The Windows Template Library (WTL) is a free software

Free software

Free software, software libre or libre software is software that can be used, studied, and modified without restriction, and which can be copied and redistributed in modified or unmodified form either without restriction, or with restrictions that only ensure that further recipients can also do...

, object-oriented

Object-oriented programming

Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm using "objects" – data structures consisting of data fields and methods together with their interactions – to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as data abstraction,...

 C++

C++

C++ is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm, compiled, general-purpose programming language. It is regarded as an intermediate-level language, as it comprises a combination of both high-level and low-level language features. It was developed by Bjarne Stroustrup starting in 1979 at Bell...

 template library

Library (computer science)

In computer science, a library is a collection of resources used to develop software. These may include pre-written code and subroutines, classes, values or type specifications....

 for Win32 development. WTL was created by Microsoft

Microsoft

Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...

 employee Nenad Stefanovic for internal use and later released as an unsupported add-on to Visual Studio and the Win32 Framework SDK. It was developed primarily as a light-weight alternative to the Microsoft Foundation Classes and builds upon Microsoft's ATL

Active Template Library

The Active Template Library is a set of template-based C++ classes developed by Microsoft, intended to simplify the programming of Component Object Model objects. The COM support in Microsoft Visual C++ allows developers to create a variety of COM objects, OLE Automation servers, and ActiveX...

, another lightweight API widely used to create COM

Component Object Model

Component Object Model is a binary-interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages...

 and ActiveX

ActiveX

ActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....

 libraries.

Overview

WTL provides support for implementing various user interface elements, from frame and popup windows, to MDI

Multiple document interface

Graphical computer applications with a multiple document interface are those whose windows reside under a single parent window , as opposed to all windows being separate from each other . Such systems often allow child windows to embed other windows inside them as well, creating complex nested...

, standard and common controls, common dialogs, property sheets and pages, GDI

Graphics Device Interface

The Graphics Device Interface is a Microsoft Windows application programming interface and core operating system component responsible for representing graphical objects and transmitting them to output devices such as monitors and printers....

 objects, and other common UI elements, such as scrollable windows, splitter windows, toolbars and command bars. WTL's main objective is to deliver small and efficient code, close in size and speed to "straight" SDK programs while providing a higher-level and more flexible object model to developers. Other classes such as a string wrapper that is syntax-compatible with MFC's CString and some templated collections are also included.

Most of the WTL API is a mirror of the standard Win32 calls, so the interface tends to be familiar to most Windows programmers. Although no official documentation from Microsoft exists, the WTL Documentation Project is attempting to create a comprehensive reference for the library. The WTL is not supported by Microsoft Product Support Services.

Licensing

While WTL is a template library and therefore code-based, the original license was similar to the one used for the Microsoft Foundation Class Library

Microsoft Foundation Class Library

The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...

 (MFC) source code, although it contained no usage or distribution restrictions. In 2004 Microsoft made the complete source code

Source code

In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...

 available under the Common Public License

Common Public License

In computing, the CPL is a free software / open-source software license published by IBM. The Free Software Foundation and Open Source Initiative have approved the license terms of the CPL....

 and released it through SourceForge

SourceForge

SourceForge Enterprise Edition is a collaborative revision control and software development management system. It provides a front-end to a range of software development lifecycle services and integrates with a number of free software / open source software applications .While originally itself...

. Since version 7.5, the library is also dual license

Dual license

Multi-licensing is the practice of distributing software under two or more different sets of terms and conditions. This may mean multiple different licenses or sets of licenses. Prefixes may be used to indicate the number of licenses used, e.g...

d under the Microsoft Public License.

See also

• Active Template Library
  Active Template Library
  The Active Template Library is a set of template-based C++ classes developed by Microsoft, intended to simplify the programming of Component Object Model objects. The COM support in Microsoft Visual C++ allows developers to create a variety of COM objects, OLE Automation servers, and ActiveX...
  
  
• Microsoft Foundation Class Library
  Microsoft Foundation Class Library
  The Microsoft Foundation Class Library is a library that wraps portions of the Windows API in C++ classes, including functionality that enables them to use a default application framework...
  
  
• Object Windows Library
  Object Windows Library
  The Object Windows Library is a Borland C++ object-oriented framework originally designed for WinAPI. It was used in Turbo Pascal for Windows, Borland Pascal and their Borland C++ package. It was a competitor to the Microsoft Foundation Class Library .OWL had incomplete support by the Borland C++...
  
  

External links

• The SourceForge WTL project
• Microsoft's download page for WTL 7.5
• Microsoft's download page for WTL 8.0
• WTL Documentation - An Effort to Create Documentation for the WTL Programming Library.
• "Using the Windows Template Library Part 1"
• "Using the Windows Template Library Part 2"
• "WTL for MFC Programmers" – A series of tutorials aimed at MFC programmers who want to start using WTL.
• The WTL Wiki - A wiki dedicated to the Windows Template Library (WTL)