Considering Development Systems

The LEADTOOLS DLLs are designed as standard Windows Dynamic Link Libraries. You should be able to use the LEADTOOLS API with any program that supports Windows DLL calls. This topic explains some of the options.

Calling API functions from a C program:

Most of the LEADTOOLS example programs and all of the documented code examples are for Windows programs written in C. You can implement the API as explained in Using LEADTOOLS with Your C/C++ Compiler.

Message-based programming using the registered class:

LEADTOOLS provides limited easy-to-use features in the predefined L_BITMAPCLASS registered class. This registered class lets you do common programming tasks simply by passing messages.

The registered class can be used to create an overlapped, pop-up, or child window by calling CreateWindow and specifying L_BITMAPCLASS as the window class. Windows created from L_BITMAPCLASS will automatically handle painting an image that was loaded. To dynamically load the DLL that supports the registered class, you must call the L_UseBitmapClass function.

For a summary of the capabilities, refer to Window Messages and Styles. A simple programming example is in the L_UseBitmapClass function description. A more complete example is in the REGCLASS subdirectory.

Using C++ and the Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC):

LEADTOOLS provides a C++ wrapper that lets you use the API with the Microsoft Foundation Class. The wrapper is not documented, but an example is provided in the MFCDEMO subdirectory.

Calling API functions from Delphi:

You can call LEADTOOLS API functions from a Borland Delphi program. An example is provided in the DELPHI subdirectory.

Using API functions with the LEADTOOLS ActiveX:

You can use the LEADTOOLS API functions to work with images in the ActiveX controls. To access the image in a control, you can use the L_GetControlBitmap and L_SetControlBitmap functions, which are documented in the LEADTOOLS ActiveX help file.