Windows NT Systems Programming: Spring 1999

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Lecture 1

Systems Programming in WindowsNT/95 (Win32)

Process/Thread Management
File I/O
Network Communications
Graphical User Interface Programming (GUI)
Object Oriented Design/Implementation (OOD)
Document/View Architecture
Distributed Component Object Model (DCOM)

From the programming point of view (ours in this course) Windows 95 == Windows NT Lite

What this Course is NOT!

Not NT administration (see Ajay Gupta)
Not C++ or Object Oriented Programming course (see Dr. Zeil)
(although it will be used exclusively)
Not Visual C++ tutorial (see Bill Gates)
(although I will use this compiler)
Not Java (see Dr. Zubair or Dr. Wahab)
Not Networking (see Dr. Wahab)
Not Operating Systems (see Dr. Wild and others)
Not Consistent in Usage/Design/Whatever
(I will show competing solutions)
Not Complete
(We don't have the time to cover everything)
Not Correct
(who doesn't make mistakes)
Not necessarily the best "Bill-Gates" Approved way
(I'm still learning too).

Comparison Unix and Windows NT/95

Text

Function	UNIX	Windows NT/95
Basic OS Stuff (files/processes)	Section 2 of Unix Programming Guides (UNIX Systems Calls)	WIN32
Network Primitives	UDP TCP/IP Sockets	UDP TCP/IP Sockets Named Pipes, Mailslots
GUI primitives	none (use X windows)	WIN32/MFC
Network Object Architecture	none (use CORBA)	DCOM (activeX)

Teaching Project

This course will be presented in the context of an increasingly elaborate "teaching project" which we will call the

NOMS (Network Object-Message Server)

Network: Because the world is becoming increasingly networked
Object: object-oriented implementation
Message: messages can be anything
Server: well - client server is OK

This project is to implement a message handling system with the following operations.

Open message folder
Add a message to folder
Show a message in the folder
Edit a message
Delete a message
Close the message folder

Dimensions of Complexity

User Interface:

Command line text oriented
Simple GUI
More and more sophisticated GUIs

Messages:

Character strings
Document/View solution
Multimedia Objects

Network:

No network
Single Connection
Multiple connection servers
DCOM (ACTIVE-X)

NOMS Versions

Version Number	Properties	Teaching Objectives
Version 0	No objects No network No editing One file solution Command line interface	Simple File Handling
Version 1	Message/folder objects Object persistence Multiple file solution	OO design/programming Self-archiving objects
Version 2	Single Client/Server solution	TCP/IP sockets
Version 3	Multiple Clients	Threads Synchronization File Locking
Version 4	GUI interface no network	MFC programming edit objects
Version 5*	Menus Dialogs	Explain the usual set of GUI design primitives
Version 6	reintroduce network	Document/View Architecture
Version 7 (time permitting)	Non-text messages	Multi-media support
Version 8	Distributed COM solution aka Active-X	RPC MIDL COMS DCOM

Student Projects

I want you to help me and the class explore Windows NT environment.

A Brief History of Windows NT.

UNIX
CPM
DOS
XEROX PARC
Lisa (MAC)
Windows
VMS
NT
Windows 95

Windows NT Architecture

NTarch.jpg (13530 bytes)

User Mode

Systems processes: logon, session manager
Server Processes: Event Log, Schedule, SQL server, Exchange Server
Environment subsytems: Win32, POSIX, OS/2
User Applications: Win32, Windows 3.1, MS-DOS, POSIX, OS/2
DLLs (Dynamic Link Libraries): translate documented function calls to Windows NT system service calls (perhaps through the environment subsystem)

Kernel Mode

Executive: base services like memory, process, thread management, security. I/O. communications
Windowing and Graphics: Win32 User and GDI functions
HAL: Allows Windows NT to run on different hardware platforms

SMP = Symmetric MultiProcessing. NT can run on a single workstation with multi-processors, any thread any processor, shared memory and fine grained synchonization.

Operating Systems Essentials

Memory Management
File System
Resource Creation and Management
Multitasking
Communications
Synchronization
Security

Some Programming Conventions

const modifiers
int max(const int x, const int y);
bool compare(const char* x, const char* y);
int topOfStack() const;
assert
assert(head != NULL);
value returning functions
not
void max(int &answer, const int x, const int y);
Boolean type
- bool/BOOL/boolean/BOOLEAN

exceptions
- functions returns bool for error
- function returns 0 or NULL (special value) and test "GetLastError"
- throw/catch for handling exceptions
ALL CAPS for constants
const int MESSAGE_SIZE = 100;
Capitalize Classes (use initialize "C" for class)
class CMessage
Ordinary variables start with lower case but use Caps for word starts
CMessage firstMsg;

Lots and Lots of Garbage

LeftOvers from DOS, Win16 and other upward compatibility junk.

FAR pointers
PASCAL calling convention
FAR PASCAL == WINAPI
LP == LONG POINTER
Too many ways to do the same thing
We will try to use the state of current practice