Hi,

I wrote this simple drive display function which is not that large.

It works in QB64 and uses library function GetDrivetype.

My question was:

  Id there a equivalent QB45/71 function to return drive type
  such as [cdrom] or [removable]??

Thanks, Erik.

Attached Files

  DRIVEX.ZIP (Size: 151.81 KB / Downloads: 28)
  DRIVEX2.ZIP (Size: 195.62 KB / Downloads: 14)

You must have seen a picture that is made up of many small pictures.
The program is simple. Just give him a single image at the beginning of the source code! (boss_pic$)
To create such a picture, you need a lot of pictures so that you can work with as many different shades as possible.
Specify where the program should search for images. A drive or folder.

The program will scan your computer and look for image files. Unfortunately, I think this will only work under Windows, because a 'CMD' command generates a list of found images.
After that, the program examines the color shades of all found images and stores them. Peace of mind! The program does not make any changes to any files! You don't put any garbage anywhere!

It took 5,000 pictures in 2 minutes, but I mostly have small pictures on my computer.

After the examination, he creates the mosaic image.
You only check the images once! You don't have to wait every time you start the program. It performs a new test if we change the search location for the images (file_search$) or change the aspect ratio of the mosaic images (ratio_y_start).

The higher the quality of the finished image, the more images the program can work with.

after running the program, the image is automatically saved as "saved.bmp".

during the examination, you select images that are close in shade to another existing image. This prevents the repetition of images.

use the available images proportionately during the work. that's why it randomly creates the mosaics so that there are no more identical images next to each other

There's a catch... Of course virtual, not manual and it has to work in Linux and MacOS.

Okay, so in Windows we can use a WinAPI trick to min/restore a Window, which will "Activate" the window. Activate means it is not just in focus, it is also ready to use. With QB64, we can do a _SCREENCLICK to virtually activate it, just as if we clicked it! Oops, problem here is _SCREENCLICK, and other keywords like _SCREENPRINT, etc., are not supported in LInux and MacOC.

So the challenge is to replace the _SCREENCLICK line with something else (number of lines doesn't matter) that will have the same effect to activate the window.

So to try, you need to...

1) Copy and run the first and then the second snippet, in that order. They'll use the CLIPBOARD to message between the two windows. 

2) Adjust the windows on your desktop so they don't overlap.

3) Click the first program window to initially activate it.

4) Input a test message (Type and press Enter).

5) Notice the second window "Self-Activates" and displays the message received.

6) Input a reply.

7) The first window self-activates, displays the reply, and you are ready to input another message. It's like a ping-pong effect!

So the challenge is to sub out _SCREENCLICK with any line of code or sub-routine that will work in Linux / Mac OS to do the same effect, "activate" the window so we don't have to click on it.

This challenge is based on a much more polished chat app / messenger in this thread: https://staging.qb64phoenix.com/showthre...n=lastpost

If you solve it, you be the hero of the Linux/Mac community, literally billions upon billions of brain cells will thank you.

Program one, the host...

This is the "SaveImage" routine from the Wiki, changed by me to try to make it faster, but it seems to be a failure with big pictures. For stuff larger than 1920x1080 might have to set even greater string buffers for "d$" and "r$". It was quite fast on my old Toshiba laptop purchased in December 2006 with 1024x768 resolution.

The "DIM" declarations are to ensure it works in "OPTION _EXPLICIT" mode.

!Needs testing!

I ain't got nothin' but KEYWORDS, eight days a week...

So let's talk _SCREENPRINT, the little bro to the bigger and better Win32 SENDKEYS function.

SYNTAX: _SCREENPRINT text$

Note: This keyword is not supported in Linux and Mac Operating Systems.

So what does it do?

_SCREENPRINT is acts as a virtual keypress and text transmitter. It is limited in the key combos available, which can be seen in the table, below...

This is a TCP/IP routine. Windows users will need to Okay it, on the first run, with Windows Defender.

I posted two versions. The first minimizes and restores the chat window to activate it. The second uses QB64 _SCREENCLICK. auto-activation allows us to continuously send messages back and forth without clicking the window each rotation.

Sorry Linux and mac users, I tried, but to return focus to each active chat window requires one Win32 API command to restore the window, and mn pointed out that _SCREENCLICK isn't supported in these operating systems. If anyone can figure out a QB64 way to force a minimized window back to the desktop, please let me know.

So to gives this a try, you need to copy and run both the "host" and client" programs. Since the host starts the client, you will need to name the client as messenger_client.bas and save it as messenger_client.exe before you run the host program.

Min/Restore Version

Host

Below is some code to grab a random Kanye "Ye" West quote:

For folks who want to see how much QB64 has evolved and grown over the last year, I present my little Christmas Program that I was working on and stalled out on last year.


  Xmas v0.5.7z (Size: 173.32 MB / Downloads: 137)

Download from the attachment above.

(IF the forum download is too slow, which seems to be a problem for some of our Linux folks, you can also try to get it directly from my OneDrive: https://1drv.ms/u/s!AknUrv8RXVYMm_Uh2wya...A?e=XIKRX8 It may work better for you.   )

Space, the final frontier, and when you're sick of space on both sides of your string, use _TRIM$.

_TRIM$ simply removes any leading and/or trailing spaces from any string.

SYNTAX: _TRIM$(mytext$) and can also be used as: _TRIM$("   my text   ")

_TRIM$ is the QB64 answer to, "What do you get when you put LTRIM$ + RTRIM$ together?" Well, until _TRIM$ came along it was LTRIM$(RTRM$(mystring$)). Note: LTRIM$ removes leading spaces, spaces to the "left" and RTRIM$ removes trailing space, spaces to the right, and _TRIM$ removes both.


If there are no spaces, _TRIM$ simply does nothing.

_TRIM$ can be combined with STR$(), which converts a number to a string and removes the trailing space. So why do we need _TRIM? The answer is to get rid of the leading space the system uses to reserve space for a possible negative sign in front of a number even after STR$() is used to convert it to a string.

So while PRINT STR$(-1) is "-1", PRINT STR$(1) would be " 1". To get rid of that leading space we can code either: PRINT LTRIM$(STR$(1)) or PRINT _TRIM$(STR$(1)). Of course most of the time a number will be represented by a variable, so we usually code: MyNumber = 1: MyNumber$ = _TRIM$(STR$(a)).