The Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows 9598ME Systems

1
The Microsoft Layer for Unicode on Windows
95/98/ME Systems

• Michael Kaplan
• Cathy Wissink

Globalization Infrastructure Design and
Development Windows International Microsoft
2
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

3
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

4
Unicode and Windows

• The WinNT Platform
• Windows NT3.1/NT3.51/NT4/2000/XP/.NET
• The Win9x Platform
• Windows 95/98/ME

5
The old workarounds

• Build two versions of the application
• Multiple code bases or build types to maintain
• Larger downloads/setups
• Harder to isolate problems in code
• Always do ANSI applications
• No multilingual support
• Poorer performance on NT platforms
• No support for Unicode only languages
• Use the 4/99 MSJ article from Microsoft
• http//www.microsoft.com/msj/0499/multilangUnicode
  /multilangunicode.htm
• A lot of work required!

6
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Integration of the layer
• Covered APIs and functionality
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

7
Introducing MSLU

• The MICROSOFT Layer for Unicode on Windows
  95/98/Me Systems
• file name UnicoWS.dll
• Allows you to write a single Unicode application
  for all platforms

8
Design goals

• Allow developers to take advantage of the new
  languages on Windows 2000 and Windows XP without
  abandoning older platforms
• Cannot slow down Unicode applications on
  WinNT/Win2K/WinXP
• When possible, provide a consistent, identical
  Unicode subset of the Win32 API across all
  platforms

9
Other design goals

• As small as possible
• Dll is lt220kb
• Has over 440 API wrappers
• Has more than 50 "stub" wrappers
• Frugal with resources
• No registration required
• No dependencies
• No special file location requirement
• No inherent "DLL hell" issues
• Cannot be put in the system directory!

10
What the layer is not

• Not intended to make Win9x multilingual
• Not a rewrite of the Win9x platform
• No NT-specific functionality added
• No "Unicode-only" language support
• No supplementary character support
• No new international support
• No new functionality added, at all
• Not an "NT emulator" for Win9x!
• Not a layer over components (MLang, RichEdit,
  Uniscribe, CLR)

11
Performance

• No slowdown at all on WinNT/2K/XP
• No extra DLL load
• Native APIs called directly
• Minimal slowdown on Win95/98/ME
• Need time to convert strings to ANSI
• For functions with out params, need to convert
  strings to Unicode
• About the same as ANSI apps on NT

12
MSLU's custom loader

• No Virginia, you cannot do a true static link
• Your application statically links to the loader
• The loader works in a similar way to the
  /DELAYLOAD functionality in VC
• Supports the ability to override any API but get
  all the benefits of the loader!
• No fear of failure
• DLL not present
• Low memory scenarios

13
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

14
Covered APIs and functionality - 1

• Wraps almost every "W" Win32 API
• The few that are not wrapped are ones that
  already support Unicode, such as the IME APIs
• Stubs you can override are present for APIs not
  explicitly supported
• Wraps several non "W" APIs when needed for
  Unicode support
• Unicode support (e.g., IsWindowUnicode)
• Consistent user messaging (e.g., CallWindowProcA)
• Common, known issues (e.g., ExtTextOutW)
• Includes full user messaging support

15
Covered APIs and functionality - 2

• Works properly with the Unicode versions of MFC,
  ATL, and the CRT in both VS 6.0 and VS 7.0
• Interoperability with other MSLU clients
• in process
• out of process
• Interoperability with non-Unicode applications
• Thread safety was a priority

16
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

17
Integration of the layer

• Settings
• /nodkernel32.lib /nod. unicows.lib
  kernel32.lib .
• where . is all of these libs that you (or your
  component libs) use
• user32.lib gdi32.lib shell32.lib
• comdlg32.lib version.lib mpr.lib
• rasapi32.lib winmm.lib winspool.lib
• vfw32.lib secur32.lib oleacc.lib
• oledlg.lib sensapi.lib advapi32.lib

18
How the DLL is loaded

• Setting an override
• Add a function that you use to load the DLL
• "Set the hook" by adding this line
• extern "C" HMODULE (__stdcall _PfnLoadUnicows)
  (void) LoadUnicows
• Good place to handle failure
• Default behavior LoadLibrary!
• Fallback to the shared location if you must (not
  preferred at all)
• When all else fails, APIs fail gracefully

19
Overriding individual APIs

• Add your function (using the same signature as
  the Win32 header files define)
• "Set the hook" with this line of code
• extern "C" FARPROC Unicows_ltapigtW
  (FARPROC)ltyour functiongt
• Overriding "stubbed out" APIs
• The PSDK has notes for every API, including any
  special issues, when needed

20
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

21
What about Visual Studio.Net?

• VS.NET includes the Platform SDK unicows.lib is
  there!
• CLR languages like VB.NET and C have their own
  delayload solution
• PInvoke does not support calling different
  libraries on different platforms

22
C.NET syntax

• using System
• using System.Text
• using System.Runtime.InteropServices
• public class SystemAPI
• DllImport("kernel32")
• private static extern uint GetVersion()
• DllImport("kernel32", EntryPoint"GetSystemDi
  rectoryW", CharSetCharSet.Unicode)
• private static extern uint OsGetSystemDirector
  yW(StringBuilder lpBuf, uint uSize)
• DllImport("unicows.dll", EntryPoint"GetSyste
  mDirectoryW", CharSetCharSet.Unicode)
• private static extern uint MsluGetSystemDirect
  oryW(StringBuilder lpBuf, uint uSize)
• public static uint GetSystemDirectory(StringBu
  ilder lpBuf, uint uSize)
• if(GetVersion() lt 0x80000000)
• return(OsGetSystemDirectoryW(lpBuf,
  uSize))
• else

23
VB.NET syntax

• Imports System
• Imports System.Text
• Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
• Public Class SystemAPI
• Declare Function GetVersion Lib "kernel32" ()
  As Integer
• Declare Unicode Function OsGetSystemDirectoryW
  _
• Lib "kernel32" Alias "GetSystemDirectoryW" _
• (ByVal lpBuf As StringBuilder, ByVal uSize
  As Integer) As Integer
• Declare Unicode Function MsluGetSystemDirector
  yW _
• Lib "unicows.dll" Alias "GetSystemDirectoryW"
  _
• (ByVal lpBuf As StringBuilder, ByVal uSize
  As Integer) As Integer
• Public Function GetSystemDirectory _
• (ByVal lpBuf As StringBuilder, ByVal uSize
  As Integer) As Integer
• If (GetVersion() gt H80000000) Then
• GetSystemDirectory
  OsGetSystemDirectoryW(lpBuf, uSize)
• Else

24
Agenda

• Once upon a time...
• Introducing the MS Layer for Unicode
• Covered APIs and functionality
• Integration of the layer
• What about Visual Studio.Net?
• Where to get MSLU

25
Where to get MSLU

• the .LIB ships in the Platform SDK!
• http//www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sd
  kupdate/
• The DLL is a redistributable component
• http//www.microsoft.com/msdownload/platformsdk/sd
  kupdate/psdkredist.htm

26
Resources

• Announcement
• http//www.microsoft.com/globaldev/Articles/mslu_a
  nnounce.asp
• Article!
• October 2001 MSDN Magazine (Wissink/Kaplan)
  http//msdn.microsoft.com/msdnmag/issues/01/10/
• Newsgroups
• microsoft.public.platformsdk.mslayerforunicode
• microsoft.public.win32.programmer.international

27
Closing thoughts.

• What does MSLU mean to Microsoft?
• Why did it take so long to release MSLU?

28
Questions?