The Device Context
Before we begin drawing, let’s examine the device context with more rigor than we did in Chapter 4.
When you want to draw on a graphics output device such as the screen or printer, you must first obtain a handle to a device context (or DC). In giving your program this handle, Windows is giving you permission to use the device. You then include the handle as an argument to the GDI functions to identify to Windows the device on which you wish to draw.
The device context contains many “attributes” that determine how the GDI functions work on the device. These attributes allow GDI functions to have just a few arguments, such as starting coordinates. The GDI functions do not need arguments for everything else that Windows needs to ...
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