Is there anyway to create a GUI for a GUI?

Basically I have only an executable. I want to create a new GUI that only has a fraction of the functionality of the original. No source code and no dll's. Is this at all possible?

7/5/2007 10:49:54 AM

do you want to actually control the original GUI with the new gui? (possible)
Or replace entirely replace the frontend with a new GUI (doubtful)

7/5/2007 11:01:26 AM

I want to control the original GUI with the new GUI.

7/5/2007 11:16:43 AM

there's a fun thing called window hooks you should read up on

7/5/2007 12:19:37 PM

There are a couple options.

1. Using a resource editor you can EDIT / tweak appearance / layout of the original gui if it uses dialog resources (this is the norm for programs written in C)

2. Hook & Subclass the original GUI. This method will enable you to grossly alter the appearance and functionality of the GUI at your discretion (i.e. you can keep menus and toolbars that you would normally have to reproduce if you created your own GUI.)

3. Create a new application that calls the original application, but hides its GUI. Your front end interface can then send messages to the original GUI to get the application to perform its intended functions (easy) and retrieve the visual feedback from the original GUI (depending on what the application does, this can be incredibly complex -- if it's just an image drawn to the screen you can probably do a bit block transfer (bitblt) from the original GUIs device context to a window in your GUI).

#2 is probably the best option. It's far more flexible than you may think at first. I wrote a program years ago that skinned AIM (before the days of AIMutation), but I think I may have lost that app when I dropped my laptop last year. I've probably got some hooking examples on my external HD at school written in VB you can use as a starting point.

7/5/2007 6:13:42 PM

- Use cocoa and objective c where the GUI is a resource file, not compiled code.
- Some sort of HTML front end

7/5/2007 8:50:12 PM