CS410 Handouts, Assignments, Mid & Final Term Past Papers - Scholarships | Fellowships

CS410 Handouts, Assignments, and mid- and final-term past Papers are discussed. You will create programs for Microsoft Windows in a specific area called Win32 programming. The Intel (X86) based Windows platform will be covered in this course. We will be utilizing the C programming language since it is the preferred programming language for Application programmer interface (API) developers and also because the majority of the Windows OS was created using the C programming language. In addition, Microsoft’s API documentation is likewise C-oriented in syntax. We will examine the key components of Windows programming, such as resource sharing, device independence, and using GDI.

It quickly became clear that MS-DOS, which originally stood for Microsoft Disc Operating System, would be the most popular operating system for the PC (and compatibles) following the autumn 1981 debut of the IBM PC. A simple operating system was MS-DOS. The MS-DOS operating system loaded application programs into memory for execution and provided a command-line interface for commands like DIR and TYPE for the user. MS-DOS only provided a set of function calls for doing file input/output (I/O) for application programmers. Other operations,

CS410 Handouts, Assignments, Mid & Final Term Past Papers

in example writing text and occasionally graphics for the video display required direct access to the PC’s hardware, which was done via apps. Small computers took a while to adopt complex graphical interfaces due to memory and hardware limitations. As provided by Apple Computer By releasing the Disastrous Lisa in January 1983 as an alternative to character-mode environments, Apple later established the Macintosh in January 1984 as the benchmark for graphical environments. Despite having a shrinking market share, the Mac is still regarded as the benchmark by which other graphical environments are judged.

The groundbreaking work carried out at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (PARC) beginning in the mid-1970s is responsible for the development of all graphical environments, including the Macintosh and Windows. Microsoft Corporation unveiled Windows in November 1983 (after Lisa but before Macintosh) and debuted it two years later, in November 1985. Microsoft Windows 1.0 was followed over the course of the next two years by a number of updates to support the global market and offer drivers for additional video displays and printers.

In November 1987, Microsoft introduced Windows 2.0. The user interface saw a number of improvements in this edition. The usage of overlapping windows as opposed to the “tiled” windows seen in Windows 1.0 was the most significant of these modifications. The keyboard and mouse interface, notably for menus and dialogue boxes, was improved in Windows 2.0 as well. Prior to this, Windows just needed an Intel 8086 or 8088 running in “real mode” to access 1 megabyte (MB) of memory.

Windows/386, which came out shortly after Windows 2.0, used the Intel 386 microprocessor’s “virtual 86” mode to multitask and window a lot of DOS programs that had direct hardware access. Windows 2.1 was renamed Windows/286 for reasons of symmetry. The release of Windows 3.0 occurred on May 22, 1990. With this update, Windows/286 and Windows/386 were combined into a single product. Support for the 16-bit protected mode functioning of Intel’s 286, 386, and 486 microprocessors was the major change in Windows 3.0.

Table of Contents

Lesson Learning Objectives

You ought to be able to when the course is finished:

Describe and clarify the Windows platform’s operational procedures, including its principles of operation and its fundamental architectural tenets.
Utilise or modify Windows resources for your program.
Create streamlined, reliable programs for Microsoft Windows
Get your hands dirty with increasingly complicated and specialized Windows programming, such as network programming and graphics programming.

Any history of Windows must also cover OS/2, a DOS and Windows replacement that was created by Microsoft and IBM in the beginning. Released in late 1987, OS/2 1.0 (character mode only) was compatible with Intel 286 (or later) microprocessors. In October 1988, OS/2 1.1 introduced the Presentation Manager (PM), a graphical user interface. Although PM was initially intended to be a protected-mode version of Windows, the graphical API was altered to the point where it became challenging for software developers to support both platforms.

Conflicts between IBM and Microsoft reached a height in September 1990 and forced the two businesses to part ways. IBM acquired OS/2, and Microsoft stated that Windows was the superior operating system. In April 1992, Microsoft Windows 3.1 was released. Several important characteristics were the Multimedia (sound and music), Object Linking and Embedding (OLE), and standardized common dialogue boxes all make up the TrueType font technology stack. 3.1 Windows required a 286 or 386 processor with at least 1 MB of memory and only operated in protected mode.

The 32-bit form of Windows was initially supported by Windows NT, which was released in July 1993. the 386, 486, and Pentium processors from Intel. Windows NT-based applications have access to employ a 32-bit instruction set and convert it to a 32-bit flat address space. (I’ll talk more about addresses later a few empty spots in this chapter.) Additionally, Windows NT was created to be accessible. It is supported by numerous RISC-based workstations and has CPUs.

In August 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95. Windows 95 supported the 32-bit programming mode of the Intel 386 and subsequent microprocessors, much like Windows NT did. Windows 95 had the benefit of using fewer hardware resources even if it lacked some of the capabilities of Windows NT, such as high security and portability to RISC platforms. The enhancements in Windows 98, which was introduced in June 1998, include enhanced hardware compatibility, increased performance, and a tighter integration with the Internet and the World Wide Web.