While Visual FoxPro still supports standard procedural
programming, new extensions to the language give you the power and
flexibility of object-oriented programming. Object-oriented design
and object-oriented programming represent a change in focus from
standard procedural programming. Instead of thinking about program
flow from the first line of code to the last line of code, you
need to think about creating objects: self-contained components of
an application that have private functionality as well as
functionality that you can expose to the user.
In This Section
- Classes
and Objects: The Building Blocks of Applications
- Explains the differences between classes and objects and
highlights the properties, methods, and events of objects
- Classes
in Visual FoxPro
- Introduces the types of classes in Visual FoxPro and
describes their important characteristics.
- Preparation
for Class Creation
- Contains information on how to plan the design of classes
and how to select their functionality.
- Creating
Classes
- Provides three ways to create a new class.
- Modifying
a Class Definition
- Describes the steps required to modify a class in the
Project Manager.
- Subclassing
a Class Definition
- Contains directions on how to create a subclass of a
user-defined class.
- Operating
the Class Designer
- Explains the functionality of the Class Designer, including
viewing and editing properties of your class in the Properties
window and writing code in the code editing windows.
- Access
and Assign Methods
- Visual FoxPro contains support for Access and Assign methods
that you can use to execute code when the value of a property
is queried or when you attempt to change the property's value.
- Container
Hierarchy Object Referencing
- Describes how objects are referenced in the container
hierarchy and explains the importance of identifying objects
in relation to the container hierarchy.
Related Sections
- Programming
in Visual FoxPro
- Visual FoxPro is a powerful interactive data management
tool, but you also can access the full power of Visual FoxPro
by creating applications. Understanding object-oriented
programming techniques and the event-driven model can maximize
your programming productivity.
- Application
Development
- As you develop an application, organize its pieces with the
Project Manager, an integrated way to build and test your
application as you go.
- Writing
Class Definitions Programmatically
- You can define classes visually in the Class Designer and
the Form Designer or programmatically in .PRG files.
- Understanding
the Event Model
- The event model defines when and how user and system
interactions occur.