Visual Studio 6: The Complete Reference

Chapter 22 - The Microsoft Foundation Class Library: Fundamentals

Visual C++ 6: The Complete Reference
Chris H. Pappas and William H. Murray, III
  Copyright 1998 The McGraw-Hill Companies
Chapter 22: The Microsoft Foundation Class Library: Fundamentals
Overview
In the previous chapter you learned that even the simplest Windows applications, when created with the standard API function calls, are difficult and time consuming to develop. For example, the bare-bones SWP.C template developed in Chapter 21 contains over two pages of C code and Windows function calls. It is also obvious that much of that code can be used repeatedly from application to application. That base code is required just to establish a window on the screen. While Windows applications have been easy to use, procedure-oriented applications have certainly not been a joy to write or maintain.
Microsoft’s Visual C++ compiler provides an up-to-date 32-bit Foundation Class library containing a new set of object-oriented programming tools for the exclusive development of 32-bit Windows applications. The Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) library encapsulates all normal procedure-oriented Windows functions and provides support for control bars, property sheets, OLEO, ActiveX controls, and more. In addition, database support is provided for a wide range of database sources, including DAO and ODBC. You’ll also find that the MFC supports the development of Internet applications in C++.
This chapter discusses the advantages of using the Microsoft Foundation Class library for Windows code development. The MFC library will make Windows application development easier. Also examined in this chapter are MFC terms, definitions, and techniques that are common across all MFC versions. The material you learn in this chapter can be applied to all of the MFC application code developed in the remaining chapters of this book. It is easy to determine the role of the MFC library when you realize that one chapter of this book was devoted to conventional procedure-oriented programming while all of the remaining chapters are devoted to object-oriented programming with the MFC!
We recommend that you take the time to review object-oriented terminology and programming techniques, discussed earlier in Chapters 15 through 18, before tackling the MFC terminology presented in this chapter.
The MFC is a powerful toolkit for the object-oriented programmer. Consider this analogy. If procedure-oriented Windows developers could be considered as having a hammer and crosscut saw in their toolkit, the object-oriented C++ Windows developer, using the MFC, is equipped with a pneumatic hammer and circular power saw.
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