When it comes to win32 programming, I am a beginner, and I am wondering is there a difference between dialogs and windows?..or are they the same thing. I have read through a few tutorials, and what I understood from them is that you will have a main window, then everything else you create is a dialog. Is this correct, could someone please explain this to me =) Thanks

Dialogs and windows are the same thing really. The functions used to create dialogs are actually macros that call CreateWindowEx() according to MSDN.

The difference is in connotation, when I say dialogs, I mean the resources and when I say window I mean one that I made using CreateWindowEx().

Also, you can have a dialog be the main window. When I don't need/want much control over my main window I just make it a resource.

*EDIT.... forgot to mention....

A dialog's callback function is also slightly different than a window's. You've probably noticed while going through the tutorials. I also believe that there a dialog specific messages (like WM_INITDIALOG)

Invader X
Invader's Realm

Edited by - Invader X on January 25, 2002 1:43:10 AM

With a dialog based app, you don''t have to setup and register the WNDCLASSEX structure the way that you would have to otherwise.

Alright, thanks, that makes more sense =)