failed attempts to put a button in the title bar of a qt application

spyder.py

"""
This is a mess of stuff that never worked.
I put it here main for my own reference, but it might be helpful to someone.
"""

try:
    import ctypes
    WM_NCCALCSIZE =  0x0083
    WM_ACTIVATE = 0x0006
    SWP_FRAMECHANGED = 0x0020
    WM_CREATE = 0x0001
    WM_NCPAINT = 0x0085
    DCX_WINDOW = 0x00000001L
    DCX_INTERSECTRGN = 0x00000080L 
    DT_LEFT = 0
    DT_TOP = 0
    DT_NOCLIP = 0xff
    DT_SINGLELINE = 0x00000020
    
    class tagPAINTSTRUCT(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = [('hdc', ctypes.wintypes.HDC),
                     ('fErase', ctypes.wintypes.BOOL),
                     ('rcPaint', ctypes.wintypes.RECT),
                     ('fRestore', ctypes.wintypes.BOOL),
                     ('fIncUpdate', ctypes.wintypes.BOOL),
                     ('rgbReserved', ctypes.wintypes.BYTE * 32)]
  
    class WinDLLMargins(ctypes.Structure):
     _fields_ = [("cxLeftWidth", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                 ("cxRightWidth", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                 ("cyTopHeight", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                 ("cyBottomHeight", ctypes.wintypes.c_int)]
                 
    class tagWINDOWPOS(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = [("hwnd", ctypes.wintypes.HWND),
                    ("hwndInsertAfter", ctypes.wintypes.HWND),
                    ("x", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                    ("y", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                    ("cx", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                    ("cy", ctypes.wintypes.c_int),
                    ("flags", ctypes.wintypes.UINT)]

    class tagNCCALCSIZE_PARAMS(ctypes.Structure):
        _fields_ = [("rgrc", ctypes.wintypes.RECT * 3),
                    ("lppos", ctypes.POINTER(tagWINDOWPOS))]

    _win_apis_available = True
except ImportError:
    _win_apis_available = False


class MainWindow(QMainWindow):
   #...
   def winEvent(self, event):
        ret = QMainWindow.winEvent(self, event)

        if _win_apis_available:  
            if event.message == WM_NCPAINT:                
                hwnd = int(self.effectiveWinId()) # TODO: check this is the correct way to cast and should maybe reimplement def event(e): if e.type() == QEvent.winIdChange                                
                hdc = ctypes.windll.user32.GetDCEx(hwnd, event.wParam, 
                                                   DCX_WINDOW|DCX_INTERSECTRGN)
                ps = tagPAINTSTRUCT()
                ctypes.windll.user32.BeginPaint(hwnd, ctypes.pointer(ps))
                rect = ctypes.wintypes.RECT()
                rect.left = 300
                rect.right = 900
                rect.top = 0
                rect.bottom = 30
                ctypes.windll.user32.DrawTextW(hdc, ctypes.create_string_buffer(
                                        "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa"), -1,
                                        ctypes.pointer(rect),
                                        DT_LEFT | DT_TOP | DT_NOCLIP | DT_SINGLELINE)
                ctypes.windll.user32.EndPaint(hwnd, ctypes.pointer(ps))
                # Paint into this DC 
                ctypes.windll.user32.ReleaseDC(hwnd, hdc)
    
                with open("custom_log.txt", "a") as f:
                    f.write("WM_NCPAINT\n")            
        return ret    
            # lRet = ctypes.c_int()            
            # fCallDWP = not ctypes.windll.dwmapi.DwmDefWindowProc(hwnd,
            #                      event.message, event.wParam, event.lParam, ctypes.byref(lRet))
            # lRet = lRet.value

        #     if event.message == WM_ACTIVATE:
        #         margins = WinDLLMargins()
        #         margins.cxLeftWidth = 8
        #         margins.cxRightWidth = 8
        #         margins.cyBottomHeight = 20
        #         margins.cyTopHeight = 27
            
        #         ctypes.windll.dwmapi.DwmExtendFrameIntoClientArea(
        #             ctypes.c_int(self.winId()), ctypes.byref(margins))
        #         with open("custom_log.txt", "a") as f:
        #             f.write("WM_ACTIVATE\n")
        #         lRet = 0
        #         fCallDWP = True

        #     if event.message == WM_NCCALCSIZE and event.wParam:  
        #         if self._need_to_setwindowpos:
        #             self._need_to_setwindowpos = False
        #             rect = ctypes.wintypes.RECT()
        #             ctypes.windll.user32.GetWindowRect(hwnd, ctypes.byref(rect))
        #             with open("custom_log.txt", "w") as f:
        #                 f.write("SetWindowPos {}, ({},{},{},{})\n".format(hwnd,
        #                         rect.left, rect.top, rect.right, rect.bottom))
        #             ctypes.windll.user32.SetWindowPos(hwnd, None,
        #                                               rect.left, rect.top,
        #                                               rect.right - rect.left, 
        #                                               rect.bottom - rect.top,
        #                                               SWP_FRAMECHANGED)
        #         pncsp = ctypes.cast(event.lParam, 
        #                             ctypes.POINTER(tagNCCALCSIZE_PARAMS))            
        #         rect = pncsp.contents.rgrc[0]
        #         with open("custom_log.txt", "a") as f:
        #             f.write("WM_NCCALCSIZE ({},{},{},{})\n".format(rect.left, 
        #                     rect.top, rect.right, rect.bottom))
        #         lRet = 0
        #         fCallDWP = False