Teach Yourself Borland C++ in 14 Days - portal

324 Day 9
No, this program doesn’t do anything, but it does illustrate how you can use the Object
Repository to quickly prototype an application. As time goes on, you will add your own
custom objects to the Object Repository and then you can really be effective! Let’s look at
that next.
Adding Objects to the Object Repository
The Object Repository wouldn’t be nearly so effective a tool if you couldn’t add your own
objects to it. But you can add your own objects and you should. Adding often-used objects
to the Object Repository makes you a more efficient and, therefore, a more valuable
programmer. There is no point in reinventing the wheel over and over again. Once you have
an application, a form, or another object created, save it to the Repository so that you can
reuse it whenever you want. Of course, you don’t want to save every form you ever created
in the Object Repository—just the ones you will reuse most often.
You can set out to create an object with the express purpose of adding it to the Repository,
or you can add an object to the Repository during the normal course of application
development. (The term object is pretty broad, so I’ll have to use a specific example in order
for this to make sense.) Let’s say that you create an About box form while creating an
application. Suddenly it dawns on you that you’d like to save this About box to use in all your
programs. After all, it has your company name, logo, and all the copyright information laid
out just the way you like it, so it’d be a shame to have to re-create the same About box for
every application you write. No problem—just add it to the Repository. To add a form to
the Object Repository, first save the form (if you don’t save the form, you will be prompted
to save it before continuing). Next, right-click the mouse anywhere on the form and choose
Add To Repository from the Form Designer speed menu. When you do, the Add To
Repository dialog box is displayed, as shown in Figure 9.3.
Figure 9.3.
The Add To
Repository dialog box.