Hdc

I'm not sure if I'm understanding this handle type (device context handle). The description left me a little blank. Here is what I got out of it:

The HDC handles GDI responses such returned from BeginPaint.

Then, I got lost there. Is that all the handle does. Is that even what it does? Thanks.

--Garfield

HDC is a handle to the device context.
but what does that even mean?

ok, In Windows(or any modern OS) you do not need to know what hardware your computer has in order to use it.
windows handles that for you, so what you have instead is a "Handle" to the supposed device to which you send your command,
which in turn windows translates and sends properly to your hardware in a form it understands,
this prevents hardware specific code so that a windows program will run on any windows machine.

Thanks for the description no-one! Just what I needed.

--Garfield

A device context is kind of like a "canvas" that you can draw on. With many DCs, like window DCs, client DCs, paint DCs, etc. when you draw on this "canvas", the screen is changed. So as I am typing this message, the edit box is using its paint DC to draw text, which I see appear on my screen.

DCs have other uses (printing, and back-buffered images) but the primary use is they are ultimately how all screen drawing happens.

> DCs have other uses (printing, and back-buffered images) but the primary use is they are ultimately how all screen drawing happens.

Thanks for the explanation! Just what I needed.

--Garfield the Great