In computer programming a window class is a structure fundamental to the Microsoft Windows (Win16, Win32, and Win64) operating systems and its Application Programming Interface (API).
The structure provides a template, from which windows may be created, by specifying a window's icons, menu, background color and a few other features. It also holds a pointer to a procedure that controls how the window behaves in response to user interaction. It finally tells the operating system how much additional storage space is needed for the class itself and for each window created from it.
There have been two versions of window classes; the only non-technical addition brought by the second one is that of a small additional icon for the window. The first version was present in the Windows 3.x series; the second version appeared in Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.1.
Famous quotes containing the words window and/or class:
“Tree at my window, window tree,
My sash is lowered when night comes on;
But let there never be curtain drawn
Between you and me.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“During the long ages of class rule, which are just beginning to cease, only one form of sovereignty has been assigned to all men—that, namely, over all women. Upon these feeble and inferior companions all men were permitted to avenge the indignities they suffered from so many men to whom they were forced to submit.”
—Mary Putnam Jacobi (1842–1906)