How can I make a borderless form moveable

[RAW]

This is the same as  SendMessage(Form1.Handle, LM_SYSCOMMAND, 61458, 0) ;
LM_SYSCOMMAND is the same as WM_SYSCOMMAND.
$F012 is the same as 61458.

Good to know... thank you very much...

[RAW]

I've attached a cropped screen grab to show what I've achieved.

I'm just curious: It looks like an antialiased border, so what API did you use ?

UpdateLayeredWindow or SetWindowRGN ?

Is that only one window ?

[J-G]

I've attached a cropped screen grab to show what I've achieved.

I'm just curious: It looks like an antialiased border, so what API did you use ?

UpdateLayeredWindow or SetWindowRGN ?

Is that only one window ?

For the transparency coding I was directed by RVK and Fungus to use this :
(I've left in all the comments to explain far better than I can what is happening)

Code: Pascal  [Select][+][-]

1. Const
2.   LWA_COLORKEY = 1;
3.   LWA_ALPHA = 2;
4.   LWA_BOTH = 3;
5.   WS_EX_LAYERED = $80000;
6.   GWL_EXSTYLE = -20;
7.  
8.   {Function SetLayeredWindowAttributes Lib "user32" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal Color As Long, ByVal X As Byte, ByVal alpha As Long) As Boolean }
9.    function SetLayeredWindowAttributes (hWnd:Longint; Color:Longint; X:Byte; alpha:Longint):bool
10.      stdcall; external 'USER32';
11.  
12.    {not sure how to alias these functions here ????   alias setwindowlonga!!}
13.    {Function SetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long, ByVal dwNewLong As Long) As Long }
14.    Function SetWindowLongA (hWnd:Longint; nIndex:longint; dwNewLong:longint):longint
15.      stdcall; external 'USER32';
16.  
17.    {Function GetWindowLong Lib "user32" Alias "GetWindowLongA" (ByVal hWnd As Long, ByVal nIndex As Long) As Long }
18.    Function GetWindowLongA ( hWnd:Longint; nIndex:longint):longint
19.      stdcall; external 'user32';
20.  
21. [...]
22.  
23. procedure SetTranslucent(ThehWnd: Longint; Color: Longint; nTrans: Integer);
24. var
25.   attrib:longint;
26. begin
27.     {SetWindowLong and SetLayeredWindowAttributes are API functions, see MSDN for details }
28.     attrib := GetWindowLongA(ThehWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE);
29.     SetWindowLongA (ThehWnd, GWL_EXSTYLE, attrib Or WS_EX_LAYERED);
30.  
31.     {anything with color value color will completely disappear if flag = 1 or flag = 3  }
32.     SetLayeredWindowAttributes (ThehWnd, Color, nTrans,1);
33. end;
34.  
35. [...]
36.  
37. procedure TInvClock.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
38. var
39.    transparency:longint;
40. begin
41.     {the color were going to make transparent the White that the form background is set to}
42.   transparency:= clWhite;
43.     {call the function to do it}
44.   SetTranslucent (InvClock.Handle, transparency, 0);
45.  
46.   Read_Date;
47. end;
48.  

The final 'Read_Date' is a separate procedure to initialize the Date and Time at program start-up.

The background image is a .PNG file with a white background and the hands are transparent .PNG Images - I haven't yet coded the analogue hand movement, for that I'm investigating the BGRABitmap routines created by lainz (that's my job for today!).

I coded the digital Time and Date display yesterday so a new image is attached to better show that it can be dragged and the background is transparent.

[RAW]

Thank you very much ... interesting...

I found this in another thread and I think you should check this out:
http://www.getlazarus.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=40
Someone did a clock (the crossplatform-way) with CROSS CODEBOT library and it can be resized...

There is another alternative: UpdateLayeredWindow or UpdateLayeredWindowIndirect + BGRABitmap or Direct2D or GDI+...

[RAW]

 

[J-G]

Thank you very much ... interesting...

I found this in another thread and I think you should check this out:
http://www.getlazarus.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=40
Someone did a clock (the crossplatform-way) with CROSS CODEBOT library and it can be resized (bigger/smaller) and you can use shadows and probably draw semi-transparent pixels... very interesting...

Thanks for that link SoE - I don't have time to be interested in Cross-Platform but the fact that iSurface uses Vector graphics could prove very useful.

Seeing the sub-seconds dial has prompted me to think about adding a stop-watch/timer option.

I now have three hands (H, M, S) working - albeit in a normal form and without a background - using lainz code as the basis but am stuggling to fully understand WHY! Now working on smoothing the seconds hand movement (just a fact of reading the milliseconds) and moving the code into my main program.