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CydandClaude Fable 5 19a1abbff2 vPLASMA slims to a bare glass hardwired to COM12
The window is now just the display: 640x160 dot field (5 px pitch,
4 px bezel) plus the title bar, which carries the port status. COM12 —
the device end of the plasma's null-modem pair — is hardwired and
opened at startup, with a retry timer that keeps trying while the port
is missing or busy and reopens it if it dies. The control strip, port
picker, counters, and wire log are gone; the glass keeps two gestures:
double-click cycles the self-test pages, right-click resets the
display to its power-on state.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-07-07 15:06:36 -05:00

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---
name: verify
description: Build, launch, and drive the vRIO WinForms app to verify changes at the GUI surface — screenshots via PrintWindow, input via PostMessage, no focus stealing.
---
# Verifying vRIO changes
Build + tests (tests are CI's job; run the app for verification):
```powershell
dotnet build vrio.sln -v q -nologo # Debug
# exe: src\VRio.App\bin\Debug\net48\VRio.App.exe
# exe: src\VPlasma.App\bin\Debug\net48\VPlasma.App.exe (companion display)
```
Everything below applies to vPLASMA too. It auto-opens **COM12** on
launch (hardwired; status in the title bar), so its serial path tests
end-to-end with no UI driving: the script just plays the game writing
**COM2** (second com0com pair; vRIO/RIOJoy use COM1⇄COM11). Double-click
the glass = self-test pages, right-click = reset.
Killing a writer mid-stream can leave stale bytes queued in the com0com
buffer — the next session's byte counter will run high; re-run clean
before trusting counts.
## Driving the GUI without touching the user's desktop
This is the user's live desktop — **never** use SetForegroundWindow +
SendKeys/mouse_event: focus-stealing prevention leaves the app behind
VS Code and your clicks land in the user's windows. Instead:
- **Screenshots**: `PrintWindow(hwnd, dc, 2)` (PW_RENDERFULLCONTENT) —
captures the window even when occluded. CopyFromScreen captures
whatever is on top; don't use it.
- **Canvas input** (stick drags, cell clicks): PostMessage
`WM_LBUTTONDOWN/WM_MOUSEMOVE/WM_LBUTTONUP` straight to the canvas
child HWND. Find it by descending `RealChildWindowFromPoint` from the
form. Canvas geometry is compile-time constant (PanelCanvas.cs):
CellW=66, BoxXY = x 416..496, y 6..74 (X/Y stick box).
The **first** posted drag after launch can half-land (only the
button-down registers); do a throwaway drag first, then the measured
one, screenshot **while held** (spring-back recenters on up).
- **Checkboxes/buttons**: WinForms controls expose no UIA TogglePattern
(they surface as bare Panes) and don't answer BM_GETCHECK — but
`SendMessage(hwnd, BM_CLICK, 0, 0)` works. Get the HWND from the UIA
element's NativeWindowHandle (find by Name).
- **Combo boxes** (COM port pickers): string-carrying messages
(`CB_FINDSTRINGEXACT`, `CB_GETLBTEXT`) do **not** marshal across
processes — the SendMessage hangs. Compute the item index locally
(both apps fill from `SerialPort.GetPortNames()` sorted
OrdinalIgnoreCase) and send index-only `CB_SETCURSEL`; the apps read
`SelectedItem` lazily so no CBN_SELCHANGE notification is needed.
Find the combo child HWND via EnumChildWindows + GetClassName
containing `COMBOBOX` (UIA ClassName "ComboBox" doesn't match).
- Pattern that works: Add-Type user32 P/Invokes, Start-Process the exe,
drive via messages, PrintWindow screenshot to the scratchpad, kill
the process in `finally`.
## Environment gotchas
- Bindings load from `%APPDATA%\vRIO\bindings.txt` (the user's file),
not the built-in defaults — arrow keys are bound to Hat *buttons*,
not the joystick axis. Drive axes via the X/Y box.
- A real XInput gamepad is connected on this machine ("Controller #1
connected"); the router only writes an axis when its composed value
changes, so a centered pad won't fight a canvas drag.
- The wire readout (top center, green) shows `GetWireAxis` values —
joystick Y is natively negated on the wire (stick up = 80) unless
"Invert Y" is checked.