.
The BeginPaint function generally causes the background of the
invalid region to be erased in preparation for painting.
The function also fills in the fields of the ps structure.
The value returned from BeginPaint is the device context handle.
HDC hdc ;
Getting a Device Context Handle:

The HDC data type is defined as a 32-bit unsigned integer.

The program may then use GDI functions, such as TextOut, that
require the handle to the device context.

A call to EndPaint releases the device context handle.

case WM_PAINT:
hdc = BeginPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
[use GDI functions]
EndPaint (hwnd, &ps) ;
return 0 ;
The Paint Information Structure
Windows maintains a paint information structure
for each window.
typedef struct tagPAINTSTRUCT
{
HDC hdc ;
BOOL fErase ;
RECT rcPaint ;
BOOL fRestore ;
BOOL fIncUpdate ;
BYTE rgbReserved[32] ;
} PAINTSTRUCT ;
 The Paint Information Structure

Windows fills in the fields of this structure

when your program calls BeginPaint.
Program can use only the first three fields.
The others are used internally by Windows.

wndclass.hbrBackground = (HBRUSH)
GetStockObject (WHITE_BRUSH) ;
The boundaries of the invalid
rectangle.
Getting a Device Context Handle:
Method Two

To get a handle to the device context of the

client area of the window, you call GetDC to
obtain the handle and ReleaseDC after
you're done with it
hdc = GetDC (hwnd) ;
[use GDI functions]
ReleaseDC (hwnd, hdc) ;
TextOut: The Details
TextOut is the most common GDI function for
displaying text. Its syntax is
TextOut (hdc, x, y, psText, iLength) ;
The attributes of the device context control the
characteristics of this displayed text. For instance,
one attribute of the device context specifies the
text color. The default color (we discover with
some degree of comfort) is black. The default
device context also defines a text background
color, and this is white. When a program writes
text to the display, Windows uses this background
color to fill in the rectangular space surrounding
each character, called the "character box."
The System Font

The device context also defines the font

that Windows uses when you call TextOut
to display text. The default is a font called
the "system font" or (using the identifier in
the WINGDI.H header file)
SYSTEM_FONT.
The system font is the font that Windows
uses by default for text strings in title bars,
menus, and dialog boxes.
Text metrics
Windows copies the various values of text metrics into a structure of
type TEXTMETRIC defined in WINGDI.H. The TEXTMETRIC
structure has 20 fields, but we're interested in only the first seven:

typedef struct tagTEXTMETRIC

{ LONG tmHeight ;
LONG tmAscent ;
LONG tmDescent ;
LONG tmInternalLeading ;
LONG tmExternalLeading ;
LONG tmAveCharWidth ;
LONG tmMaxCharWidth ;
[other structure fields]
}TEXTMETRIC, * PTEXTMETRIC ;
Text metrics
Formatting Text

case WM_CREATE:
hdc = GetDC (hwnd) ;
GetTextMetrics (hdc, &tm) ;
cxChar = tm.tmAveCharWidth ;
cyChar = tm.tmHeight +
tm.tmExternalLeading ;
ReleaseDC (hwnd, hdc) ;
return 0 ;
Use of Textout
int iLength ;
TCHAR szBuffer [40] ;
[ other program lines ]
iLength = wsprintf (szBuffer, TEXT ("The
sum of %i and %i is %i"), iA, iB, iA + iB) ;
TextOut (hdc, x, y, szBuffer, iLength) ;
Combine the two statements into one:
TextOut (hdc, x, y, szBuffer, wsprintf
(szBuffer, TEXT ("The sum of %i and %i is
%i"),iA, iB, iA + iB)) ;