OWLNext has come a long way since its beginnings in the late 1990s. What started as a community effort to keep Borland's Object Windows Library alive has evolved into a long-running open-source project, with support for modern C++, 64-bit Windows, and contemporary development tools.
But just how much work has gone into maintaining and evolving OWLNext over the years?
Let's take a look at the release history.
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In Owlet, I now have the new message OWL_WM_PRINTERNOTIFICATION [feature-requests:#285], implemented by wrapping Print Spooler API functionality. Usage is as simple as creating a TPrinterNotificationServer in the constructor of your application subclass and overriding GetPrinterNotificationServer to return it. Then handle the message in your main window. That's it.... read more
This is so cool! In Owlet, my experimental branch of OWLNext, I have now ripped out the entire gadget subsystem — TGadget, TGadgetWindow and all their subclasses are now gone! All of this complicated legacy code has been completely removed, leaving a smaller and simpler code base.... read more
In Owlet — my experimental branch of OWLNext — I have now completed my work on fixing some long-standing issues in OWL's reference-counting and orphan control for GDI objects (see [bugs:#495] and [bugs:#494], respectively). My solution replaces these features with shared-pointer semantics, implemented by private inheritance from std::shared_ptr (see [feature-requests:#178] and [feature-requests:#210]). This solution also makes the API more consistent (see [bugs:#493]), as well as more robust, exception-safe and performant (see [discussion:00f93e1a3a] and wiki article "Selecting and restoring objects in TDC"). If any of you decide to take OWLNext 8 forwards towards release, I suggest having a look at these changes and consider them for incorporation into the trunk.... read more
International Owl Awareness Day, every August 4, raises awareness about the importance of owls in various ecosystems and educates people about their habitats, and the challenges they face (TRVST).
New version 1.1.7 of the FolderSize example published on behalf of the OWLNext project: https://www.shapeshift.bg/foldersize.html
Changes:
A maintenance release addressing a number of bugs, including an issue with compiling OWLNext 6.44 with MSVC Build Tools 14.51 ([bugs:#644]).
Updates:
These updates add support for Visual Studio 2026 [feature-requests:#272] and Embarcadero RAD Studio/C++Builder 13 Florence [feature-requests:#267], as well as a number of bug fixes.
Updates:
New version 1.1.6 of the FolderSize example is available in Windows Store:
https://shapeshift.azurewebsites.net/foldersize.html
Changes:
Do you need to support multiple languages in your OWLNext application? The Lima VVA project demonstrates a clean, maintainable approach to multi‑language support based on Unicode.
See the Lima VVA “Language Support” page for detailed guidance for programmers and non-expert translators alike.
Below is a summary generalising the lessons into practical guidance for OWLNext applications.... read more
