Case Study: Porting an MFC

Application to Unicode
Harley Rosnow
Software Development Lead
Microsoft Corporation
2000 Microsoft Corporation.

Table of Contents
Assumptions and Terminology
Two-Executable Model
FrontPage 10 Objectives
Microsoft Foundation Classes
FrontPage 10 Strategy
Unicode Strings
FrontPage 2000 User Interface
FrontPage 10 User Interface
Achieving a Mixed Unicode
and ANSI Execution
Environment with MFC

How do messages travel to

a window in MFC?
How can we allow Unicode
messages to survive ANSI
MFC?

Conclusions and Relevance

Futures
Contributors, References
and Contact Info
Q&A

Unicode and ANSI windows

and messages described

2000 Microsoft Cor

Assumptions and Terminology

A familiarity with technical topics:
C++ programming
Windows programming
MFC programming

Some terms:
ANSI (A) used for code that stores and manipulates data using
code pages
Wide (W) used for code and APIs that support Unicode data
UI user interface the appearance and implementation of all
windows and user interactions
ACP active code page the default system code page used to
store most data on Windows 9x including file names. Retained on
Windows NT for ANSI application compatibility
FrontPage 10 the official name of this release has not yet been
determined, so were using this name since this version of
FrontPage ships with the 10th release of Microsoft Office.

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Two-Executable Model
Established by the operating systems group at
Microsoft and basis for Microsoft development tools.
Use UNICODE define to create a Unicode version of
your software.
Unicode version fully functional only on Windows
NT/2000.
ANSI version fully functional on both Windows 9x
and NT/2000, but cannot manipulate Unicode data.
UNICODE define controls the APIs called
(SendMessageW vs SendMessageA), data structure
definitions and the representation of strings (help
vs Lhelp).

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FrontPage 10 Objectives
A single World-Wide Office executable:
Fully functional on both Windows 9x and Windows
NT/2000
Manipulate Unicode data internally
Takes advantage of OS capabilities:
Typing, displaying of Unicode characters and storing of
Unicode file names on Windows NT/2000
Displaying Unicode surrogate characters on Windows 2000
Typing and display of multiple codepage data on Windows 9x
Convert to ANSI code pages as required by Windows 9x on
the periphery

Dont abandon MFC; dont rewrite app

2000 Microsoft Cor

Microsoft Foundation Classes

(MFC)
Object oriented programming model on top of the
native OS windowing architecture
Set of C++ classes wrapping Win32 APIs
Follows the two-executable model: mfc42.dll and
mfc42u.dll.
Two application compilations: All classes (CString,
CWnd, etc.) either store, pass and manipulate
Unicode data or ANSI code page data.
Very flexible allows the application developer to
override and specialize almost all behaviors.

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FrontPage 10 Strategy
Create an execution environment with a
mixture of ANSI and Unicode data,
messages and windows
Leave MFC as ANSI and dynamically link to mfc42.dll
Override the MFC classes to use Unicode data
Implement our own alternative classes where required
Take advantage of Unicode facilities supporting all
Windows platforms
Write our own code to support Unicode on Win9x
Convert data to the active code page as a last resort

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Unicode Strings
Abandoned MFCs CString.
Implemented a new Unicode string class,
CWString:
Method compatible with CString, but with Unicode
arguments and return values.
Use the ANSI-standard Unicode C/C++ runtime library
routines instead of the Win32 versions.
Use MSO routines supporting all Windows platforms.
Implemented custom resource loading, formatting
routines, etc. which retains Unicode data on Windows 9x.
Redefined all Unicode routines that dont support
Windows 9x, so code using them wont compile.

2000 Microsoft Cor

FrontPage 2000 User Interface

System
Controls: Edit,
ListBox,
ComboBox

Common Controls:
Trees, Lists, StatusBar,
ToolTips

MFC

FrontPage

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Custom
Views

FrontPage 10 User Interface

RichEdit 4.0:
RichEd20W,
ListBox,
ComboBox
CEdit, CListBox,
CComboBox
CEditW, CListBoxW,
CComboBoxW

Common Controls:
Trees, Lists, StatusBar,
ToolTips,

CTreeCtrl,
CListCtrl,
CTreeCtrlW, CListCtrlW,

FrontPage

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Custom
Views

MFC

MSO

Unicode and ANSI

Windows and Messages

How does a mixed Unicode and ANSI

environment work on Windows
NT/2000?
What is a Unicode or ANSI window?
How do we make a Unicode or ANSI
window?
What behavior changes between a Unicode
and ANSI window?
What if a window is subclassed?
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Whats a Unicode or ANSI

window?
Windows NT/2000 implements the interoperation of
ANSI and Unicode windows
Each window has a window procedure (WNDPROC) that
the OS invokes when the window receives a message
The OS remembers if each WNDPROC handles Unicode
or ANSI messages
A window with a WNDPROC that handles Unicode is a
Unicode window and IsUnicodeWindow() will return
TRUE. If its WNDPROC handles ANSI messages, the
window is an ANSI window
Unicode windows and WNDPROCs only exist on
Windows NT/2000.

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How do we make a Unicode or

ANSI window?

To create a window, call CreateWindowEx() and

pass a window class name. The window class
determines the windows initial WNDPROC
If the window class was originally registered
using RegisterClassExW(), the OS remembers
to pass the WINPROC Unicode messages;
RegisterClassExA(), ANSI messages
CreateWindowExA() vs CreateWindowExW()
just determines if the arguments and ANSI or
Unicode strings
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What changes between a Unicode

and ANSI window?

When the OS invokes a Unicode windows

WNDPROC, it will ensure that all OS messages
are Unicode.
If an ANSI message is sent, then the OS will
perform a conversion on the input parameters
before passing them to the Unicode WNDPROC.
Output parameters are converted prior to
returning from the SendMessage call.
The opposite behavior occurs for an ANSI
window.

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Which messages are converted?

This conversion only takes place for OS
messages:
Windows Messages: WM_*
like WM_CHAR, WM_SETTEXT, WM_GETTEXT,

IME Messages: WM_IME_*

like WM_IME_CHAR, WM_IME_CONVERSION

ListBox and ComboBox Messages: LB_*

like LB_ADDSTRING,

The conversion only affects text and characters

This conversion has no affect on user messages,
RichEdit messages (EM_*), Common Control
messages and all other types of messages

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SendMessage() Conversions
FROM UNICODE

MultiBytetoWideChar()

TO UNICODE

SETTEXTW stw;

WNDPROC from
RegisterClassExW()

SendMessageW(&stw)

Or SetWindowLongW()

FROM ANSI

TO ANSI

SETTEXTA sta;

WNDPROC from
RegisterClassExA()

SendMessageA(&sta)
WideChartoMultiByte()

Or SetWindowLongA()

Only known system messages are converted: WM_CHAR,

WM_SETTEXT, WM_GETTEXT, CB_ADDSTRING, etc.

2000 Microsoft Cor

What if a window is subclassed?

Subclass a window by associating a new
WNDPROC using
OldWndProc = SetWindowLong(hWnd,
GWL_WNDPROC, NewWndProc);
where NewWndProc and OldWndProc are function
pointers of type WNDPROC.

If SetWindowLongW() is called, the OS

remembers the WNDPROC is Unicode;
SetWindowLongA(), ANSI.
Its the responsibility of the new WNDPROC to
forward messages to the previous WNDPROC, if
it doesnt handle the message itself.

2000 Microsoft Cor

What if a window is subclassed?

(contd)

If the OldWndProc and NewWndProc match as

either Unicode or ANSI, then OldWndProc is a
function pointer. If they dont match, a handle
is returned.
The OldWndProc must be invoked using:
CallWindowProc (OldWndProc, hWnd, Msg, wParam,
lParam)

The CallWindowProc API will convert messages

in the following manner:

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CallWindowProc() Conversions
FROM UNICODE

MultiBytetoWideChar()

TO UNICODE
Convert from ANSI if
OldWndProc is a handle.
Dont convert if pointer.

CallWindowProcW
(OldWndProc, hWnd,
Msg, wParam, lParam)

FROM ANSI

TO ANSI

CallWindowProcA
(OldWndProc, hWnd,
Msg, wParam, lParam)
WideChartoMultiByte()

Convert from Unicode if

OldWndProc is a handle.
Dont convert if pointer.

Only known system messages are converted: WM_CHAR,

WM_SETTEXT, WM_GETTEXT, CB_ADDSTRING, etc.

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How do messages travel to a

window
in
MFC?
MFC PreTranslateMessage
Message
Pump

(C++ Inheritance)

DispatchMessageA/W
MFC WNDPROC

3
Always Executed
If Prior Step
Doesnt Handle

MFCs Message Map and

Runtime Class Hierarchy

CallWindowProcA/W
(Original WNDPROC)
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5

Making Unicode message survive

ANSI
MFC
MFC PreTranslateMessage
Message
Pump
All messages Unicode
on Windows NT/2000

(C++ Inheritance)

DispatchMessageW
MFC WNDPROC

3
Always Executed
If Prior Step
Doesnt Handle

Original WNDPROC as
function not handle
Override DefWindowProc to
use CallWindowProcW()

IsDialogMessageA() &
WM_CHAR

Resubclass as Unicode
WNDPROC

MFCs Message Map and

Runtime Class Hierarchy

CallWindowProcA/W
(Original WNDPROC)
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5

New Unicode classes

handle messages as
appropriate

Conclusions and Relevance

Technical feasibility shown for Unicode MFC
applications on all Windows platforms
Code built for FrontPage 10 and not in
sharable form
Any developer can use these techniques:
CString class
Common Controls
Editing control
Text rendering routines using UniScribe
Owner-drawn ListBox and ComboBox

2000 Microsoft Cor

Futures
Applications somewhat lead
development tools and system
support
Cross-code page Plug UI
Full Unicode file name and URL
support

2000 Microsoft Cor

Contributors, References and

Contact
Info
Contributors:
Craig Hajduk , Tracey Setoda, Vinny Romano

Resources:
Reference for international development:
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev.
Design a Single Unicode App that Runs on Both Windows 98 and
Windows 2000, F. Avery Bishop,
http://www.microsoft.com/globaldev/articles/singleunicode.asp, April
1999.
MFC Internals: Inside the Microsoft Foundation Class Architecture, George
Shepherd and Scott Wingo, Addison-Wesley Developers Press, 1996.
Programming Windows with MFC, Second Edition, Jeff Prosise, Microsoft
Press, 1999.
Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT,
Nadine Kano, Microsoft Press, 1995.

Contact Info: harleyr@microsoft.com

2000 Microsoft Cor