TPWSpy ====== A Turbo Pascal for Windows translation of the famous Spy on Windows program by Michael Geary. TPW translation by Craig Boyd, July 1991. What is Spy? ============ Spy was written by Michael Geary and described in his article in the 1987 All-IBM issue of Byte magazine. It "spies" on all the windows that are currently open in your Windows session, and displays a window containing all the information it can find out about those windows. For more about the original Spy (and a lot about Windows programming), see the Byte article. If you don't have a copy of the magazine, check your local library. It's good reading. You may be able to find the original Spy source code on BIX. It used to be on BYTEnet, Byte's other BBS, but apparently BYTEnet has gone the way of the dodo bird. If you don't subscribe to BIX, you can download SPY.ZIP from the Grapevine BBS, in Little Rock, Arkansas. The Grapevine has three nodes: (501) 753-8121, (501) 753-6859, and (501) 753-4428. Or, if enough people demand it, I'll upload it myself to the Borland Programming Forum A on CompuServe (BPROGA). Drop me a line (72676,3536) if you're interested. The original version of Spy (the one used for this translation) was released to the public domain. An updated version is currently shipped with the Windows Software Development Kit. I have no idea what new features (if any) have been added to the SDK version. Maybe somebody who has the SDK will let me know, so I can modify this version... What is TPWSpy? =============== TPWSpy is a straight translation of the original SPY.C source code. My version is functionally identical to the original version. It's written the "old-fashioned" way, and does not make use of the Object Windows Library. (An OWL version is coming Real Soon Now.) TPWSpy works in real and standard modes, but has not been tested in enhanced mode. I have made one addition: a Font menu, which lets you choose the font used for the window display. You can choose the OEM fixed pitch font, the System fixed pitch font (default), or the System variable pitch font. The System fixed pitch font is the same as the system font used in Windows 2.x. Files in this archive ===================== TPWSPY.EXE Ready to run version of TPWSpy TPWSPY.H Header for resource script file TPWSPY.ICO TPWSpy Icon (16 color and monochrome images) TPWSPY.PAS Turbo Pascal for Windows source code TPWSPY.RC Resource script source file TPWSPY.RES Compiled resource script TPWSPY.TXT This file Compiling TPWSpy ================ Copy TPWSPY.PAS and TPWSPY.RES to your TPW source code directory, then compile with TPCW.EXE or TPW.EXE. If you make changes to the icon or resource script files, you'll have to recompile TPWSPY.RES with the resource compiler before compiling TPWSPY.PAS. Using the command line compiler (TPCW.EXE) ------------------------------------------ Type "TPCW TPWSPY" at the DOS command line and press Enter. TPWSPY.PAS and TPWSPY.RES must be in the same directory. Using the IDE (TPW.EXE) ----------------------- Load Windows and launch TPW. Press Alt+F, then O. When prompted for the filename, type "TPWSPY" and press Enter. After the source code is loaded, Press Alt+C, then C. To run the program from the IDE, press Alt+R, then R. Running TPWSpy ============== TPWSpy works like any other Windows application. Use the Program Manager to add TPWSpy to a program group, or run it directly from the Program Manager's File/Run menu or from the File Manager. When TPWSpy is launched, it will open a window and display a list of all windows currently open in your Windows session. You may find windows you didn't even know you had! TPWSpy initially displays the window information in a one-line format. Pull down the Spy menu, and select Show Detail. This will display the window information in an expanded format. Select Show Detail again to return to the one-line format. Select New Spy Mission to send Spy on another search for all open windows. Move some windows around, resize them, close and open some new programs, then select New Spy Mission again. Notice how the TPWSpy window list changes. If nothing else, you'll have fun eavesdropping on all your Windows applications, but I bet you'll learn something too! Have fun!