displaying raw bits in Visual Studio 2008

Create a Win32 Application or better create an MFC Application if you are familier with it

#include <windows.h>
#define MAX_LOADSTRING 100
#define IDS_APP_TITLE L"Video Displayer" 
#define IDC_WIN32 L"ASIMPLEWINDOWCLASS"

HINSTANCE hInst;
TCHAR szTitle[MAX_LOADSTRING];
TCHAR szWindowClass[MAX_LOADSTRING];

ATOM MyRegisterClass(HINSTANCE hInstance);
BOOL InitInstance(HINSTANCE, int);
LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
INT_PTR CALLBACK About(HWND, UINT, WPARAM, LPARAM);
int APIENTRY 
_tWinMain(HINSTANCE hInstance,HINSTANCE hPrevInstance, LPTSTR lpCmdLine,int nCmdShow)
{
	UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(hPrevInstance);
	UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(lpCmdLine);

	MSG msg;
	HACCEL hAccelTable;
	
	LoadString(hInstance, IDS_APP_TITLE, szTitle, MAX_LOADSTRING);
	LoadString(hInstance, IDC_WIN32, szWindowClass, MAX_LOADSTRING);
	MyRegisterClass(hInstance);
	
	if (!InitInstance (hInstance, nCmdShow))
	{
		return FALSE;
	}
	
	while (GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0))
	{
	     TranslateMessage(&msg);
	     DispatchMessage(&msg);
	}
	return (int) msg.wParam;
}

ATOM MyRegisterClass(HINSTANCE hInstance)
{
	WNDCLASSEX wcex;
	wcex.cbSize = sizeof(WNDCLASSEX);
	wcex.style			= CS_HREDRAW | CS_VREDRAW;
	wcex.lpfnWndProc	= WndProc;
	wcex.cbClsExtra		= 0;
	wcex.cbWndExtra		= 0;
	wcex.hInstance		= hInstance;
	wcex.hIcon		= NULL;
	wcex.hCursor		= LoadCursor(NULL, IDC_ARROW);
	wcex.hbrBackground	= (HBRUSH)(COLOR_WINDOW+1);
	wcex.lpszMenuName	= NULL;
	wcex.lpszClassName	= szWindowClass;
	wcex.hIconSm		= NULL;
	return RegisterClassEx(&wcex);
}
BOOL InitInstance(HINSTANCE hInstance, int nCmdShow)
{
   HWND hWnd;
   hInst = hInstance; 
   hWnd = CreateWindow(szWindowClass, szTitle, WS_OVERLAPPEDWINDOW,
      CW_USEDEFAULT, 0, CW_USEDEFAULT, 0, NULL, NULL, hInstance, NULL);
   if (!hWnd)
   {
      return FALSE;
   }
   ShowWindow(hWnd, nCmdShow);
   UpdateWindow(hWnd);
   return TRUE;
}

LRESULT CALLBACK WndProc(HWND hWnd, UINT message, WPARAM wParam, LPARAM lParam)
{
	PAINTSTRUCT ps;
	HDC hdc;
	switch (message)
	{
	
	case WM_PAINT:
		hdc = BeginPaint(hWnd, &ps);
		// TODO: Do your drawing code here. Draw directly on main window.
                // When you would feel comfortable enough, create a seperate window class to handle all the video issues.  
		EndPaint(hWnd, &ps);
		break;
	case WM_DESTROY:
		PostQuitMessage(0);
		break;
	default:
		return DefWindowProc(hWnd, message, wParam, lParam);
	}
	return 0;
}

its a simplest windows program to create a window under visual studio.

Do your all drawing issues under MS_PAINT

You can research all the functions used here from msdn.....

I created a Win32 console app, empty project and pasted in the example code.

LoadString(hInstance, IDS_APP_TITLE, szTitle, MAX_LOADSTRING);
LoadString(hInstance, IDC_WIN32, szWindowClass, MAX_LOADSTRING);

These two solicit the error: C2664:"LoadStringW" :cannot convert parameter 2 from 'const wchar_t[19] to 'UINT'

Disregarding that the code does not have LoadStringW, I look it up anyway and find:

int LoadStringW(
  UINT nID
) throw (CHeap_Exception);

This only has one argument. I don't know what it does.

Ok, so comment those two out and force some text into szTitle and szWindowClass as in:

szTitle[0] = 'V';
szTitle[1] = 'i';
etc

And presuming that if it works the console app window will not have a complete title. But LoadString may do something I don't detect.

Now the error is: LNK2019: unresolved external symbol _main referenced in function __tmainCRTStartup

I presume that

johny10151981 wrote:

Do your all drawing issues under MS_PAINT

is to be translate to WM_PAINT.

1) I would get familiar with a simple dialog MFC application, the wizards usually mark off where you can override methods to get the code to do exactly what you want/need.

2) Learn to draw onto the screen with GDI for something basic like this. Follow any tutorial to get familiar with the topic. What you need to learn to do is create a compatible device context, draw what you need off the screen, then bit blit back to the currect device context. This is the method that's typically used for high speed graphics.

Search for GDI tutorials:
http://www.codeproject.com/search.aspx?q=GDI&sbo=kw[^]
http://www.toymaker.info/Games/html/gdi.html[^]
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=drawing+with+gdi&aq=f&aqi=g1g-j1&aql=&oq=&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=fce33a84b0764b22&biw=1760&bih=1006[^]

Regarding Solution 4: I don't have a reason to specify a dialog over an SDI, so I created an MFC project and specified SDI because I need only one image. If your perspective is different, please advise.

Once I get the bits going, I don't know where the image will be found. But one step at a time.

Here is what I have cobbled together. The debugger shows that my_bitmap ends up as zeroes as does the pointer ppbBits. GetLastError returns a zero indicating success. I am expecting bitmap to be non-zero along with the pointer.

const int IMAGE_ROW_COUNT    = 120;
const int IMAGE_COLUMN_COUNT = 120;
const int BYTES_PER_PIXEL    = 3;  // unknown, presume 3, one each RBG, change later
const int RGB_THREE_BYTES_PER_PIXEL = 24;
BITMAPINFO       my_bit_map_info;
BITMAPINFOHEADER my_bit_map_info_header;
RGBQUAD          my_rgb_quad;
HBITMAP          my_bitmap;
VOID            *ppvBits = NULL;
HDC              client_area_DC;
HDC              my_hdc;
DWORD           last_error = 3;

my_bit_map_info_header.biSize          = IMAGE_ROW_COUNT * IMAGE_COLUMN_COUNT * BYTES_PER_PIXEL;
my_bit_map_info_header.biWidth         = IMAGE_COLUMN_COUNT;
my_bit_map_info_header.biHeight        = IMAGE_ROW_COUNT;
my_bit_map_info_header.biPlanes        = 1;              // F1 help says must be 1.
my_bit_map_info_header.biBitCount      = RGB_THREE_BYTES_PER_PIXEL;
my_bit_map_info_header.biCompression   = BI_RGB;
my_bit_map_info_header.biSizeImage     = 0;     // per F1 help
                                                // but: http://www.codeguru.com/forum/printthread.php?t=456626
                                                // uses 256.
my_bit_map_info_header.biXPelsPerMeter = 0;     // Google found something that said always 0;
my_bit_map_info_header.biYPelsPerMeter = 0;
my_bit_map_info_header.biClrUsed       = 0;   // my guess
my_bit_map_info_header.biClrImportant  = 0;   // my guess

my_rgb_quad.rgbBlue     = 255;
my_rgb_quad.rgbGreen    = 255;
my_rgb_quad.rgbRed      = 255;
my_rgb_quad.rgbReserved = 0;

my_bit_map_info.bmiHeader    = my_bit_map_info_header;
my_bit_map_info.bmiColors[0] = my_rgb_quad;

client_area_DC = ::GetDC( NULL );
my_hdc =  CreateCompatibleDC( client_area_DC );

   // This is the key call.
my_bitmap = CreateDIBSection( 
      my_hdc, 
      my_bit_map_info,
      DIB_RGB_COLORS,
      ppvBits,
      NULL, 
      0 );

last_error = GetLastError();

Edit: the formatting mutilated the comments of the createdibsection call so I removed them and hoped for better readibility.
Edit: replaced [code] with <pre>

I posted to tek-tips and ArkM discovered the problem.

my_bit_map_info_header.biSize = IMAGE_ROW_COUNT * IMAGE_COLUMN_COUNT * BYTES_PER_PIXEL

Does not get the size of the bitmap I want. It gets the size of the structure.

my_bit_map_info_header.biSize = sizeof( my_bit_map_info_header );

I find it curious that a fixed size structure needs its own length as one of its fields. But so be it. Now I start on my next step. All comments will be appreciated.
Thanks.

1) To practice, use console application; also use it while developing you units: classes, implementation of algorithms.

2) Use MSDN. When this is not enough, Google for help in concrete topics.

Ask specific questions here at CodeProject. Make sure you provide really short code sample demonstrating your problem. Don't send big working code, develop code sample specially for asking a question. If some exceptions involve, dump it in some text file (don't forget Exception.Stack and all inner exceptions, recursively through Exception.InnerException; post the exception dump with your question, mark relevant code lines.

—SA