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Please remember this is without the aid of any docs etc. Plus I know its not quite how the original was set but... And yes it is slow cos of the IMUL, and could be done with a couple of movs shls, and an or! But I'm lazy :D .data iconic db 'This window is not iconic',0,'This window is iconic',0 ... invoke IsIconic,hWnd ; write code here which display appropriate string upon the ; func. return in MsgBox . Code MUST NOT consist any jmps or jcc ;Assume IsIconic returns 1 for Iconic, else 0, in eax imul eax, 26 ;get offset into "iconic" add eax, ADDR iconic invoke MessageBox, ** What ever goes here no docs sorry! ** ;Note I reversed order of the strings, plus concatenated them! Mirno

Svin, Here is MY answer to your little quiz.

IsIconic    PROC    hWnd:DWORD
    LOCAL wp:WINDOWPLACEMENT

.data 
iconic      db 'This window is iconic', 0
noticonic   db 'This window is not iconic', 0

.code
    invoke GetWindowPlacement, hWnd, ADDR wp
    mov eax, wp.showCmd 
    and eax, SW_SHOWMINNOACTIVE
    .IF eax
        ; we have an iconic window
        invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR iconic, NULL, 0
    .ELSE
        invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR noticonic, NULL, 0
    .ENDIF
    ret
IsIconic    ENDP

Knowing your minimalist style, I can already see you squirming at my answer. Not a thing you say will dissuade me from this. ;-) My main goal in programming is CLEAR, concise code. Going to unclear things to reduce a few instructions is not a good thing, as it makes bugs too hard to see (as if they were eazy to spot anyway). First off, I'd define the strings right inside the proc and let the linker move em. This way anyone can tell what's going on. (However, being a neatness freak, they just might wind up back in a global .data area after final debug.) Using the built in .IF/ELSE/.ENDIF macros doesn't add much of a performance hit at all. In fact, it's just a single extra 2 bytes for the 'or eax, eax' the top .IF adds to insure a proper comparison. Had I just tested the flag (.IF !ZERO?) I could have droped this extra instruction, but that's slightly obtuse to my eyes. I don't begrudge myself an extra text here and there. One 'fancy-f*ck' I probably would add into one of my own apps would be:

    .IF eax
        ; we have an iconic window
        IFDEF sxAppName
            invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR iconic, ADDR sxAppName, 0    
        ELSE
            invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR iconic, NULL, 0
        ENDIF
    .ELSE
        IFDEF sxAppName
            invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR noticonic, ADDR sxAppName, 0    
        ELSE
            invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR noticonic, NULL, 0
        ENDIF
        invoke MessageBox, hWnd, ADDR noticonic, NULL, 0
    .ENDIF

IE, I'd use conditional compilation to add the application name (*IF* defined) into the messagebox. Finally, on a personal note, I am quite impressed with your posting here, I always make a point to read from them and learn. I post my stuff at: here.is/ComInAsm Ernie This message was edited by Ernie, on 2/1/2001 12:56:18 PM

Hi, Mirno! Thank you, my friend, for your reply. Hi level idea is right - we can use value of eax to culculate right address of string to load (in some other cases it might be right address of handling proc) without any checking - jumping code. Art of strait procs use to be well known in the Old times of asm. Now almost complitly replaced with conditional logic algos. So you idea is to align 1st string to some number so that is eax !=0 you can shift value of address by this number. Well, it is a way (not the only way though) Align by power of two is probably the best choice. Let see if there is some other way to do the jub. (And may be you'll find better way - sure you can - just give it a try) .data iconic db 'This window is iconic',0 noticonic db 'This window is not iconic',0 noti dd offset noticonic yesi dd offset iconic .code .. invoke IsIconic,hWnd mov eax, invoke MessageBox,0,eax,0,0 ... I hope to see your solutions for other tasks too. Vale The Svin.

Hi Sorry for my first abussive post ...i just vant understand why such small gems here.. Eh anyway I vote for this iconic_base db "String no.1" align 32 iconic_msg1 db "String no.2",0 .... .code shl,eax,5 add eax,offset iconic_base invoke MessageBox,.......eax ... I use this a lot in my rts game to access pre aligned matrixes in AI and paint routines that must be extra fast (mostly to get/set data) But why use such criptic code in a simple MessageBox....no speed constrains on that...are they? I say that Ernie is right...whenever you are not obligated use the slow but clear version...with .IF .ELESE .ENDIF or jumps whatever so you will know whats up after 6 months also use shl eax,5 ONLY is speed is of the essence :)

Hi, Errnie! I'm glad you've come to the discussion! TFloadS macro will load in eax apropriate addr of one of two strings depending upon unknown value of BOOLEAN used as first agrument in the macro. Whole code doesn't use any jumps so executing it will not cause any pipe flash. The execution will take 1 or 2 clocks depening on if the "value" is representing by eax (which is common case upon Win32 API func. return). If you use it in some continious loop it makes it much faster. Now, I'm asking you for favour: Modify the macro so that if "value" is represented by any of eax edx ecx ebx edi esi registers the macro would load the address of appropriate string into this register, otherwise it would load it in eax for example TFloadS edi,truestr,falsestr will load the address in edi while: .data? TFvalue dd ? .code ... TFloadS TFvalue,truestr,falsestr will load it into eax .386 .model flat,stdcall option casemap:none include C:\masm32\include\windows.inc include C:\masm32\include\user32.inc include C:\masm32\include\kernel32.inc includelib C:\masm32\lib\user32.lib includelib C:\masm32\lib\kernel32.lib TFloadS macro value,falses,trues LOCAL TTbl .data ALIGN 4 TTbl dd offset falses dd offset trues .code IFDIF , mov eax,value ENDIF mov eax, endm .data fstr db 'It is FALSE string',0 tstr db 'It is TRUE string',0 .code start: mov eax,TRUE TFloadS eax,fstr,tstr invoke MessageBox,0,eax,0,0 xor eax,TRUE TFloadS eax,fstr,tstr invoke MessageBox,0,eax,0,0 mov ecx,FALSE TFloadS ecx,fstr,tstr invoke MessageBox,0,eax,0,0 call ExitProcess end start

ummm, sorry, huge bug i missed, the above !does not! work, i will patch it up, and repost, but right now, im gonna bed

invoke IsIconic,hWnd ;shl eax, 2 - You don't need it! ;invoke MessageBox, NULL, yesno, NULL, NULL invoke MessageBox,0,yesno,0,0 push yesno - 2 clocks push yeasno - 2 clocks too Don't be afraid to use coplex indexing mode - it's one of major advantages of + 386! The Svin.