+// a template to make initializing Windows styructs less painful: it zeroes all
+// the struct fields and also sets cbSize member to the correct value (and so
+// can be only used with structures which have this member...)
+template <class T>
+struct WinStruct : public T
+{
+ WinStruct()
+ {
+ ::ZeroMemory(this, sizeof(T));
+
+ // explicit qualification is required here for this to be valid C++
+ this->cbSize = sizeof(T);
+ }
+};
+
+
+// Macros for converting wxString to the type expected by API functions.
+//
+// Normally it is enough to just use wxString::t_str() which is implicitly
+// convertible to LPCTSTR, but in some cases an explicit conversion is required.
+//
+// In such cases wxMSW_CONV_LPCTSTR() should be used. But if an API function
+// takes a non-const pointer, wxMSW_CONV_LPTSTR() which casts away the
+// constness (but doesn't make it possible to really modify the returned
+// pointer, of course) should be used. And if a string is passed as LPARAM, use
+// wxMSW_CONV_LPARAM() which does the required ugly reinterpret_cast<> too.
+#define wxMSW_CONV_LPCTSTR(s) static_cast<const wxChar *>((s).t_str())
+#define wxMSW_CONV_LPTSTR(s) const_cast<wxChar *>(wxMSW_CONV_LPCTSTR(s))
+#define wxMSW_CONV_LPARAM(s) reinterpret_cast<LPARAM>(wxMSW_CONV_LPCTSTR(s))
+
+