The MFC code that AppWizard generates may be sufficient for a small number of your application’s user-interface objects, such as the splash screen, but for the most part you’ll have application-specific routines that you want called when an interface object receives input from the user. To do that, you need to make a connection between the interface object, the event, and the code you want called.
The visual tools provided by the development environment simplify the task of connecting user-interface objects to your application-specific code. If you’ve used Visual C++ before, you’re probably familiar with the ways that ClassWizard automates such tasks as generating message-handler functions and message maps. Visual C++ implements two shortcuts to the ClassWizard dialog box: ClassView and WizardBar. In addition to providing a seamless link between your project classes and files, these tools make navigating through your source code as easy as pointing and clicking.
ClassView displays your classes and their members in a hierarchical view, using visually intuitive icons. For instance, it displays private member functions with a “key” next to the function name. By simply clicking a class or any of its displayed members, you can jump directly to the associated declaration or definition in your project source file.
ClassView provides a pop-up menu that you can use to directly add member functions and variables to a given class. (You’ll still use ClassWizard, or WizardBar, to add message-handling functions.)
You can also use ClassView to:
Like ClassView, WizardBar enables you to jump directly to a member function. Additionally, you can use WizardBar to override virtual functions and to create a handler for the Windows messages or commands a particular class can respond to.
The tutorials demonstrate how these features simplify and speed the process of specifying how your user-interface objects respond to messages.