Aspect DLL's

[WilliamA]

This weekend I threw together a dll for use with aspect. I've always wanted to be able to use a listview control with aspect which was my main reason for it. There are several exported functions for creating and positioning the listview, as well as for adding columns, setting data, etc.

But I'm still weighing choices for passing data back to aspect. Since the listview was not created with aspect itself I won't be able to handle its events in aspect's message loop. DDE is an option, although I'd rather stay away from it. The only other thing that I could think of would be to make a call to a function in the dll, passing a string. Then setup a loop in aspect which checks that string and when it's not null it does whatever's necessary with that data. That seems really messy though, not to mention aspect's caps on string data (256 bytes iirc).

So does anyone have any ideas/suggestions for passing data (at arbitrary times) from a dll back to an aspect script? Obviously, when an aspect script makes a 'dllcall' the dll function can immediately pass back a return value. I'm needing to pass back data at arbitrary times, like when my subclassed listview receives notifications.

thanks,
will

 

[hankm3]

Hello,

If you're working with Excel, DDE works fine. I've never tried DDE with any other Application.

Hank

 

[WilliamA]

My dde experience consists of a couple of very basic aspect scripts (with excel) and one very basic masm program (also with excel). This dll is coded in masm, and tonight I'll get to see how difficult it is to setup a dde server in masm. yuck

So dde is the only method that you've used to have an external application or library communicate with an aspect script?

thanks,
will

 

[hankm3]

Will,

Yes on the Excel. With DDE ( on the Aspect Side ) you only have Limited Commands. The other side of the DDE Link ( the Application (MASM) ) depends on what commands it accepts. Procomm can TELL the Application what to do, if you know what the Applications wants Via the DDE Links.

I have a Script on Knobs Website that deals with DDE for Excel from Procomm.. Look at the Sample Scripts at:

http://www.aspectscripting.com

Hank

 

[det07]

Will,

I think you're probably in a better position to answer this question than I am but the question I would answer yours with is:
Might it be easier to create DDE functionality in C++ and incorporate your Assembler code into the C++ code thru some mechanism?
I am not sure if the information regarding DDE interface programming is more available in C/C++ or in assembler but in some of my delvings looking for DDE info on some microsoft sites, I believe I ran into some info regarding that a week or two ago. (not that the info is that recent)

Sorry to answer with a question. DT

 

[det07]

Will,

Here is a link to a web site with some considerable DDE information and some links to MSDN etc:

http://www.angelfire.com/biz/rhaminisys/ddeinfo.html

DT

 

[WilliamA]

Thanks for the info guys. That link looks great DT, and I'm sure that it'll take some time to go through all of that info.
The reason that a dde solution wasn't so appealing to me wasn't because it's all that difficult to implement. It's pretty much all api which makes it just as easy to do no matter what language you're using. To me masm is just as easy/difficult as c++.
It looks like it's just a matter of setting up a dde server and then connecting to it via aspect.
It's too bad that the other options (namely using atoms, or RegisterWindowMessage) aren't available through aspect.

thanks for your help,
will