[python-win32] better way to get current process's name

[Mark Mc Mahon]

Hi,

On 2/22/07, Tim Golden <mail at timgolden.me.uk> wrote:
> Kelie wrote:
> > for every 0.1 second, check the active application or current
> > application, or active window? (I don't know what is the correct
> > term.) if it is AutoCAD (meaning user is using AutoCAD), turn on the
> > CapsLock, if it is Microsoft Word (meaning user is using Word), turn
> > off the CapsLock.
>
> Well your best bet is to look at WATSUP:
>
>    http://www.tizmoi.net/watsup/intro.html
>
> or at pywinauto:
>
>    http://sourceforge.net/projects/pywinauto
>

I don't know about pywin, but some things to look at:
 GetForegroundWindow() will return the window that is currently active

It might be easier to just ask what the class name of the parent of
that window is, in that case you could just pass the HWND to
GetClassName()

AutoCAD has a specific class name (may depend on your AutoCAD version)
- Afx:00400000:8:00010011:00000000:00010199 (this is the main windows
- so you probably need to call GetParent()) - on the other hand you
may only want to set caps lock when the command line window is enabled
(class = Afx:00400000:8:00010013:00000000:00000000)

so pseudo code would be something like

# get active window
hwnd = GetForegroundWindow()
# get the class of this window
classname =  GetClassName(hwnd)
# check if it is our class...
if classname == "Afx:...." or  GetClassName(GetParent(hwnd)) == "Afx:...":
   Set caps loc

Or something like that - I have been using ctypes to do all that
windows api stuff - so I am not sure if all the methods are wrapped by
pywin32.


> but I'm not convinced that what you're trying to do is
> A Good Thing ;)
>
> > Oh, the reason I check the active application for every 0.1 second is
> > I don't know how to do it otherway.  Is there an event that
> > corresponds to the active application/window change?
>
> It's a long while since I did lowish-level Windows stuff in earnest.
> I suspect you'd have to install a system message hook and look for
> WM_ACTIVATE messages or something similar. Perhaps someone more
> knowledgeable here can chip in...?
>

PyHook might be an interesting thing to look at - it allows you to
hook keyboard and mouse events at least.

Mark (author of pywinauto)


> TJG
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