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NOTE
TIP
VCL Components
There may be a time when you need to manage a list of strings unrelated
to a component. The TStringList class is provided for exactly
that purpose. This class works just like TStrings but can be used
outside components.
In reality TStrings is what is called an abstract base class. An abstract
base class is never used directly, but only serves as a base class from
which to derive other classes. Technically, the Lines property of the
Memo component is an instance of the TMemoStrings class and not an
instance of the TStrings class as I said in this section. I didn’t mean to
lead you astray, but I thought it was best to make this distinction after
the discussion on TStrings rather than confuse you with this information
during that discussion.
Standard Windows Control Components
Back in the Jurassic age, there was something called Windows 3.0. Windows 3.0 gave us
things like edit controls (single line and multiline), list boxes, combo boxes, buttons, check
boxes, radio buttons, and static controls. These controls must have been pretty well designed
because they are very prevalent in Windows programs today—even considering all the new
Win32 controls.
I’m not going to go over every Windows control and its corresponding VCL component.
There are a few things, though, that you should know regarding the standard components.
Edit Controls
C++Builder comes with four edit-control components. The Edit, Memo, and MaskEdit
components are based on the standard Windows edit control. The RichEdit component is
based on the Win32 rich edit control, which is not one of the standard Windows controls.
Still, I will discuss RichEdit here because it has many things in common with the other edit
controls.
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