System Functions
PowerBASIC supports a variety of functions which generally get/set information from Windows (clipboard, desktop, memory, etc.) or from the application itself. These can be broken into the following categories.

CLIPBOARD	Get Text, Set Text, Get Item, Set Item, Reset
Environment	environ, environ$
Execute Other Programs	shell
Application Information	command$, EXE
DESKTOP	Get Client, Get Loc, Get Size
WINDOW	Get ID, Get Parent
Memory Access	peek, peek$, poke, poke$
GLOBALMEM	alloc, free, lock, size, unlock

System Call Function Summary
Here's a one-line description of each of the functions.

• CLIPBOARD - get/set clipboard content (text and images)
• command$ - get program command-line arguments
• DESKTOP - get desktop size, client size, client top/left coordinates
• environ/environ$ - set/return environment values
• EXE - get application name/path
• GLOBALMEM - Allocate or release global memory
• peek/peek$ - get byte(s) at memory location
• poke/poke$ - store byte(s) at memory location
• shell - run external program w/option to wait until program completes
• WINDOW - get parent/id of any window in application

System Call Function Reference
Here's a quick reference of the available functions, in alphabetical order.

• CLIPBOARD
  

      CLIPBOARD Set Text "mystring" TO iSuccess&
      CLIPBOARD Get Text TO RetreivedText$
  
      CLIPBOARD Set Item cbFormat, hItem TO iSuccess&
      CLIPBOARD Get Item cbFormat TO hReturn&
  
      CLIPBOARD RESET TO iSuccess      ' delete clipboard content
  
      iSuccess&:  0=false, -1=success
  
      hItem is handle of item sent to clipboard
      hReturn is handle of item received from clipboard
      
      cbFormats (clipboard formats):
      %CF_BITMAP - bitmap handle (HBITMAP)
      %CF_DIB - memory object (BITMAPINFO structure and bitmap bits)
      %CF_DIF - Software Arts' Data Interchange Format
      %CF_ENHMETAFILE - enhanced metafile handle (HENHMETAFILE)
      %CF_HDROP - HDROP handle (list of files)
      %CF_LOCALE - locale identifier handle
      %CF_METAFILEPICT - metafile picture handle (METAFILEPICT)
      %CF_OEMTEXT - OEM text characters (CRLF EOL, Null EOF)
      %CF_PALETTE - color palette handle
      %CF_PENDATA - MS Pen Computing data
      %CF_RIFF - RIFF audio data
      %CF_SYLK - MS Symbolic Link (SYLK) format
      %CF_TEXT - Text (CRLF EOL, Null EOF)
      %CF_TIFF - TIF file
      %CF_UNICODETEXT - Unicode text (CRLF EOL, Null EOF)
      %CF_WAVE - WAV audio data
       

  Clipboard holds only one type of data at a time. If you Set the clipboard, previous data is lost.

  With Get Item, hReturn& is the handle to the item retrieved.

• command$
  

      result$ = command$       ' entire command-line
      result$ = command$(n%)   ' nth command-line argument, 0=all
      

  Assumes arguments are space delimited. If n% is too large, "" is returned.

  The IDE allows specification of a command-line string for testing purposes.

• DESKTOP GET Client/Size/Loc
  

      DESKTOP Get Client TO Width&, Height&    'client height width
      DESKTOP Get Size TO Width&, Height&      'entire desktop size
      DESKTOP Get Loc TO x&, y&                'top/left corner
      

  Client area does not include taskbar. Client top/left is normally 0,0 but if taskbar is moved to top or left side of screen, then the client top/left changes accordingly.

• environ
  

      ENVIRON "name=value"    'use string name/value pairs to set values
      ENVIRON "name="         'name only (no value) removes from table
  
      ENVIRON "temp=c:\temp"  'set "temp" environ value
      ENVIRON "path=c:\"      'don't try this! just an example.
      

• environ$
  

      result$ = environ$("path")   'get path value from environment
      result$ = environ$("temp")   'get "temp" value from environment
      result$ = environ$(12)       'get 12th environment table entry
      

  When an app starts, it is given a copy of the system environment table. PowerBASIC functions work with the copy. When the program ends, the system environment table is unchanged.

• EXE
  

      Assume this is run:   "c:\data\fixit.exe"
  
      result$ = EXE.extn$    ' ".exe"
      result$ = EXE.full$    ' "c:\data\fixit.exe"
      result$ = EXE.name$    ' "fixit"
      result$ = EXE.namex$   ' "fixit.exe"
      result$ = EXE.path$    ' "c:\data\"
      

  If this code is in a DLL, the information returned is that of the EXE which loaded the DLL.

• GLOBALMEM alloc/free/lock/size
  

      GLOBALMEN alloc   count   TO vHandle
      GLOBALMEN free    mHandle TO vHandle
      GLOBALMEN lock    mHandle TO vPointer
      GLOBALMEN size    mHandle TO vSize
      GLOBALMEN unlock  mHandle TO vLocked
      

• peek/peek$
  

      Dim address As DWord      ' 32 bit address (4 bytes)
  
      ---Number Syntax:
      NumVar = PEEK, address         'assign 1 byte to numeric variable
      NumVar = PEEK BYTE, address    'read/convert # bytes corresponding
                                     'to specified data type 
                                     'can use byte, word, dword, 
                                     'integer, long, quad,
                                     'single, double, ext, cur, cux
      n% = PEEK Integer, address
      n! = PEEK Single, address
  
        
      ---String Syntax:
      StringVariable = PEEK ASCIIZ, address, ByteCount  
  
      s$ = PEEK$ address, 5        'get 5 characters, put into s$
      Dim s as ASCIIZ
      s = PEEK$ ASCIIZ address, 5  'get 5 characters, insert &Nul at end
  
      

  Use peek to get a single byte, and peek$ to return a sequence of bytes.

• poke/poke$
  

      Dim address As DWord      ' 32 bit address (4 bytes)
  
      ---Number Syntax:
      poke address, i%          ' put value of i% at 1-byte address
      poke BYTE, address, i%    ' put # bytes corresponding to specified
                                ' data type, starting at address
                                ' can use byte, word, dword,
                                ' integer, long, quad, single,
                                ' double, ext, cur, cux
  
      ---String Syntax:
      poke$ String, address, "hello"   ' fixed-length or dynamic string
      poke$ ASCIIZ, address, "hello"   ' ASCIIZ string
      poke$ Field, address,  "hello"   ' Field string
  
      

  Use poke for numeric data, and poke$ for string data. These are generally used for speed-critical sections of a program, or to access memory (such as video memory) that otherwise would not be accessible using standard PowerBASIC functions.

  Poke$ will write all characters found in the string being written. The application must control the location and length of written data to ensure that the written data does not write into areas which can corrupt other data or create a GPF.

• shell
  

      pID& = SHELL("notepad.exe",1)    'run notepad and keep going
      pID& = SHELL("cmd /c dir*.*")    'open DOS, run "dir *.*", end
      pID& = SHELL("cmd /k dir*.*")    'open DOS, run "dir *.*", not end
  
      pID& is the child process ID.
  
      Window Styles:
          0 - hide window
          1 - normal w/focus (default)
          2 - minimized w/focus
          3 - maximized w/focus
          4 - normal w/o focus
          5 - minimized w/o focus
      

  Runs another app without waiting for it to stop. ERR contains information on success/failure.

  Option available for child process to inherit file handles of current process. See PowerBASIC Help for more information.

  For more info on using the DOS CMD command, open a DOS window and enter "cmd /?". This gives a listing of all cmd options.

  Paths searched for program to execute: program directory, default directory, \windows\system32, \windows\system16, \windows, and PATH.

• WINDOW GET ID
  

      WINDOW Get ID hWin TO ID&               ' hWin - handle of window
      WINDOW Get Parent hWin TO hParent&
      

  Works on control or dialog. ID& = control ID (or 0 if hWin is a dialog).

If you have any suggestions or corrections, please let me know.