Parent and Child Interface Elements

In a Windows application, interface elements work together through parent-child links.

A parent window controls its child windows, and Windows keeps track of the links. ObjectWindows maintains a parallel set of links between corresponding interface objects.

A child window is an interface element that is managed by another interface element. For example, list boxes are managed by the window or dialog box in which they appear. They are displayed only when their parent windows are displayed. In turn, dialog boxes are child windows managed by the windows that create them.

When you move or close the parent window, the child windows automatically close or move with it. The ultimate parent of all child windows in an application is the main window. (There are a couple of exceptions: you can have windows and dialog boxes without parents and all main windows are children of the Windows desktop.)

Review the following topics to understand more about parent and child interface elements:

• Child-window Lists
• Constructing Child Windows
• Creating Child Interface Elements
• Destroying Windows
• Automatic Creation
• Manipulating Child Windows

See Also

• Creating Interface Objects
• Destroying Interface Objects
• Interface Objects Overview
• Parent and Child Interface Elements
• Registering Window Classes
• The Generic Interface Object: TWindow