COM helper library

[John Z]

Here is a link to a helper library that with just two files opens up a lot of possibilities. 
Really useful - I was able to add two files and a few (to get started) lines of code and have added a working speech capability to my program. 

https://sourceforge.net/projects/disphelper/ 

From the developer:

DispHelper is a COM helper library that can be used in C++ or even plain C. No MFC or ATL required! It allows you to call COM objects with a printf style syntax. Included with DispHelper are over 20 samples demonstrating using COM objects from ADO to WMI

The code needs few minor fixups to run the "plain C sources" under Pelles C version 10, mainly adding l to %s in a few places, as in "%ls".  So far I've only used the speech interface but there are many other examples.  Would have taken me a long time to figure out from scratch although I'd end up a bit more knowledgeable if I did.

John Z

[bitcoin]

Good thing, thanks! COM is terrible.

[MrBcx]

Another option ...

BCX makes using COM scripts written in VBA, VBScript and others pretty easy.  The
best part is being able to easily mix non-COM code with COM, in order to get real
work done.   

BCX includes a number of time-saving wrappers.  The BCX code below generates
the attached C file that compiles with Pelles V11 just fine.   The attached zip
contains the C source code and a 38kb executable.  No other dependencies needed.

DIM oVoice AS OBJECT
oVoice = COM ("SAPI.SpVoice")
IF ISOBJECT(oVoice) THEN oVoice.Speak "Hello from BCX"
UNCOM (oVoice)

 

[TimoVJL]

An old example from Tino
https://forum.pellesc.de/index.php?topic=1200.msg5436#msg5436

Code: [Select]

#include <objbase.h> // Necessary for COM ( + ole32.lib see Project Properties)
#include <sapi.h> // Found in PellesC-Include-Folder
#include <stdio.h>

int main(){

printf("Sapi 5.1 - PellesC Demo - Turn on the speakers & Listen\r\n\r\n");

ISpVoice *pVoice = NULL;

if (FAILED(CoInitialize( 0 )) ) return FALSE;

HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(
&CLSID_SpVoice,
NULL,
CLSCTX_ALL,
&IID_ISpVoice,
(void **) &pVoice);

if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) ){
hr = pVoice->lpVtbl->Speak( pVoice, L"Hello world. Ehlo world.", 0, 0);
pVoice->lpVtbl->Release( pVoice );
pVoice = NULL;
};

CoUninitialize ();
return 0;
}


[bitcoin]

What is 'BCX' ?

[John Z]

Another option ...

BCX ...

The C output file is an amazing piece of work!  I've used all types of 'Basic' for a long time. Stopped upgrading M$ VB after version 5, but I wish I had gotten version 6. I think I tried BCX to convert a VB5 program of some complexity, too many issues as I recall.  Then I bought PowerBasic but in using it I realized I might as well switch to C for my windows programing (I have used C for non-windows systems Vax/Vms, HPux, etc for many years).

An old example from Tino ....

Wow based on this example I'm in overkill land with the COM helper Files since I'm only using simple speech output.  I'm going to test using this code as a basis instead.

Thank you both for these examples and inputs!

John Z

[John Z]

What is 'BCX' ?

Check out https://bcxbasiccoders.com/
"Basic to C Translator"

John Z

[Vortex]

Hi TimoVJL and MrBcx,

Thanks for the examples.

[MrBcx]

Wow based on this example I'm in overkill land with the COM helper Files since I'm only using simple speech output.  I'm going to test using this code as a basis instead.

John Z

It's worth noting ... the COM code that BCX emits will generally compile with
MSVC++, Embarcadero C++(7.50), Clang, Pelles C, and Lcc-Win32.   Mingw32/64
is sometimes more difficult when working with COM but it can be done.

[John Z]

An old example from Tino
https://forum.pellesc.de/index.php?topic=1200.msg5436#msg5436

Code: [Select]

#include <objbase.h> // Necessary for COM ( + ole32.lib see Project Properties)
#include <sapi.h> // Found in PellesC-Include-Folder
#include <stdio.h>

int main(){

printf("Sapi 5.1 - PellesC Demo - Turn on the speakers & Listen\r\n\r\n");

ISpVoice *pVoice = NULL;

if (FAILED(CoInitialize( 0 )) ) return FALSE;

HRESULT hr = CoCreateInstance(
&CLSID_SpVoice,
NULL,
CLSCTX_ALL,
&IID_ISpVoice,
(void **) &pVoice);

if( SUCCEEDED( hr ) ){
hr = pVoice->lpVtbl->Speak( pVoice, L"Hello world. Ehlo world.", 0, 0);
pVoice->lpVtbl->Release( pVoice );
pVoice = NULL;
};

CoUninitialize ();
return 0;
}


So I found the above code, or something almost exactly like it in M$ tutorial on SAPI 5.4.  I've replaced the complex COM helper with this simpler code and it works well and reduced the exe by about 12K  .  Thanks for the tip!


With this simple code I see that PellesC SAPI.H is throwing some warnings, yes I could suppress with pragma, but documenting here for future improvement consideration.

Code: [Select]

Building speech.obj.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3207): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3208): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3216): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3217): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3225): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3226): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.

All of the 'offending' lines are of the form

Code: [Select]

    SPEVENTENUM eEventId : 16;
    SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE elParamType : 16;
John Z

[frankie]

With this simple code I see that PellesC SAPI.H is throwing some warnings, yes I could suppress with pragma, but documenting here for future improvement consideration.

Code: [Select]

Building speech.obj.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3207): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3208): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3216): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3217): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3225): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTENUM (aka enum SPEVENTENUM)' is not a standard bit-field type.
C:\Program Files\PellesC_V10\Include\Win\sapi.h(3226): warning #2197: [ISO] 'SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE (aka enum SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE)' is not a standard bit-field type.

All of the 'offending' lines are of the form

Code: [Select]

    SPEVENTENUM eEventId : 16;
    SPEVENTLPARAMTYPE elParamType : 16;
John Z

You have to use pragmas to suppress those warnings, or set warning level 1.
The warning refers to the ISO standard "§6.7.2.1 Structure and union specifiers" in constraints, point 5, where says:

A bit-field shall have a type that is a qualified or unqualified version of _Bool, signed int, unsigned int, or some other implementation-defined type.

Microsoft apply bit-fielfs to almost all types available while strict ISO compliance allows only the integer types above.
The warning, on pedantic level 2, informs you that the bit-field is an implementation extension and therefore your code could be not portable.

[Vortex]

ComView by Baron-von-Riedesel :

About

Win32 tool that allows to play with COM objects ( create objects of classes, call methods, set/get properties ). Can also create assembly include files from typelibs.

https://github.com/Baron-von-Riedesel/ComView