Three Approaches to a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) Application Some programmers think that a typical MDI app containing a single MDIForm object and one or more regular forms isn't flexible enough. While it might seem logical to improve this by placing each MDI child form into individual ActiveX DLL servers, this solution doesn't work. Instead, here are three ways you can create a dynamically configured MDI application using ActiveX controls.

Figure 1c. Dynamic MDI Application VB6 allows you to dynamically load an ActiveX control onto a form. You can use a generic MDI child form that dynamically loads ActiveX controls that take over the entire client area of the window. This architecture is safe, efficient, and uses widely supported technology. But an architecture is only a start. As you'll see, this approach has far-reaching ramifications on the design of the application, and ultimately demands the use of VB6 features still new to many VB programmers.

Figure 1a   Figure 1b