LoadBmp Function

Purpose

Loads a bitmap from file and returns a handle.

LoadBmp() has been superseded by the LoadImage() API.

Syntax

h%= LoadImage(0, file$, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE)

h%:bitmap handle
file$:sexp

Description

LoadImage() loads the bitmap specified in file$ into memory. h% is then the handle of the bitmap and can, for example, be used for the Put and Stretch commands.

The application must call the FreeBmp h or the Windows API DeleteObject() function to delete each bitmap handle returned by the LoadImage function.

Example

OpenW 1

Local h As Handle, n As Int32

// Find picture file

Local d$ = GetSetting("\\HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\GfaWin32.exe\shell\open\command", , "")

If Left(d$, 1) = #34 Then d$ = Mid(d$, 2)

n = RInStr(d$, "\") : If n <> 0 Then d$ = Left(d$, n - 1)

If Not Exist(d$ & "\gfawintb.bmp") Then _

MsgBox("Can not locate gfawintb.bmp file"#13#10#13#10"Please manually place it in the GFABASIC32\Bin folder and try again.") : End

// Create Image OCX and load picture into object

Ocx Image img = "", 10, 10, 356, 16

h = LoadImage(0, d$ & "\gfawintb.bmp", IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE)

Set img.Picture = CreatePicture(h, False)

FreeBmp h

Do : Sleep : Until Me Is Nothing

Remarks

GFA-BASIC 32 I/O routines are able to read ":Files", because they are implemented to recognize the leading colon as a resource or inline file. API functions don't know about this peculiar GFA-BASIC 32 feature. To use API I/O functions the resource must first copied to a temporary file as in the function below:

Function LoadBmp(ByVal FName As String) As Handle

Try

If Left$(FName) <> ":" ' Load from normal file

LoadBmp = LoadImage(0, FName, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE)

Else ' copy to Temp directory

Local path$ = TempFileName("")

CopyFile FName Over To path$

LoadBmp = LoadImage(0, path$, IMAGE_BITMAP, 0, 0, LR_LOADFROMFILE)

KillTempFile path$

EndIf

Catch

MsgBox "LoadBmp Error #" & Err.Number & #10 & Err.Description

EndCatch

EndFunction

File systems attempt to keep all of the data in memory for quicker access rather than flushing the data back to mass storage. A temporary file should be deleted by the application as soon as it is no longer needed.