API Source

[Renfield]

I really doubt it... but you are welcome. With unclear questions you get unclear answers.

Now let me tell you that I could also answer YES to the above question if I really wanted to  :green2 (and I would not be wrong)

My question wasn't unclear.  It was general.  That's because I generally want to know, and you answered me generally in kind.

I am the sort of person who is bothered by the fact that they do not know everything.  I'm irked by the fact that I must use a compiler, when I don't know what that is explicitly.  I'm irked by the fact that I must resort to a set of functions given to me.  They aren't practical concerns.  I can program what I want without knowing everything.  I simply want the satisfaction of building something from scratch, as you discussed above.  I always associated Assembler with absolute scratch, which is why I perhaps misguidedly posted my question on these forums.

You took up the task to school me on the fact that API is used, not because they are "quicker" than writing one's own functions, but because they are meant to adapt these simple tasks to however many varieties of hardware, a knowledge that really doesn't have much effect on the development of software.  That will settle my obsessiveness for now. 

[Mark Jones]

Well, one COULD write their own code to draw a window, outside of the windows API. Unfortunately, this is going to require at minimum a boot block, hardware-level video driver, and some form of memory/code management. Many people have done exactly this -- it is called "building your own operating system." :wink

Using assembler with the Windows API, while not "building from scratch" in the holistic sense, is much more practical than re-writing the OS. I have much respect for those who venture out with their own operating system however, because the task is so difficult. In any case, assembler provides oodles more control over the code than any compiler can.

Perhaps consider DOS 16-bit programming. If you really want to get your fingers in the nitty-gritty hardware bits and bytes, I'd suggest having a play with that.