I am programming a Delphi (XE3) application where mouse position is important, but I would like to be able with another mouse to be able to set breakpoints without moving the primary mouse position. I may be pressing shift or control in the application I am trying to debug, so alt-tabbing to the IDE and setting a breakpoint with the keyboard keyboard won't work. Can Windows 7 easily be set up to do this?
It's possible to attach multiple keyboards and mice to a computer, and various video games can take advantage of the multiple input devices, but the OS in general does not take advantage of that. No matter how many keyboards and mice you attach, there's still just one input queue and one cursor on the screen.
If all you need is to set breakpoints without moving the mouse, then you can navigate the input caret to the desired line with the keyboard and then press F5 to toggle breakpoints.
If you need to be able to debug without interfering with the program at all, then you might need to use remote debugging. Although the documentation suggests using Remote Desktop to operate the remote program while you're sitting at the local system, that's not what you want to do in this situation because you'll still have just one set of input devices. Instead, log on to the remote computer from elsewhere (either directly, or via Remote Desktop on a third computer). It'll help to have two computers you can access from the same chair.
Related
This time something what I had troubles to find title for...
I'm using windows hooks ( TMOUSEHOOKSTRUCT ~ WH_MOUSE ) to follow mouse movements and mouse button clicks...
This all works fine, however, I want to know whether is there a way to determine the mouse move/click source?
Either if it's possible to identify it by either device ID, or maybe source type (mouse, trackball, touchscreen...), or at least if it was sent from hardware source at all (aka, was it hardware or some mouse recorder macro, or other app's "SetCursor" procedure).
The main goal I'm looking for here is to find a way to block the ability to use mouse recorder to make clicks inside my app (so while in focus, I'd start a mouse hook and in case the move / click was made by software, I'd ignore any actions made..)
This could be asked as "How to block mouse recorder macros in my app" but I'd rather see an actual solution to identify the source as well (and as primary answer), as it might have other uses too.
Thanks.
Edit:
One way would be to check whether the mouse movement was made on snap or slowly (like actually moving the mouse). However, here then the problem persists with touchscreens.
Though, on the other hand - Windows does detect when touch was used (cursor is changed for the dot onscreen), so there surely is a way to at least separate mouse from touch events -> and knowing that would already solve a lot, combined to decline snap-actions on mouse only...
Raymond Chen summed it up in this blog post
There's no point discussing the possibility that the sender of the message is playing tricks and lying to you because (1) your program should just go along with the ruse and respond to fake [menu] messages as if they were real [menu] messages, because (2) there's no way to tell that you're being lied to anyway.
And this blog post of his shows that all input ultimately goes through the same queue, so even Windows does not know the difference between real input and simulated input.
You should look into using the Raw Input API to receive WM_INPUT messages directly from hardware. SetCursor(), SendInput(), macro players, etc cannot simulate those messages. And you would be able to differentiate between input from different devices, but not necessary the type of mouse if multiple mouse devices are being used. Although, since a trackball might have more capabilities than a standard mouse, it might represent itself as a HID device instead of a mouse device.
As for touchscreens, that type of input generates WM_TOUCH messages, which cannot be simulated, either.
So, between WM_INPUT and WM_TOUCH, you can differentiate between hardware mouse input and touchscreen input, at least. Beyond that, simulated input is going to generate standard WM_MOUSE... and WM_(L|M|R|X)BUTTON... messages, which cannot differentiate between hardware input and simulated input, not even in lower-level mouse hooks. You would probably need to keep track of the WM_INPUT/WM_TOUCH messages and match them up to the other messages, and if you cannot find a match then assume input is being simulated.
I'm trying to activate Hint from control of different application created from delphi upon focus, I'm using hook to identify the focused control, and then use WM_MOUSEMOVE, which I think will activate the Hint of that control, the handle would be the Control itself and the lParam is the Left and Top of the Control. The Control activate the OnMouseMove Event, but the Hint never shows. but when I use SetCursorPos, Hint show, but I need to show the Hint with out the cursor move on that Control. Can you please help me with this? Thank you in advance... by the way I'm using Delphi XE4
Among the really asked question is how to show the hint of a control that resides on another application (i am afraid without hook that application can not be done), the title is "Delphi - Activating the Hint from another control of Application".
First is first: That can be done without knowing what language the other app was done, but it is very complex to put it here (and i am not an expert on such way of coding, also i hate apps that work that way).
Second: The main idea is to hook the other application, search on Google some code of that apps, that can show you a rectangular hole square of the object the mouse is passing over, that application while doing it is iconized (i do not remember the name of it).
Waht such app does: As you move the mouse over the screen it overlays a rectangular over the control that mouse is over, then if you press the key to print screen, that small region is the only thing that goes to clipboard; on of such apps i saw had an extra funcion, they can move such controls if you press cursors on keyboard, also can hide/enable/disable such control... more, it can also make controls that are invisible to be visible, etc... i saw it working on my computer, and hey, for fun it is pretty and to DeBug or get extra things on some apps is also great (make some menús to be visible and enabled and then can use such funtions).
Please, please, understand i am agaist piracy and also against using such apps to let code to be run... some apps need pay for letting some menus enabled, but they have the code there, no need to change EXE to have/use that menus; just using this kind of apps makes that limited apps to be unlimited (just enable or show hidden menus and voila).
Note: To unhide menus, mouse point is not needed to be over the app, can be anywhere and is not moved.
The idea i want to say is: Any app can move, alter any control on any other app (at least on Windows) that is running, so maybe there can be a way to show such hint.
In the past i had use such app (sorry i do not remember the name) for DeBug my own apps, so i do not need to recompile in such cases where something was wrongly hidden, also work with buttons, labels, texts, combos, memos, etc.
Now my small problem is: I just need exactly what title say, but i can not make it to work.
Must be:
Mouse position must be irrelevant (it also must be able to be outside the application)
Just when a button that has focus is pressed with keyboard (Space or Enter) or just after some code somewhere on my application, i want to show the Hint of a specific TEdit for a short period of time.
I did not get Hint to be shown; not unless mouse point is over such TEdit but i want/need mouse pointer to not be over it, neither it to jump to the TEdit.
Idea Conept for that Hint to be shown: After doing some code that changes something, show extra info associated.
Example:
A button with that loads a file using an open dialog, filename is put on a ReadOnly TEdit (so it let user copy the text, but not change it); i want extra info that i punt on .Hint of such TEdit to be shown inmediatly.
That hint use is for not overload window with a lot of fields (TLabels) for showing such file data.
Simple idea: such Hint shows TimeStamp and size of the selected file.
P.D.: Not much related (since i am trying with a normal plain text hint), but hints can also store a full HTML page and with 3rd party tools be shown as an HTMLhint, so they can show a lot info of that file (also its content, etc) in a web based format; as i say i first try with standard plain text hints.
In order to show hint programatically you need to call TApplications ActivateHint method to which you specify the position parameter.
http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/Libraries/XE3/en/Vcl.Forms.TApplication.ActivateHint
Based on position parameter Application automatically finds which controll is at that position and shows its hint.
NOTE: Position parameter screen coordinates in pixels and not your controll coordinates. So you will have to use ClientToScreen method to change your coordinates apropriately.
You can see simple example of how to use this here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/15031208/3636228
Now if you need to do this from another application then you will have to add some comunication mechanizm to these two application so that one could send a proper message to tell the other to show the hint at specific position. But this does require you to be able to change both applications.
EDIT: This works with VCL applications but I'm not sure if it would work with FireMonkey applications.
I'm wondering if there's an easy way to tell which input device triggered a particular GUI event.
For example: A TButton.OnClick event gets fired. Did the user trigger it with a keyboard press (shortcut, Enter key for default button, space key for a focused button, etc.) or was it triggered with a mouse click? Is there any easy way to tell?
The reason I'd like to know is so that I can implement keyboard usage hints into some of our applications when the user uses the mouse to initiate actions that could also be done with the keyboard. Our systems on the shop floor are in pretty dusty/dirty environments, and mice tend to not hold up so well in them. Also, in many cases, there's simply not that much room for a mouse to be used. (No, keyboards without numeric keypads is not a solution. They're relied on too heavily.)
However, since our apps run in Windows, users tend to simply use the programs like they would at home -- with a mouse. There's nothing particularly wrong with that, but we've worked hard to optimize the input workflow to be keyboard friendly as well. It'd be nice if there was a low-impact way to indicate to our users that there's a way for them to do the things they're doing without having to grab the mouse.
There's no way to tell from within OnClick. However, you can also attach events to a control that will fire when the mouse rolls over it, which would probably be more appropriate for what you're trying to do anyway. Take a look at the OnMouseEnter and OnMouseLeave events. Also, if you really want something specific to happen when the mouse is clicked, you can attach it to OnMouseUp.
I have installed dual monitor on my system. I am running a process which continuously takes focus of browser. This way, I am unable to work on some other application as other application loses focus again and again.
Is there any way by which i can set different focus for different monitors?
I say "no" because focus can be only one.
Otherwise what would happen when you click "Ctrl+C" or "Alt+F4" or every other key combination that assumes you have 1 focused application/element?
Your solution is to deal with that application stealing your focus.
Windows in my application are popping up off the edge of the screen, and this of course is a problem because some of the windows are modal and can't be dismissed (you don't even know they are there).
I'm using the TurboPower Orpheus component which remembers the location and size of each form, then restores it when the form is shown again. It saves the size and placement in an INI file.
What can I do to prevent windows from ever showing off the side of the screen?
It's common for this sort of thing to happen if you use multiple monitors and then disconnect one, such as when undocking a laptop. Or if you dock a laptop to a screen with a higher resolution. Or use remote desktop, etc..
The remedy is to override the "remember my position" behavior with a sanity check, to see if the left+width exceeds the width of the screen (Screen.Monitors array, actually - thanks guys), and vice-versa for the top+height.
Ideally, you "bump" by subtracting the difference, so you're butting up against the edge that the window wanted to straddle.
Also, see if there are updates to Orpheus that fix this. If not, you can get the source, make the correction (optional), and contribute it back to the project. It's OSS, as I recall.
You may want to give a look at their DefaultMonitor property and read the code from TCustomForm.SetWindowToMonitor to see how to deal with positioning relatively to Screen.Monitors.
Use DefaultMonitor to associate a form with a particular monitor in a multi-monitor application. The following table lists the possible values:
Value Meaning
dmDesktop No attempt is made to position the form on a specific monitor.
dmPrimary The form is positioned on the first monitor listed in the global screen object's Monitors property.
dmMainForm The form appears on the same monitor as the application's main form.
dmActiveForm The form appears on the same monitor as the currently active form.
Note: DefaultMonitor has no effect if the application does not have a main form.
To recall the previous position of a form, without having it suddenly in an area which is no longer available (due to a plugged off screen or changed resolution), you just call
TForm.MakeFullyVisible;
That's it. See the documentation.