A common control used to present multiple pages of information or controls to a user; only one page at a time can be displayed. A tab control is analogous to the dividers in a notebook or the labeled folders in a file cabinet. Tab controls imply a peer or logical relationship between each page of information. See also property sheet.
The order in which the TAB key moves the input focus from one control to the next within a dialog box. Usually, the tab order proceeds from left to right in a dialog box, and from top to bottom in a radio group.
One of the points in a line of text or a control in a group of controls (in a dialog box, for example) that the user can move to by pressing the TAB key. See also tab order.
A data file in which the elements are separated by tab characters.
The last element in a linked list.
A set of functions that is part of the Win32 API that lets a computer communicate directly with telephone systems.
The objective, or destination, of a computer command or operation. For example, the target machine in a remote debugging operation is the machine running the application that is being debugged.
One of two handles that Windows creates for each task running in the system. The task handle is the handle to the task database (TDB), which contains information about the task's queue, module handle, and so forth. See also instance handle.
A set of transport protocols for the Internet that provides both connection-oriented (TCP) and connectionless (IP) data transfer. Commonly made up of four protocols: IP, TCP, UDP, and ICMP. See also transport protocol, User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
A set of functions that is part of the Win32 API that lets a computer communicate directly with telephone systems.
Terminal-emulation protocol for remote login over the Internet. Also refers to a UNIX program that uses the protocol (often written TELNET in that case).
Terminal-emulation protocol for remote login over the Internet. Also refers to a UNIX program that uses the protocol (often written TELNET in that case).
A C++ class that is instantiated by providing a specific data (or class) type to a template. The compiler builds a class to process data of that type according to the specifications of the template. The Microsoft Foundation Class Library uses template classes to implement the standard collection classes.
An object that is created when needed and destroyed after the reference object to which it is bound is destroyed.
A window that an application creates for some temporary purpose. For example, a dialog box is a temporary window created to receive user input.
The ending of a thread, process, or program.
Functions called internally by MFC member functions when there is a fatal error, such as an uncaught exception that cannot be handled. In MFC, AfxAbort is the default termination function. The C/C++ Run-Time Library provides the _abort( ) function for non-MFC code. Most dynamic-link libraries register termination functions as well.
A mechanism by which a developer ensures that a block of termination code is executed, so that resources such as memory, handles, and files are properly closed regardless of how a section of code finishes executing. A termination handler consists of a guarded body of code and a termination block. See also C++ exception handling, structured exception handling (SEH), try block.
An operator that takes three operands — for example, the conditional-expression (? :) operator in C/C++. See also binary operator, unary operator.
A program used to manage, edit, and print text files.
A human-readable file composed of text characters. A text file is usually identified by a file extension of .TXT. See also binary file, rich-text format file.
One of two modes for file I/O operations specified in the file-opening function. In text mode, control characters that specify the end of a line are normalized during I/O operations. In binary mode, no translation occurs.
An indicator that determines how text output functions position a string of text on a display or device.
The basic entity to which the operating system allocates CPU time. A thread can execute any part of the application's code, including a part currently being executed by another thread. All threads of a process share the virtual address space, global variables, and operating-system resources of the process.
A Win32 mechanism that allows multiple threads of a process to store data that is unique for each thread. For example, a spreadsheet application can create a new instance of the same thread each time the user opens a new spreadsheet. A dynamic-link library that provides the functions for various spreadsheet operations can use thread local storage to save information about the current state of each spreadsheet (row, column, and so on).
A change of context from one thread to another, either inside a single process or across processes.
A square box button control that can have one of three states, usually checked, unchecked (cleared), or indeterminate (grayed).
In C++, a statement that transfers program control to a catch block in order to handle an exception. See also C++ exception handling, catch block, try block.
A small section of code that performs a translation or conversion during a call or indirection. For example, a thunk is used to change the size or type of function parameters when calling between 16- and 32-bit code.
Or time-out delay. The maximum amount of time one entity will wait for another entity to complete a transaction. For example, in ODBC a query time-out value determines the amount of time the database engine will wait for a query's action to complete.
A value that identifies a timer or the events associated with a timer.
A value that specifies the time data was created, modified, accessed, or received. In files, the timestamp may also specify when the data was committed to disk.
A Win32 mechanism that allows multiple threads of a process to store data that is unique for each thread. For example, a spreadsheet application can create a new instance of the same thread each time the user opens a new spreadsheet. A dynamic-link library that provides the functions for various spreadsheet operations can use thread local storage to save information about the current state of each spreadsheet (row, column, and so on).
A tiny pop-up window that presents a short description of a toolbar button's action. Tool tips are displayed when the user positions the mouse over a button for a period of time.
A control bar based on a bitmap that contains a row of button images. These buttons can act like pushbuttons, check boxes, or radio buttons. See also dialog bar, status bar.
A window that has no parent window, or whose parent is the desktop window.
The window that overlaps all the other windows even if it is not the active or foreground window.
Or trace output. An error or diagnostic message employed in debugging to provide information about where in the program execution a problem occurred. In some cases, trace output can provide advance warning about problems that are about to occur.
In OLE, a border, or adornment, for OLE items that provides a visual cue about the current status of the item. By using different tracker styles, OLE items can be displayed with hatched borders, resize handles, or a variety of other visual effects.
The window size (maximum or minimum) that the user can produce by dragging a sizing border or splitter bar.
In a double-byte or multibyte character set, the second byte of a two-byte character. See also lead byte.
A file-access mode that buffers all changes to a document and writes the changes to disk or discards them only when an explicit commit or revert request occurs. In this way, the original file can be reverted to. See also direct mode, rollback, transaction.
In data management, a means of completing an "all or nothing" series of changes to a file. If one change fails, or if there is a system failure during the transaction, the file reverts back to its original state before the transaction began. See also rollback.
In Java, a variable type qualifier denoting that the indicated variable is not part of the persistent state of the object.
One of the steps a compiler follows in creating an executable program. In C/C++, these steps include character mapping, line splicing, tokenizing, preprocessing, character-set mapping, string concatenating, translating, and linking.
A set of transport protocols for the Internet that provides both connection-oriented (TCP) and connectionless (IP) data transfer. Commonly made up of four protocols: IP, TCP, UDP, and ICMP. See also transport protocol, User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
A set of conventions that govern how data is transported across networks. In a connection-oriented transport protocol, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), applications are required to establish a virtual circuit before data transfer can take place. In a connectionless transport protocol, such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP), an established circuit is not required for data transfer and an application need only open and bind a socket in order to send and receive data.
In C/C++, a sequence of two question marks followed by a punctuation character, which the compiler replaces with another character. For example, the compiler will replace the trigraph "??-" with the character "~". Trigraphs allow C programs to be written using only the ISO Invariant Code Set, which is a subset of the 7-bit ASCII character set.
A scalable outline font whose glyphs are stored as a collection of line and curve commands plus a collection of hints. Windows uses the line and curve commands to define the outline of the glyph and uses the hints to adjust the length of the lines and the shapes of the curves to correct irregularities in their shapes that occur during rasterization. See also raster font, vector font.
A guarded body of code in a try-except frame-based exception handler or try-finally termination handler. See also catch block, throw expression.
An explicit conversion of a variable, structure, object, or expression from one data type to another.
The examination by a compiler or interpreter of the operations in a program to make sure that the correct data types are being used. See also run-time type information (RTTI).
A declaration in a program that specifies the characteristics of a new data type, usually by combining more primitive existing data types. See also data declaration.
In OLE, information about an object's class provided by a type library.
Or OLE library. An OLE compound document file containing standard descriptions of data types, modules, and interfaces that can be used to fully expose objects for OLE Automation. The type library file usually has a .TLB filename extension and can be used by other applications to get information about the automation server.
A keyword that modifies the data type that follows — for example, unsigned can be used to modify an integral data type such as int.
A keyword that provides specific properties to an identifier. The const type qualifier declares an object to be nonmodifiable. The volatile type qualifier declares an item whose value can legitimately be changed by something beyond the control of the program in which it appears, such as a concurrently executing thread.
The assurance that a given function will be not presented, at run time, with data of a type it cannot handle. Type safety is assured through type checking and/or by the use of template classes that are designed to operate on data of many types. See also run-time type information (RTTI).
A collection class that enforces type safety on data or objects. For example, a type-safe collection can be implemented by using one of the MFC template-based classes such as CArray or CList, which can store data of any type.
A pointer to a specified type.
The name of a font — for example, Times New Roman.