Windows screen scrape app using C++?

[ken]

i'm trying to figure out the complexity of writing a Windows C++ app
that will automatically read a Poker window and then be able to make
odds estimates based on that. there are applications out there, like
Texas Calculatem, which do exactly this, and i'm trying to write one myself.

figuring out the poker logic part is fine, but it's the screen scraping
of a remote windows app that i'm trying to get a handle on.

will this problem boil down to getting a bitmap capture of the desktop
area where the poker window resides? are there win32 api calls that will
make this easier? anything that will give me ascii data or will i
ultimately have to parse a bitmap for card images? if so, are there any
bitmap parsing tools to make that easier than writing my own pixel
matching routines?

i'm linux programmer, so new to win32 programming. i appreciate any
suggestions in where to look for tackling this project. also, i'm
planning to use mingw as my compiler package. will that give me the
necessary tools to write this kind of application?

thank you!
ken

[Moonlit]

Hi

I suggest looking on msdn (I believe http://msdn.microsoft.com)

A bitmap structure is actually quite straight forward so I think it would be
something like getting a dump from the desktop window (I am sure there is a
call or window handle for that) then the bitmap (assuming a 32 bit
resolution) just consist of a reserved byte, Red, Green and Blue byte (not
sure if I got the order correct though).

EnumWindows would get you all the top level windows. There is also a
function to get all child windows i.e. with the two you can browse the
windows hierarchy.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...numwindows.asp
--
Regards, Ron AF Greve

http://moonlit.xs4all.nl

"ken" <ke*@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:h25kf.19288$Eq5.5989@pd7tw1no...

i'm trying to figure out the complexity of writing a Windows C++ app that
will automatically read a Poker window and then be able to make odds
estimates based on that. there are applications out there, like Texas
Calculatem, which do exactly this, and i'm trying to write one myself.

figuring out the poker logic part is fine, but it's the screen scraping of
a remote windows app that i'm trying to get a handle on.

will this problem boil down to getting a bitmap capture of the desktop
area where the poker window resides? are there win32 api calls that will
make this easier? anything that will give me ascii data or will i
ultimately have to parse a bitmap for card images? if so, are there any
bitmap parsing tools to make that easier than writing my own pixel
matching routines?

i'm linux programmer, so new to win32 programming. i appreciate any
suggestions in where to look for tackling this project. also, i'm
planning to use mingw as my compiler package. will that give me the
necessary tools to write this kind of application?

thank you!
ken

[Moonlit]

Hi,
Just saw it

GetDesktopWindow() will get you a handle to the desktop.
--
Regards, Ron AF Greve

http://moonlit.xs4all.nl

"Moonlit" <news moonlit xs4all nl> wrote in message
news:43***********************@news.xs4all.nl...

Hi

I suggest looking on msdn (I believe http://msdn.microsoft.com)

A bitmap structure is actually quite straight forward so I think it would
be something like getting a dump from the desktop window (I am sure there
is a call or window handle for that) then the bitmap (assuming a 32 bit
resolution) just consist of a reserved byte, Red, Green and Blue byte (not
sure if I got the order correct though).

EnumWindows would get you all the top level windows. There is also a
function to get all child windows i.e. with the two you can browse the
windows hierarchy.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...numwindows.asp
--
Regards, Ron AF Greve

http://moonlit.xs4all.nl

"ken" <ke*@nospam.com> wrote in message
news:h25kf.19288$Eq5.5989@pd7tw1no...

i'm trying to figure out the complexity of writing a Windows C++ app that
will automatically read a Poker window and then be able to make odds
estimates based on that. there are applications out there, like Texas
Calculatem, which do exactly this, and i'm trying to write one myself.

figuring out the poker logic part is fine, but it's the screen scraping
of a remote windows app that i'm trying to get a handle on.

will this problem boil down to getting a bitmap capture of the desktop
area where the poker window resides? are there win32 api calls that will
make this easier? anything that will give me ascii data or will i
ultimately have to parse a bitmap for card images? if so, are there any
bitmap parsing tools to make that easier than writing my own pixel
matching routines?

i'm linux programmer, so new to win32 programming. i appreciate any
suggestions in where to look for tackling this project. also, i'm
planning to use mingw as my compiler package. will that give me the
necessary tools to write this kind of application?

thank you!
ken