Windows Template Library

The Windows Template Library ( WTL ) is an object oriented C program library for the Windows API. It was developed by the Microsoft employee Nenad Stefanovic as a lightweight alternative to the Microsoft Foundation Classes, which are very extensive. Originally the development was intended only for internal purposes, but later it was also provided to the public as an unofficial extension to the Visual Studio package. The WTL is based on the derived also from Microsoft Active Template Library. Since there is no official documentation for the project, the attempt to unofficial documentation was undertaken on an external website.

Overview

The WTL provides support for a variety of GUI elements, MDI, Common Controls and many GDI objects. The main focus in the development was on fast and efficient code allows the programmer an interface that is easier to handle than the direct access to the Win32 API. For this reason, similar to the function calls of the majority of the original API which WTL, so that no big change in use is needed.

The first public version of the WTL is released under a license that the MFC is very similar, but contained no usage or dissemination. Microsoft released in 2004 include full source code under the Common Public License. The project can now be found at sourceforge.net. Since version 7.5, users have an additional license to choose from, the Microsoft Permissive License, now known as Shared Source.

Left

  • The SourceForge WTL project
  • Official Microsoft Web site to download the WTL 8.0 ( English)
  • WTL Documentation - An Effort to Create Documentation for the WTL Programming Library.
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