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Windows Terminology

For ease of reference, this section is in alphabetical order.
However, you might like to look at the entries for handle,
(window) class, device context (or DC), client area, graphics
device interface (or GDI), and control first.

accelerator character a short-cut keystroke (e.g. ALT-F)

accelerator key see accelerator character

bitmap an image made up from a group of bits (with width,
height and colour)

caret a marker (or cursor) used to indicate a text
input/output position

class in the Windows context, see window class; not to be
confused with Clipper's classes

client area the part of a window (typically in the middle) not
occupied by title bar, scroll bars, border, etc. that can be
written to by the application

colours are mixed from red, green and blue using the RGB( )
macro

control (or window control) means things like buttons,
minimise/maximise boxes, and so on (which respond to mouse
clicks)

co-ordinates are specified as x,y or left, top or right,
bottom: the opposite to Clipper's order

cursor (or mouse cursor) is a marker showing the position of
the mouse; the textual cursor is more properly called the
caret

device context (DC) contains the details needed by GDI
(graphics device interface) to perform output; in practice a
program uses a handle to the device context

dialog procedure is a window procedure (q.v.) for a dialog window

dynamic link library (DLL) is a library (of functions,
procedures, and/or resources) that is not linked into the .EXE
file, but is either linked by the Windows program loader as it
loads a program, or linked during the execution of the program
when it requests specific functions (or resources) from named
libraries.  (Most of the functions in the Windows API are
actually dynamically linked to KERNEL.EXE, GDI.EXE or
USER.EXE.)

event (or message) is something that the application should
respond to (most are generated externally, e.g. mouse clicks,
keystrokes)

GDI (graphics device interface) is the part of Windows that
does drawing, text output, etc.

handle a piece of data that refers to something; don't examine
handles, other than checking for EMPTY( )

icon a pictorial representation of something (typically a
window)

instance in Windows refers to a particular copy of something,
e.g. a running application; nothing to do with Clipper's
instance variables

message sent by Windows to a program when an event occurs;
many are handled automatically by Clip-4-Win, but others are
made available (keystrokes, for instance)

modal anything that locks the user into a limited subset of
the application's behaviour; typical DOS applications are
modal (e.g. most menus, typical uses of GET and TBrowse)

modeless systems allow the user as much freedom as reasonable
to choose what to do and in what order; some modal behaviour
does make sense, such as warnings

object in Windows means a brush, pen, or font for use with GDI
functions; not to be confused with Clipper's objects (which
are instances of classes)

pixel a single position on the display (short for "picture
element")

profile a text (ascii) file containing settings, e.g. WIN.INI

RGB the way Windows specifies colours, in terms of red, green
and blue

window class the way Windows maintains all the details of a
type of window, including its name, window style, default
icon, cursor, menu, etc.

window control usually just referred to as a control (q.v.)

window procedure is the code to which Windows sends messages; as a
value is returned, window function would be a better name as far
as Clipper developers are concerned (if you're using a window proc.
in Clip-4-Win, you use a code block)

window style the detailed appearance of a window (e.g. type of
border, whether it has a title, maximise/minimise boxes, scroll bars)