Visual C++ 6 Unleashed

By MICKEY WILLIAMS and David Bennett

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Authors
  • About the Contributors
  • Acknowledgments
  • Tell Us What You Think!
  • Introduction
  • How to Use This Book
  • What You Need to Use This Book
  • What's New in Visual C++ 6.0
  • Contacting the Main Author
  • Part I: Introduction
  • Chapter 1. The Visual C++ 6.0 Environment
  • Part II: MFC Programming
  • Chapter 2. MFC Class Library Overview
  • Chapter 3. MFC Message Handling Mechanism
    • Message Categories
    • Message Handling in MFC
    • Message Dispatching
    • Message Handling with ClassWizard
    • Creating Your Own Message Maps
    • A Common Problem with MFC Message Maps
    • Summary
  • Chapter 4. The Document View Architecture
  • Chapter 5. Creating and Using Dialog Boxes
  • Chapter 6. Working with Device Contexts and GDI Objects
  • Chapter 7. Creating and Using Property Sheets
  • Chapter 8. Working with the File System
  • Chapter 9. Using Serialization with File and Archive Objects
  • Part III: Internet Programming with MFC
  • Chapter 10. MFC and the Internet Server API (ISAPI)
  • Chapter 11. The WinInet API
  • Chapter 12. MFC HTML Support
  • Part IV: Advanced Programming Topics
  • Chapter 13. Using the Standard C++ Library
  • Chapter 14. Error Detection and Exception Handling Techniques
  • Chapter 15. Debugging and Profiling Strategies
  • Chapter 16. Multithreading
  • Chapter 17. Using Scripting and Other Tools to Automate the Visual C++ IDE
  • Part V: Database Programming
  • Chapter 18. Creating Custom AppWizards
  • Chapter 19. Database Overview
  • Chapter 20. ODBC Programming
  • Chapter 21. MFC Database Classes
  • Chapter 22. Using OLE DB
  • Chapter 23. Programming with ADO
  • Part VI: MFC Support for COM and ActiveX
  • Chapter 24. Overview of COM and Active Technologies
  • Chapter 25. Active Documents
  • Chapter 26. Active Containers
  • Chapter 27. Active Servers
  • Chapter 28. ActiveX Controls
  • Part VII: Using the Active Template Library
  • Chapter 29. ATL Architecture
  • Chapter 30. Creating COM Objects Using ATL
  • Chapter 31. Creating ActiveX Controls Using ATL
  • Chapter 32. Using ATL to Create MTS and COM+ Components
  • Part VIII: Finishing Touches
  • Chapter 33. Adding Windows Help
  • Part IX: Appendix

Message Categories

Almost everything that your application will do is based on handling Windows messages. These come in three basic varieties: general Windows messages, control notifications, and commands:

• The Message IDs for Windows messages are generally prefixed by WM_—for example, WM_PAINT or WM_QUIT. These messages, which are handled by windows and views, can represent a wide range of things that happen in your application. Thankfully, MFC provides default handlers for most of these, as you will see. Note that WM_COMMAND messages receive special handling as either control notifications or commands.
• Control notifications are WM_COMMAND messages sent from child windows to their parent window. For example, an edit control will send an EN_CHANGE message to its parent window (usually a dialog box) whenever its content may have changed. Windows messages and control notifications are usually handled by window objects—that is, objects derived from class CWnd.
• Commands are WM_COMMAND messages from menus, buttons (including toolbars), and accelerator keys. Command messages may be handled by a wider array of classes, including documents, document templates, windows, views, and the application itself.

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