Visual Component Library
The Visual Component Library ( VCL ) is a GUI toolkit for Windows applications. It was created by Embarcadero , formerly Borland , Inprise and CodeGear . The VCL can be used in the programming languages Borland Delphi , C ++ , C , C # . It is used by most Borland development environments as a collection of components.
For applications with the Linux version of the Borland Builder ( Kylix should be compilable), has to take the VCL to CLX ( C omponent L ibrary for cross ( X ) -platform Development) are used as the VCL on Win32 -API based. VCL.NET is available for extended .NET programming . The Delphi for PHP, released in March 2007, is equipped with a version of the VCL (VCL4PHP) specially adapted to the PHP programming language and published as an open source project on Sourceforge. Since Delphi XE2, a new cross-platform component library called FireMonkey has been available for development for multiple target platforms . These are currently available for 32-bit and 64-bit Windows, Mac OS X, Android and iOS.
Encapsulation
Most VCL software components encapsulate Windows software components . Windows controls, for example, are expanded. So the VCL component TButtonthat encapsulates a button adds new behavior to it, so it has more capabilities. Other components just encapsulate without introducing any new behavior, for example that is the case with encapsulating TEdita text box .
The original VCL is written in Object Pascal . In order to be able to use the VCL with the Borland C ++ Builder, a special mechanism was developed. The current versions of Delphi or the C ++ Builder use the same code base of the VCL. In the past, the C ++ Builder usually lagged its Delphi counterpart by a few months.
Delphi for PHP does not use the Delphi VCL code base or the C ++ Builder. Borland bought the software from Quadram for this product, which was released in spring 2007, and connected it to an IDE based on Delphi. The VCL for PHP is now an open source project.
Further component collections
- ECO (Borland C # Builder)
- CLX (Kylix (Borland Delphi for Linux))
- FireMonkey
- API (Microsoft Visual C #, Microsoft Visual ...)
- SDL (Pascal)
- Turbo Vision - Class library for Turbo Pascal , which had a great influence on the VCL
- RTL , FCL and LCL , equivalents of the VCL in Lazarus and Free Pascal