Write a generic iSeries Access for Windows application

Generic applications are built by specifying different preprocessor definitions, and by using the generic version of the iSeries™ access for Windows^® APIs (the ones without the "A" or "W" suffixes). Following is a short list of guidelines for writing a generic application:

• Instead of including the usual <string.h> for manipulating strings, include <TCHAR.H>.
• Use generic data types for characters and strings. Use 'TCHAR' for 'char' in your source code.
• Use the _TEXT macro for literal characters and strings. For example, TCHAR A[]=_TEXT("A Generic String").
• Use generic string manipulation functions. For example, use _tcscpy instead of strcpy.
• Be especially careful when using the 'sizeof' operator - always remember that a Unicode character occupies two bytes. When determining the number of characters in a generic TCHAR array A, instead of the simple sizeof(A), use sizeof(A)/sizeof(TCHAR).
• Use proper preprocessor definitions for compilation. When compiling your source for Unicode in Visual C++, you should also use the preprocessor definitions UNICODE and _UNICODE. Instead of defining _UNICODE in the MAK file, you may want to define it at the beginning of your source code as:

  #ifdef UNICODE
    #define _UNICODE
  #endif

For a complete description of these guidelines, see the following resources:

1. Richter, J. Advanced Windows: The Developer's Guide to the Win32 API for Windows NT^® 3.5 and Windows 95, Microsoft^® Press, Redmond, WA, 1995.
2. Kano, Nadine Developing International Software for Windows 95 and Windows NT^®: a handbook for software design, Microsoft Press, Redmond, WA, 1995.
3. Microsoft Knowledge Base articles
4. MSDN Library