How do I completely change the appearance of a Win32 title bar from Perl?

Question

I'm learning to add GUI to my Perl program using Win32::GUI. Now I can change the icon of a Win32 title bar using something like:

$myicon = new Win32::GUI::Icon('myicon.ico');
$myclass=new Win32::GUI::Class(
-name=>'myclass',                     
-icon=>$myicon,  
    );  
$mydialogbox = new Win32::GUI::DialogBox(
  -name         => 'mydialogbox',
  -class        => $myclass,
  );

But what about the other stuff, say, the background color, the look and feel of the minimize button?

I googled the subject and found several possibly relevant articles. They talk about stuff like non client area paiting etc etc. but the code snippets seem to be all written in C, with which I don't have a good familiarity.

I was wondering if someone here could kindly share some code snippets written in Perl that deals with the similar situation? Or, is there, hopefully, a Perl module that can facilitate the task?

Thanks for any guidance :)

****UPDATE1****

Can I first make the title bar disappear and then add a label where the original title bar was and then add some other buttons to minimize and close the object?

Now the problem is: how can I move the Window object when my mouse is on the label?

****UPDATE2****

I've found some VB code snippets that are supposed to do the job I want to accomplish in Perl. Can someone kindly help me rewrite them in Win32::GUI? The following VB code is from here:

    Option Explicit

' API functions
Private Declare Function ReleaseCapture Lib "user32" () As Long
Private Declare Function SendMessage Lib "user32" Alias "SendMessageA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal wMsg As Long, ByVal wParam As Long, lParam As Any) As Long
Private Declare Function SetWindowText Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowTextA" (ByVal hwnd As Long, ByVal lpString As String) As Long

' Constants for above API calls
Private Const HTCAPTION = 2
Private Const WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN = &HA1

Private Sub Form_Load()
  Dim retVal As Long

  retVal = SetWindowText(Me.hwnd, Label1)
End Sub

Private Sub Label1_MouseDown(Button As Integer, Shift As Integer, X As Single, Y As Single)
  ReleaseCapture
  SendMessage hwnd, WM_NCLBUTTONDOWN, HTCAPTION, 0&
End Sub

You should be aiming for a look-and-feel consistent with Windows anyway. — Anon.
so a guy asks how a title bar can be modified and your answer is that it shouldn't be modified to start with? give him a break... lol — user451688

Duncan Bayne Duncan Bayne · Accepted Answer · 2010-01-25T06:04:54

Window decorations are drawn by the operating system in accordance with the user's preferences. They are (ideally) standardised across all applications, and make it quick and easy to learn new applications.

Moreover, some users adjust the appearance of window decorations to compensate for problems including poor eyesight or old devices.

There is an excellent and remarkably critical writeup of QuickTime 4.0 on the UI Hall of Shame that goes into some detail, explaining why overriding the default operating system look and feel is bad, and what sort of problems it can cause.

The decision to eschew the existing interface controls provided by the operating system creates a variety of problems. The decision not to provide a title bar, for example, resulted in the loss of the standard window management controls. Windows users will find the the player offers no visual indication as to how to move, minimize, or maximize the player window ...

How do I completely change the appearance of a Win32 title bar from Perl?

1 Answers