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From: heintzepeewee.enet.dec.com (Sieg Heintze)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++
Subject: Wanted:  suggestions on Implementing Mouse functions for rudimentary windows
Summary: how to implement rudimentary mouse functions
Keywords: Windows, Mouse
Message-ID: <13544@shlump.nac.dec.com>
Date: 17 Jul 90 03:40:11 GMT
Sender: newsdaemon@shlump.nac.dec.com
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Lines: 40

I want to implement some very rudimentary windows in ZORTECH C++ in MSDOS in 
the  absense of MSWINDOWS and X windows.  I want to implement this in VGA 
graphics mode.

Bascially I want to draw some rectangles and have the application layer 
specify routines to be executed when the following events occur.

  (1) When the mouse pointer enters the rectangle.
  (2) When the mouse leaves the rectangle
  (3) When the user single clicks in the window - left, right or both buttons.
  (4)  When the user double clicks in the window.

I will call these mouse event routines.

I figure I'll have a double linked list of a class called window.  Most of the 
time I'll only be interested in single clicks and want nothing to happen when 
the other events occur.

Question #1.  Are there any tutorials that cover this subject?  I checked into 
"User Interfaces in C++ and Object-oriented Programming" but they just stick 
with text mode and don't user the mouse much.  

Question #2. What would your definition of the window class look like and what
would the  constructor look like?  Would you use an array to store the
addresses of the above mouse event routines or use separate class fields?  How
can you write a  constructor that will let the application layer specify any
number (or none) of the above  event routines?

Question #3.  I think I would like to make it asynchronous by using the  MSDOS
hook into the mouse interupt.  (There is a MSDOS function to do this). So
everytime a event occurs with the  mouse, my routine would execute and perform
a linear search on the set of  rectangles (by comparing coordinates) to
determine if any of the above mouse event routines should be invoked. This
seems  very slow.  How does X-Windows and MSWindows deal with this?

heintze@genral.enet.dec.com
Digital Equipment Corporation
1110 Chapel Hills Drive  CXN2-2/35
Colorado Springs, CO 80920-3995
719-260-2184