Thread: New to Windows programming, but a few early questions...

I'm used to C++ code and for right now I am working out of the "Windows Game Programming for Dummies" book. This book focuses mostly on C, though at times it integrates some C++. In the window creation function, I see data types (in all caps) like LPCTSTR, DWORD, HWND, HMENU, etc. I don't know if they are old C conventions or not. My question is, what do these different types mean? The other question I had is in the default Windows Application project file for Dev C++, the WinMain function looks like this:

Code:

int WINAPI WinMain (HINSTANCE hThisInstance,
                    HINSTANCE hPrevInstance,
                    LPSTR lpszArgument,
                    int nFunsterStil)

What is the purpose of WINAPI before WinMain? I know that functions have a return type but I thought that WinMain's was int.

To sum it all up, (hopefully I haven't made this all sound way too complex) what is the purpose of the 'type' labels in all caps? How are they important to Windows? I would appreciate any decent explanation. Thanks.

You may also wish to read MSDN: Windows Data Types.

Ah, thanks, suddenly that makes quite a bit more sense. Alright, then here's my next volley...

I'm using Dev C++ v 4.9.9.2 and apparently I need a winmm.lib file (or an equivalent, but for now I'm going by what the book says) to process sounds and .wav files in my windows app. The book says you need to insert winmm.lib into the project......I'm not sure if it means to use #include or to attach it as an extra source file...I have mmsystem.h, the other necessary file. The function he uses goes like this:

Code:

PlaySound("SOUND.WAV",NULL,SND_FILENAME|SND_ASYNC);

or

PlaySound("SOUND.WAV",NULL,SND_FILENAME|SND_ASYNC|SND_LOOP);

I'm trying to follow along with the book but the author is very vague. He doesn't explain how or why you need to do things a certain way, he just says "that's the way it's done" or "I could go into more detail, but...". He also does not allow for different compilers, though he doesn't focus on one either. He only outlines the bare bones of what is going on with windows programming so I'm really confused >_<

You have to type the lib name, winmm.lib in some settings. I'm not sure exactly where since it's been a long time since I've messed with win32 so I forgot.