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<span id="openzim-page-title" class="mw-page-title-main"><span class="mw-page-title-main">Form (programming)</span></span>
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<p>In <a href="Software_component" title="Software component">component-based programming</a> (<a href="Visual_Basic" title="Visual Basic">Visual Basic</a>, <a href=".NET_Framework" title=".NET Framework">.NET</a> <a href="WinForms" class="mw-redirect" title="WinForms">WinForms</a>, <a href="Gambas" title="Gambas">Gambas</a>, <a href="Delphi_(IDE)" class="mw-redirect" title="Delphi (IDE)">Delphi</a>, <a href="Lazarus_(IDE)" class="mw-redirect" title="Lazarus (IDE)">Lazarus</a> etc.), a <b>form</b> is a representation of a <a href="GUI" class="mw-redirect" title="GUI">GUI</a> window. A form contains components and <a href="Widget_(GUI)" class="mw-redirect" title="Widget (GUI)">controls</a>, typically including "OK" and "Cancel" buttons; these objects provide a high-level abstraction of standard or custom widgets which are typically much easier to manipulate than the GUI's underlying API.
</p><p>At design time, visual controls (buttons, text boxes, and the like) and non-visual components (timers, <a href="Database_connection" title="Database connection">database connections</a>, layout aids, and so on) are placed on the form. These controls and components are positioned and sized interactively, and their properties and <a href="Event_handler" class="mw-redirect" title="Event handler">event handlers</a> are set with a special editor typically laid out as a grid.
</p><p>At runtime, automatically generated code creates instances of these controls and components, and sets their properties.
</p><p>Historically, forms were often implemented as screens on a <a href="Block-oriented_terminal" class="mw-redirect" title="Block-oriented terminal">block-oriented terminal</a> connected to a mainframe computer. <a href="Form_(HTML)" class="mw-redirect" title="Form (HTML)">HTML forms</a> are conceptually very similar.
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<div class="mw-heading mw-heading2"><h2 id="See_also">See also</h2></div>
<ul><li><a href="Form_(document)" title="Form (document)">Form (document)</a></li>
<li><a href="Form_(HTML)" class="mw-redirect" title="Form (HTML)">Form (HTML)</a></li>
<li><a href="Master-detail" class="mw-redirect" title="Master-detail">Master-detail</a></li>
<li><a href="Oracle_Forms" title="Oracle Forms">Oracle Forms</a></li>
<li><a href="Windows_Forms" title="Windows Forms">Windows Forms</a></li>
<li><a href="Windows_Presentation_Foundation" title="Windows Presentation Foundation">Windows_Presentation_Foundation</a></li>
<li><a href="Xamarin.Forms" class="mw-redirect" title="Xamarin.Forms">Xamarin.Forms</a></li>
<li><a href="XForms" title="XForms">XForms</a></li></ul>
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This article is issued from <a class="external text" title="Last edited on 2025-06-30" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/?title=Form_(programming)&oldid=1298132948">Wikipedia</a>. The text is available under <a class="external text" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en">Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0</a> unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.
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