Introduction

An application displays windows on the screen that must be managed and coordinated. A window object corresponds to at most one on-screen window. The two principal functions of windows are to provide an area in which views can be placed and to accept and distribute events the user sends through actions with the mouse and keyboard. The term window sometimes refers to the Application Kit object and sometimes to the window server’s window device; which meaning is intended is made clear in context. Panels are a special kind of window, typically serving an auxiliary function in an application, such as utility windows.

This document is intended for Cocoa developers who need to work with windows and panels in their applications.

Organization of This Document

This programming topic describes how to use windows and panels. These articles give you basic information on the different types of windows and how they work:

These articles describe how to use windows:

These articles describe how to change what a window looks like:

These articles describe how to handle a window’s events:

These articles describe some advanced features of windows:

See Also

For additional information on specific types of windows and panels, you can also see the following programming topics: