Is it possible to have global pens?

[WildByDesign]

Idea:

I would like to consider the idea of having 2 or 3 global pens. Instead of creating and deleting local pens tens of thousands of times during heavy-use subclassing procedures. These same pens would be used/shared between several subclassing procedures. These pens would, of course, be cleaned up on exit.

I understand that Global things can generally be frowned upon. But I am thinking of overall efficiency. Especially considering the amount of potential subclassing going on (GUIDarkTheme UDF). So anything to improve efficiency and performance is something that I like to aim for.

Is this even possible?

If yes, how would I select these pens in/out properly?

I've gotten quite used to brushes now. But I have very little understanding of pens. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[mLipok]

Did you saw how I use brush and pens in WM_NOTIFY ?

As a static local.

You can declare them as global even const and use them multiple time in every second.

But help file says that you should delete them as far as you do not need them.

Generally ok.

But I suppose you would like to delete them only at program exit ?

Do you really need to delete them at program exit ?

Or auto it did it for you ?

As i said I start to use them as static and never delete them.

This way there are used daily by about 100 users so if noone from them raised any issue in last 5..6 days I do not see a problem with static usage.

 

With global const should be able ro do the same. Did you already check it ?

 

Edited yesterday at 11:12 PM by mLipok

[WildByDesign]

10 hours ago, mLipok said:

Did you saw how I use brush and pens in WM_NOTIFY ?

As a static local.

Thanks. I'm actually testing your WM_NOTIFY function this morning with the Local Static usage and it seems like a great idea. Especially considering it was the same strategy as @LarsJ used. I'm doing some testing with your script right now with the ListView WM_NOTIFY and I will respond some more later. I really like this idea so far.

[WildByDesign]

10 hours ago, mLipok said:

Do you really need to delete them at program exit ?

Or auto it did it for you ?

I am using OnAutoItExitRegister to register a cleanup function when the program exits. Most of it is cleaning up subclassing resources. This is also where I added in deleting of the global brush resources.

I don't really have an opinion on whether or not I should be deleting brushes on exit since I feel like I am still learning. I generally just follow the techniques that other users share where most seem to delete the brushes on exit.

You can't do that with Local Static, but I assume that the resources would get released when the program is closed anyway. Since the process is no longer running.

10 hours ago, mLipok said:

With global const should be able ro do the same. Did you already check it ?

I was successful with global brushes and I am happy with it. But global pens did not work for me. 

I tested creating a Global pen. I know that the pen was created successfully.

Within the function, I used:

_WinAPI_SelectObject($hDC, $g_hPen)

To select the pen object before drawing, which is what was already working with the locally created pen before trying global.

I made sure to comment out the deleting of the pen because in this case I did not want to delete it (since it is global now):

;_WinAPI_DeleteObject($hPen)

However, the same thing that worked before as local pen, no longer works now as global pen. So that is why I opened this thread.

But after testing your WM_NOTIFY, I may just switch to using the Local Static method for the pens.

[mLipok]

10 minutes ago, WildByDesign said:

However, the same thing that worked before as local pen, no longer works now as global pen. So that is why I opened this thread.

But after testing your WM_NOTIFY, I may just switch to using the Local Static method for the pens.

are you literarly saying:
Works with static PEN but you got issue with global PEN ?

 

[WildByDesign]

4 minutes ago, mLipok said:

are you literarly saying:
Works with static PEN but you got issue with global PEN ?

Yes, exactly. Local pens are working, but trying to use Global pen is not. But I do not have much experience with creating pens.

[WildByDesign]

Sorry for anyone that was following this topic. It appears that I made a rookie mistake when selecting the global pens in the functions. The problem is solved. The problem was my own mistake. 🤣

[WildByDesign]

@mLipok The problem is solved. But I did forget to mention why I absolutely need to clean resources for brushes and pens in the case of GUIDarkTheme UDF. It is required for the on-the-fly theme switching.

[mLipok]

Could you refresh PEN / BRUSH only when them is changed ?

[WildByDesign]

27 minutes ago, mLipok said:

Could you refresh PEN / BRUSH only when them is changed ?

Yes you can do this if you monitor WM_THEMECHANGED window message.

[mLipok]

so this should be added to GUIDarkTheme UDF

 

[WildByDesign]

21 minutes ago, mLipok said:

so this should be added to GUIDarkTheme UDF

You want me to add automated GUI switch between dark and light themes?

So when a user changes their Windows theme from dark to light. I like this idea.

I wanted to add this before but there was a problem. WM_THEMECHANGED will detect when a user changes their theme from default Aero theme to some other theme, or some other theme and back to Aero. But the problem is that it wont detect simple dark>light, light>dark mode changes. The reason why it does not detect it is because when you switch from dark>light or light>dark mode, it is still all done within the default Aero.msstyles theme. So it is Aero to Aero still, therefore does not trigger WM_THEMECHANGED message. It is really unfortunate. MS should make that trigger.

But I do like the idea and want to do it sometime. I would probably have to monitor the dark mode API and if there is a change, then initiate theme change. That can work, no problem. But I would have to poll the dark mode API every 1000ms or so which is not ideal. If WM_THEMECHANGED triggered (or some other window message) that would be much more efficient.

[argumentum]

1 hour ago, WildByDesign said:

So it is Aero to Aero still, therefore does not trigger WM_THEMECHANGED message. It is really unfortunate. MS should make that trigger.

wm-stylechanged ?
Am sure that there is a broadcast. Just need to know which broadcast.

[WildByDesign]

25 minutes ago, argumentum said:

wm-stylechanged ?
Am sure that there is a broadcast. Just need to know which broadcast.

Exactly, there must be something. I will try a bunch of them and see.

If we can find a trigger, it will be easy because we have everything else to make it happen. It will be easy if we find a trigger.

I think it should be optional though because some might want the functionality and some may not.

[mLipok]

2 hours ago, WildByDesign said:

You want me to add automated GUI switch between dark and light themes?

yes

1 hour ago, WildByDesign said:

I think it should be optional though because some might want the functionality and some may not.

good approach