Use Win95 animation cursor

-In Windows 95, the system has a feature not available in Windows 3. X-supports animation cursor files. You can see the animation cursor files under the cursors subdirectory in the Windows 95 directory, all of which have the extension *. Ani. Using the corresponding animation cursor in a program can greatly improve the appearance of the program. This article describes how to use the animation cursor file attached to Windows 95 in your visual basic application.

Use an animated cursor file

---- To use the animation cursor attached to Windows 95 in a visual basic application, you need to use the following Windows application programming interface (API) functions:

• Loadcursorformfile, used to load the cursor file from the disk;

• Clipecursor, used to restrict the cursor within a fixed rectangle;

• Getwindowrect is used to obtain the rectangular area. In the following example, it is the main form of the program;

• Setclasslong is used to set and extract window data so that the cursor is displayed on the form;

• Before exiting the application, you need to set the default cursor of the application back to execute the previous cursor. Therefore, you need to back up the previous cursor status before running the program, this function is used to complete this task;

• Destroycursor: After the cursor is correctly displayed, you need to use this function to cancel the loaded cursor.

Sample program

---- The following example shows the appstart under the C:/Win95/cursors directory in the form area. ani animation cursor file. If your Windows 95 path is different, you need to modify the sample program to correctly display the animation cursor.

1. Start a new project in Visual Basic and use the default method to create form1.

2. Create a command button control on form1 and create command1 using the default method. Set its caption attribute to "show animation cursor ".

3. Create the second command button control on form1 and use the default method to create command2. Set its caption attribute to "Restore the default cursor ".

4. Create a new module and use the default method to create module1.bas. Add the following declaration, type, and constant statement to the General Declaration section of module1.bas:

   
   Option explicit
   Type rect
   Left as long
   Top as long
   Right as long
   Bottom as long
   End type
   Public const gcl_hcursor = (-12)
   Declare function clipcursor lib "USER32" (lprect as any) as long
   Declare function destroycursor lib "USER32" (byval hcursor as long) as long
   Declare function loadcursorfromfile lib "USER32" alias "loadcursorfromfilea"
   (Byval lpfilename as string) as long
   Declare function getwindowrect lib "USER32" (byval hwnd as long,
   Lprect as rect) as long
   Declare function setclasslong lib "USER32" alias "setclasslonga"
   (Byval hwnd as long, byval nindex as long, byval dwnewlong as long) as long
   Declare function getclasslong lib "USER32" alias "getclasslonga"
   (Byval hwnd as long, byval nindex as long) as long

   Note that the preceding statement must be written in one line.

5. Add the following statement to the General Declaration section of form1:

   
   Option explicit
   Dim mhbasecursor as long
   Dim mhanicursor as long
   

6. Add the following code to the form_load event of form1:

   
   Private sub form_load ()
   Dim lresult as long
   
   Mhbasecursor = getclasslong (Me. hwnd), gcl_hcursor)
   End sub
   

7. Add the following code to the click event of command1:

   
   Private sub commandementclick ()
   Dim lresult as long
   Dim rt_formarea as rect
   
   Mhanicursor = loadcursorfromfile ("C:/Win95/cursors/appstart. Ani ")
   
   Lresult = setclasslong (Me. hwnd), gcl_hcursor, mhanicursor)
   
   Lresult = getwindowrect (Me. hwnd), rt_formarea)
   
   Lresult = clipcursor (rt_formarea)
   End sub
   

8. Add the following code to the click event of command2:

   
   Private sub command2_click ()
   Dim lresult as long
   Dim rt_screenarea as rect
   
   Rt_screenarea.top = 0
   Rt_screenarea.left = 0
   Rt_screenarea.bottom = screen. Height/screen. twipsperpixelx
   Rt_screenarea.right = screen. width/screen. twipsperpixely
   Lresult = clipcursor (rt_screenarea)
   Lresult = setclasslong (Me. hwnd), gcl_hcursor, mhbasecursor)
   Lresult = destroycursor (mhanicursor)
   End sub
   

   ---- Press F5 to run the program. Click the "show animation cursor" command button, and the cursor becomes appstart within the range of the form. ani cursor, And the cursor is restricted within the range of the form. Click the Restore Default cursor command button to restore the cursor in the form to the default one. Note: before exiting the sample program, you must click the "Restore Default cursor" command. Otherwise, other operations cannot be performed correctly in the system.