ActiveX Controls on the Web
When creating an application with software like
Visual Basic, you first design the interface (GUI), the objects that make it possible to interact with the application.----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Controls are mechanisms used to get user input and to display program output. They include text boxes, command buttons, list boxes, or option buttons. (See Visual Basic.) Each control has its properties, methods, and events.
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Controls are active insofar as they provide user-application interaction. But they aren't ActiveX controls if they can't be lifted out of the current program to be used in other programs. They're bound, so to speak, to their home application, whereas ActiveX controls have multi-program utility.
What makes ActiveX applications different from ordinary applications is that a container object is needed to execute them. A container object is like a parent to a child. It is the reference for the application. Examples of container objects include Internet Explorer, the Microsoft Office Binder, and the new Windows shell.
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Events of a more complex nature than a data search might involve processing spreadsheet functions or systems of equations and generating interactive visual displays. The latter event (i.e., using equations) is processing you'd encounter when running a simulation to do a study or to train skills. The controls to do the job may best be of the ActiveX variety. Because of these control devices, interaction with page content can be intensified. The heightened interaction, in turn, can yield more complete instruction.
Processing may even need to be distributed among various computers. When this occurs, we have to deal with object production and linking and embedding (what used to be called OLE, pronounced oh-lay. We also have to understand what an object is, and what is meant by object-oriented programming (OOP).
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