windigo

Windigo

Win32 API and GUI in idiomatic Go.

Handwritten since 2019.

Windigo is designed to be familiar to C/C++ Win32 programmers, using the same concepts, and an API as close as possible to the original Win32 API. This allows most C/C++ Win32 tutorials and examples to be translated to Go.

Notably, Windigo is written 100% in pure Go – CGo is not used, just native syscalls.

Windigo is based in Go 1.20, so it can be built in Windows 7 and above.

Install

go get -u github.com/rodrigocfd/windigo

Current status

Native FFI items currently implemented:

Examples

In the examples below, error checking is ommited for brevity.

GUI window

GUI window

The example below creates a window programmatically, and handles the button click. Also, it uses the minimal.syso provided in the _resources folder.

…

To compile the final .exe file, run the command:

go build -trimpath -ldflags "-s -w -H=windowsgui"

Registry access

Registry access

…

Enumerating running processes

Enumerating running processes

The example below takes a process snapshot to list the running processes:

package main

import (
	"github.com/rodrigocfd/windigo/co"
	"github.com/rodrigocfd/windigo/win"
)

func main() {
	hSnap, _ := win.CreateToolhelp32Snapshot(co.TH32CS_SNAPPROCESS, 0)
	defer hSnap.CloseHandle()

	processes, _ := hSnap.EnumProcesses()
	for _, nfo := range processes {
		println("PID:", nfo.Th32ProcessID, "name:", nfo.SzExeFile())
	}

	println(len(processes), "found")
}

Taking a screenshot

Taking a screenshot

This complex example takes a screenshot using GDI and saves it to a BMP file.

…

Component Object Model (COM)

Component Object Model (COM)

Windigo has full support for C++ COM objects. The cleanup is performed by a win.OleReleaser object, which calls Release on multiple COM objects at once, much like an arena allocator. Every function which produces a COM object requires a win.OleReleaser to take care of its lifetime.

The example below uses COM objects to display the system native Open File window:

…

COM Automation

COM Automation

Windigo has bindings to IDispatch COM interface and VARIANT parameters, allowing you to invoke Automation methods.

The example below manipulates an Excel spreadsheet, saving a copy of it:

…

Architecture

The library is divided in several packages. Core packages are located at at the root of the library, extended packages under x/ subdirectory.

Core packages dependency:

flowchart BT
    internal/utl([internal/utl]) --> co
    ui --> win
    win --> internal/dll([internal/dll])
    win --> internal/utl
    win --> wstr

License

Licensed under MIT license, see LICENSE.md for details.