Programming Windows®, Fifth Edition

Chapter 4. An Exercise in Text Output

In the previous chapter, we explored the workings of a simple Windows 98 program that displayed a single line of text in the center of its window or, more precisely, the center of its client area. As we learned, the client area is that part of the total application window that is not taken up by the title bar, the window-sizing border, and, optionally, the menu bar, tool bars, status bar, and scroll bars. In short, the client area is the part of the window on which a program is free to draw and deliver visual information to the user.

You can do almost anything you want with your program’s client area—anything, that is, except assume that it will be a particular size or that the size will remain constant while ...