Win32 Custom Window Border

the code

When you make a program with it's own internal UI aesthetic, it feels pretty nice to make the border of the window adhere to the same aesthetic. But the border of the window is built in by the operating system. And in addition to a graphical border, it provides interactive features for positioning and sizing the window. If those interactive features break, it is often more upsetting to the user than the poor visual design.

In this project I wanted to figure out what it takes to get it right, and preserve that knowledge in a way that would lower the barrier to implementing this feature in future projects.

I wrote my solution as example code on the Win32 API. That means it is not a drop in library style solution, nor a template style solution. You are meant to read the example, step through it, and then use the principles to guide you in copying the\ structure into your own program.

This was one of my first big experiments in using example code to preserve the knowledge of a research project, and I came away very happy with the results. I think the disciple of writing high quality example code is worth exploring further.