Glossary W

Article
07/12/2006

watch expression

An expression that can be evaluated as the program progresses and can be viewed in the Watch window during debugging.

wave file

A Microsoft standard file format for storing waveform audio data. Wave files have a .WAV filename extension.

waveform audio

A technique of re-creating an audio waveform from digital samples of the waveform.

weak external

A special type of external reference that allows the linker to fix up an address with an alternate symbol. By using a weak external record, a library developer can provide a method for the linker to use an alternate symbol if the code does not make any other references to the module in which the primary symbol resides.

Web browser

Software that renders Web pages on a local computer. See also World Wide Web.

what you see is what you get

A display method (pronounced "WI-zy-wig") that shows documents and graphics as they will appear when printed.

white space

Spaces, tabs, and blank lines. White space sometimes refers to the C/C++ language-specific character constants that create white spaces; namely, ' ', '\t', and '\n'.
The empty areas in a window or the margins on a document.

wide character

Or Unicode character. A 2-byte multilingual character code. Any character, including technical symbols and special publishing characters, can be represented as a wide character. Note that a multibyte character or a double-byte character can be 2 bytes in size, but neither is a wide, or Unicode, character. See also wide-character constant.

wide-character constant

A 16-bit character constant that can specify a member of the extended execution character set. Wide-character constants can be used to express characters in alphabets that are too large to be represented by type char. Use wide-character constants in place of multicharacter constants to ensure portability. Syntactically, a wide-character constant is a character constant prefixed by the letter L.

WIN.INI

A text file that stores initialization information for Windows and Windows-based applications. The WIN.INI file is configured with a number of sections and entries, depending on a particular system's hardware and software requirements. For example, entries in the [Desktop] section control the appearance of the desktop and the position of windows and icons.

Win32 Internet Extensions

A set of functions contained in WININET.DLL that simplifies client access to the Internet via HTTP, FTP, and Gopher. This collection of functions is an extension to the Win32 API.

Win32 platform

A platform that supports the Win32 API. These platforms include Intel Win32s, Windows NT, Windows 95, MIPS Windows NT, DEC Alpha Windows NT, and Power PC Windows NT.

window characteristic

An attribute of a window, such as size, position, or the presence of scroll bars.

window class

A set of attributes that Microsoft Windows uses as a template to create a window in an application. Windows requires that an application supply a class name, the window-procedure address, and an instance handle. Other elements may be used to define default attributes for windows of the class, such as the shape of the cursor and the content of the menu for the window.

window extent

The width (x-extent) or height (y-extent) of a window.

window handle

In the Win32 API, a 32-bit value (assigned by Windows) that uniquely identifies a window. An application uses this handle to direct the actions of functions to the window. A window handle has the HWND data type; an application must use this type when declaring a variable that holds a window handle.

window origin

The upper-left corner of a window's client area.
The corner of the window from which the extents are measured. See also viewport origin.

window procedure

A function, called by the operating system, that controls the appearance and behavior of its associated windows. The procedure receives and processes all messages to these windows.

window rectangle

The coordinate rectangle that encloses the entire window. The window rectange is defined by two ordered pairs of numbers that define the upper-left and lower-right corners of the rectangle. See also client area.

window style

A named constant that defines an aspect of the window's appearance and behavior not specified by the window's class.

window-management function

A function that carries out an action on a window. For example SetWindowPos is a window-management function that can change the size, position, or Z order of a window.

Windows initialization file

Windows Open Services Architecture

A specification for an open set of API functions that allow Windows-based desktop applications to connect to multiple computing environments, with a single version of each application able to work with multiple platforms. With WOSA, applications can access available information regardless of the type of network in use, the types of computers involved, or the types of back-end services available.

Windows Write file

A document file that is associated with the Windows Write text editor. The default filename extension for Windows Write files is .WRI.

WinInet

A set of functions contained in WININET.DLL that simplifies client access to the Internet via HTTP, FTP, and Gopher. This collection of functions is an extension to the Win32 API.

wizard

A special form of user assistance that guides the user through a difficult or complex task within an application. For example, a database program can use wizards to generate reports and forms. In Visual C++, the AppWizard generates a skeleton program for a new C++ application.

word alignment

Data in memory that is aligned on word boundaries. In 32-bit systems, "word alignment" means that the first byte of a data object is located at an address that is a multiple of 4.

word boundary

A memory address that is a multiple of the machine's word size, in bytes. See also word alignment.

wordwrap

To break lines automatically in order to keep the text within the boundaries of a window or the margins of a document.

worker thread

A thread that handles background tasks while the user continues to use an application. Tasks such as recalculation and background printing are examples of worker threads. See also user-interface thread.

working set

The set of memory pages currently visible to the process in physical RAM memory. These pages are resident and available for an application to use without triggering a page fault. If free memory in the computer is above a threshold, pages are left in the working set of a process even if they are not in use. When free memory falls below a threshold, unneeded pages are trimmed from working sets.
The average amount of memory, either physical or virtual, used by the process. The longer a process is running, the more accurate this value is.

workspace

A directory containing zero or more source files, files that describe the workspace, and files that describe its contents. See also Visual C++ project file, Visual C++ Workspace file, and workspace options file.

workspace configuration file

A file created and maintained by Visual C++. The file contains all the information about the project workspace, including a list of all the projects, their associated source files, each project's output file, the settings and tools required to build each project, as well as the physical layout and characteristics of Visual C++: window layout and characteristics, syntax coloring, editor preferences, and so on.

workspace options file

The file that stores information about the physical layout and characterisitics you’ve determined for Visual C++, such as window layout. In terms of source control, the workspace options file is not shareable.

workspace window

In the Microsoft Developers Studio, a window that displays graphical representations of a project workspace. The panes in the window display projects and files, classes for C++ files, and the table of contents for the online help system.

World Wide Web

Or the Web. The portion of the global Internet that uses hypertext links to connect pages and resources in a way that lets you reach any page from any other page. Web browsers enable you to navigate the Web.

WOSA

wrapper class

A C++ class whose function is to provide an alternative interface for objects of another class. For example, C exceptions can be handled as typed exceptions, with the C++ catch handler, by using a C exception wrapper class.

wrapper function

A function whose purpose is to provide an interface to another function. Such an interface might create type safety where none existed in the original function.

write-only

An attribute of an object (a C++ ostream object, for example), a pipe, or a file specifying that data can only be written to it, not read from it.

WWW

WYSIWYG