I'm developing an app on MASM using the RadASM IDE. This IDE comes with an IE control (WebBrowser) but the content that I want to display is broken on that browser (XHTML+CSS), also I want to remove the dependency of an external IE dll so the only solution that comes to my mind is use an engine of other browser like Firefox or Chrome.
I've searched over the net and I found some DevKits that meets my requeriments, but they are designed to work with VS2005+ or they just are coded on C++.
If someone know a way to integrate a browser engine (Not IE) to a MASM app, will be highly appretiated.
I doubt you will find any browser SDK that specifically helps you call it from assembly language. Almost nobody actually writes applications in assembly language today. However, C is pretty close to assembly, so all you have to do is use the instructions for C and translate to assembly language. Since you're already writing an application in assembly language, that should be no trouble for you.
You can use any SDK that comes with pre-compiled binaries using the WinAPI functions LoadLibraryA and GetProcAddress. Or you can build your own import libraries for MASM by following what either Iczelion did write on that topic (definately worth a read) or by reading the 3 part guide on my website, which is based on Iczelions guide but works on a live example, namely creating your own MASM import library for the FMOD API.
Weather it is worth all the hassle is another question.
Related
Hi could anyone to tell me how to install depot tools.I went through documentation and trying to install the webrtc in windows,I installed visual studio 2010 and some related stuff given in documentation still i am in confusion and many questions like why visual studio is required? are we have write code in visual studio?It acts like IDE for webrtc?
If not please tell me where we have to place our project in local file system and how to implement my first demo application..I found a video published by google demonstrating about webrtc in that they wrote code in a html file so is html file itself enough to develop.?
Though i have done a sample application in a html file still i am getting blank page and in console i am getting as UNCAUGHT EXCEPTION near navigator.webkitGetUserMedia() please help me out to know more about webrtc.
I suggest you start by watching the excellent videos about WebRTC from Justin Uberti and Cullen Jennings, and then (shameless self promotion) get to grips with the code and examples in Getting Started With WebRTC on HTML5 Rocks.
webrtc.org is the home of the WebRTC project -- lots of resources and demos there.
Just last month we released an open source project aimed to get developers into WebRTC fast and easy.
http://www.easyrtc.com/
It includes a cross-platform server kit which will run in Windows. Working demos are included.
I just built the webrtc solution using VS2010 by following this web pages instructions and NOT using cygwin. I had but one issue which to resolve required the manual copying of two files into the correct folder, you will know which two files should you see the names of these files and read the error, you will then know the expected location when the build fails.
Ultimately you will get a peerconnection_server.exe and a peerconnection_client.exe by way of sample. I was able to modify them easily.
Hope this helps. Be sure to install the prerequisites and follow the instructions to the letter.
As a clarification, the webrtc C++ library is one implementation you can use for the protocol. Another is using the webrtc implementation in a (very) modern web browser, such as Firefox or Chrome. Then, you'll just need HTML + JS, as per the articles in HTML5 Rocks.
It is exciting that Windows 8 is supporting so many languages for Metro App development. One that especially interested me was the HTML5/CSS/JavaScript. What I don't understand, is this code going to get compiled in a sort of executable (like the C#, VB, and C++ option), or would my app basically be running in IE as an actual web page?
Yes. Javascript is executed on Windows 8 by the Chakra engine. Similar to the .NET just-in-time compiler, it translates javascript to optimized machine code. Also the approach taken by Google's V8 and Mozilla's TraceMonkey engines. Some background info is here.
Here's a video overview of some of how to use JavaScript with the new Windows 8 Runtime from BUILD2011 (slides also available on the same page). The presenter goes through a simple project with JavaScript and the WinRT and gives a pretty nice overview of WinRT in general. You can read more about all that on this related SO thread.
I have recently been browsing frameworks such as JavaScriptMVC, qooxdoo, Sproutcore and others alike which are using javascript to create desktop-like apps in the browser with minimal, or none css/html (depending on the framework).
What I know of titanium is that it uses html/css for the views, and language of choice (javascript, ruby,python,php) for everything else. Then it gets compiled(?) into a native app.
What are the quirks? if any?
Is it necessary for the user to install some sort of a runtime to execute the compiled app?
I suppose javascript is the prefered language, but how are the other ones handled?
For example, which Ruby interpreter would be included, would I be albe to use the ruby stdlib or external libraries? Would it affect the speed of the app? I.e JS > Ruby in terms of speed.
Since the views are CSS/HTML, would it still be necessary to style the elements, add them effects via JS librarier to achieve a widget-like feeling? Or does it come with some pre-made settings/classes for that?
I am not sure if it applies to the desktop package, but is there some syncing with the appcelerator's server required? What would it be necessary for?
I am sorry if the questions sound stupid, but I didn't even realise there are than many tools until recent. I am ultimately looking for something which is easy to use, has an option to work with a back-end server for data exchange, looks preferably good 'out of the box' or doesnt require that much work to get it themed nicely and works on mobile as well as desktop devices.
With Titanium you build your app out using javascript. Titanium ultimately generates its own XCode project for you that is compiled and deployed to a device.
The user does not require any runtime be installed prior to installing your app.
Unless your building custom modules to hook up your own controls you stick with javascript.
Your javascript calls end up as native controls, early versions required css like styling due to reliance on webkit but this is no longer the case.
There is no IDE but it does come with an app to create Titanium projects, test in emulator, deploy etc. It also talks back to HQ for updates.
In answer to (2), Titanium Mobile is Javascript only, but Desktop also supports Python, Perl and PHP.
We need to interface to 3rd party app, but company behind the app doesn't disclose message protocol and provides only Windows DLL to interface to.
Our application is Linux-based so I cannot directly communicate with DLL. I couldn't find any existing solution so I'm considering writing socket-based bridge between Linux and Windows, however I'm sure it is not such a unique problem and somebody should have done it before.
Are you aware of any solution that allows to call Windows DDL functions from C app on Linux? It can use Wine or separate Windows PC - doesn't matter.
Many thanks in advance.
I wrote a small Python module for calling into Windows DLLs from Python on Linux. It is based on IPC between a regular Linux/Unix Python process and a Wine-based Python process. Because I have needed it in too many different use-cases / scenarios myself, I designed it as a "generic" ctypes module drop-in replacement, which does most of the required plumbing automatically in the background.
Example: Assume you're in Python on Linux, you have Wine installed, and you want to call into msvcrt.dll (the Microsoft C runtime library). You can do the following:
from zugbruecke import ctypes
dll_pow = ctypes.cdll.msvcrt.pow
dll_pow.argtypes = (ctypes.c_double, ctypes.c_double)
dll_pow.restype = ctypes.c_double
print('You should expect "1024.0" to show up here: "%.1f".' % dll_pow(2.0, 10.0))
Source code (LGPL), PyPI package & documentation.
It's still a bit rough around the edges (i.e. alpha and insecure), but it does handle most types of parameters (including pointers).
Any solution is going to need a TCP/IP-based "remoting" layer between the DLL which is running in a "windows-like" environment, and your linux app.
You'll need to write a simple PC app to expose the DLL functions, either using a homebrew protocol, or maybe XML-RPC, SOAP or JSON protocols. The RemObjects SDK might help you - but could be overkill.
I'd stick with a 'real' or virtualized PC. If you use Wine, the DLL developers are unlikely to offer any support.
MONO is also unlikely to be any help, because your DLL is probably NOT a .NET assembly.
This is a common problem. Fortunately, it now has a solution. Meet LoadLibrary, developed by Tavis Ormandy:
https://github.com/taviso/loadlibrary
I first stumbled across LoadLibrary in an article on Phoronix by Michael Larabel:
A Google researcher has been developing "LoadLibrary" as a means of
being able to load Windows Dynamic Link Libraries (DLLs) that in turn
can be used by native Linux code.
LoadLibrary isn't a replacement for Wine or the like but is intended
to allow Windows DLL libraries to be loaded that can then be accessed
by native Linux code, not trying to run Windows programs and the like
on Linux but simply loading the libraries.
This project is being developed by Tavis Ormandy, a well known Google
employee focused on vulnerability research. He worked on a custom
PE/COFF loader based on old ndiswrapper code, the project that was
about allowing Windows networking drivers to function on Linux.
LoadLibrary will handle relocations and imports and offers an API
inspired by dlopen. LoadLibrary at this stage appears to be working
well with self-contained Windows libraries and Tavis is using the
project in part for fuzzing Windows libraries on Linux.
Tavis noted, "Distributed, scalable fuzzing on Windows can be
challenging and inefficient. This is especially true for endpoint
security products, which use complex interconnected components that
span across kernel and user space. This often requires spinning up an
entire virtualized Windows environment to fuzz them or collect
coverage data. This is less of a problem on Linux, and I've found that
porting components of Windows Antivirus products to Linux is often
possible. This allows me to run the code I’m testing in minimal
containers with very little overhead, and easily scale up testing."
More details on LoadLibrary for loading Windows DLLs on Linux via
GitHub where he also demonstrated porting Windows Defender libraries
to Linux.
Sometimes it is better to pick a small vendor over a large vendor because the size of your business will give you more weight for them. We have certainly found this with AV engine vendors.
If you are sufficiently important to them, they should provide either a documented, supported protocol, a Linux build of the library, or the source code to the library.
Otherwise you'll have to run a Windows box in the loop using RPC as others have noted, which is likely to be very inconvenient, especially if the whole of the rest of your infrastructure runs Linux.
Will the vendor support the use of their library within a Windows VM? If performance is not critical, you might be able to do that.
Calling the DLL's functions themselves is of course only the tip of the iceberg. What if the DLL calls Win32, then you'd have a rather massive linking problem. I guess Wine could help you out there, not sure if they provide a solution.
IMO, the best bet is to use Sockets. I have done this previously and it works like a charm.
An alternate approach is to use objdump -d to disassemble the DLL, and then recompile/reassemble it. Don't expect to be able to recompile the code unedited. You might get pure, unadulterated rubbish, or code full of Windows calls, or both. Look for individual functions. Functions are often delimited by a series of push instructions and end with a ret instruction.
Greetings,
I want to write a small cross-platform utility program with GUI in it. What language/GUI-library should I stick to? Is it possible whatsoever?
This is gonna be a small program, so I don't want to make people download JVM or .NET Framework. Is it possible to develop it natively?
Update 1.
By "natively" I mean that the end result will be native code without intermediate layers like Java Virtual Machine or .NET Common Language Runtime
Update 2.
A FREE solution is preferable ;)
If you know C or C++ the first cross platform GUI framework I can think of are:
QT (C++, proprietary but free with the LGPL licensing)
wxWidgets (C++, the most complete and stable but also huge)
FLTK (C++)
FOX (C++)
IUP (C, simpler and cleaner than the ones above)
If you know Pascal, you can try freepascal+Lazarus. I've never used it, though.
The problem is: If you do not want to have a GUI but you do not want to ask the user to download an eternal API, Framework or virtual machine to run it in, be it TCL/TK, Java or QT etc. then you get lost pretty fast.
The reason is: You would have to rebuild all the (GUI) functionality those APIs, frameworks and virtual machines provide you with to be platform independent. And that's a whole lot of work to do... .
On the other side: The Java virtual machine is installed on nearly any operating system from scratch, why not give this one a shot?
You want to develop a cross-platform program natively? Uh...I don't think that'll work, mainly because that phrase is a paradox. If you write native code, it by its very nature will only run on the platform you programmed it for. ;-) That's what the Frameworks are all about.
So what you should do instead is use a very slim framework if your program is going to be so small. itsmatt's idea of Qt is a possibility.
WxWindows? Oh, it's called WxWidgets now: http://www.wxwidgets.org/
wxWidgets has bindings to all sorts of languages - python for instance, if your app is small enough.
Lazarus is great. GTK2 on Linux, win32/64 on Windows, WINCE on euh, Wince. It even uses Carbon on Mac (working on COCOA). Also easy to sell to your boss (the code is Delphi compatible)
How about Python using Qt or Wx and then using PythonToExe to make a 'distributable'
Thought will have to giving to the development to ensure that no native functionality is used (i.e. registry etc.) Also things like line breaks in text files will have different escape characters so will need to be handled
Which OS's do you have in mind when you say cross-platform?
As Epaga correctly points out, native and cross-platform are mutually exclusive. You can either write multiple versions that run natively on multiple platforms, or you need to use some cross-platform framework.
In the case of the cross-platform framework approach, there will always be extra installs required. For example, many here suggest using Python and one of its frameworks. This would necessitate instructing people to install python - and potentially the framework - first.
If you are aiming at Windows and OS X (and are prepared to experiment with alpha-release code for Linux if support for that OS is required), I'd highly recommend you take a look at using Adobe AIR for cross-platform GUI applications.
I agree with Georgi, Java is the way to go. With a bit of work, you can make your desktop application work as a Java applet too (so that users do not need to actively download anything at all). See http://www.geogebra.org as an example of an application with runs smoothly as a cross-platform Java application AND has a simple port to a web applet.
Two other advantages to using Java are:
They have extensive libraries for building the UI, including UI component builders.
The Java runtime framework is generally updated automatically for the user.
One disadvantage:
The version of Java installed on your end users computer may not be totally compatible with your application, requiring you to code to the lowest likely denominator.
Try RealBasic. Visual Basic-like syntax, targets Win32, OS X and Linux. I don't know any details about targetting Linux, but for any cross-platform development I've done between Win32 and OS X its been a dream.
http://www.realbasic.com
Edit: Generates native executables. There is a small cost - $100.
Have you looked at Qt?
Flash? It's installed pretty much everywhere.
If it "HAS" to be Desktop use Qt. Nothing beats it right now.
However personally I gave up on desktop and any UI based project I do is normally Browser/Server based. You can easily write a little custom server that listens to some port so the program can run locally with no need for your users to install Apache or have access to the net. I have a small Lua, Python and C++ framework I made for that purpose (Want to add Javascript for the backend with V8 :)
If you're going to look at Qt and WxWidgets, don't forget to also check out GTK+ !
I agree with David Wees and Georgi,
Java is cross-platformness par excellence. You literally write once and run everywhere. With no need of compiling your code for each target OS or bitness, no worries about linking against anything, etc.
Only thing is, as you pointed out, that a JRE must be installed, but it's quick and straightforward to do even for novice end-users (it's a matter of clicking "Next>" a few times in the installer).
And with Java Web Start deployment gets even easier: the user just clicks the launch button on a webpage and the application runs (if the proper JVM is installed according to what specified in the JNLP descriptor) or the user gets redirected to the Java download page (if no suitable JVM is found).