This tag should be used for questions concerning Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC), a C++ framework for Windows desktop GUI application programming. You should specify a tag for the version of C++ or Visual Studio being used. Due to the size of MFC, additional tags such as [com], [wininet], [winapi] or other subject matter tags are helpful.
The Microsoft Foundation Class (MFC) framework provides an object-oriented abstraction layer on top of a large subset of the Win32 API. MFC offers a range of classes and templates covering almost all features used in developing a Windows desktop application. It provides models of architecture for the application in which it will be built, namely document - model - view available in three options:
- SDI applications (single paper interface: one window),
- MDI (multiple document interface: multiple windows)
- Dialog-Based applications (a modal dialog box interface).
There are several Visual Studio supplied application templates which provide a starting place for the look and feel of a new application. New templates with new functionality and behavior seen in Microsoft applications (docking windows) such as Visual Studio have been introduced over the years.
MFC uses a single inheritance model of the C++ language (i.e. no multiple inheritance); all the classes form a hierarchy. The newer MFC classes are identified by the prefix CMFC, as in CMFCPropertyPage, or by adding an Ex suffix, as in the CPropertyPageEx class.
Almost all MFC classes inherit from CObject and all window classes or control classes inherit from the CWnd class, which is the base class for all windows and includes all the basic treatments performed on a window such resizing or moving the window.
This MSDN chart give us an idea of class hierarchy:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ws8s10w4.aspx
For Windows UI development, MFC is a very thin layer over Win32 API, and hence is equivalently as fast as native Win32 GUI application. Some classes, for example, sockets and networking, may be considered slightly thicker. For COM and related stuff, it is considered quite heavy (and hence ATL is preferred).
The MFC model can feel restrictive in that when the application architecture does not quite fit the MFC paradigm of desktop GUI application, the framework can be difficult to extend without bypassing the Visual Studio class wizards and opting for hand coding.
For new development, STL containers should be preferred over the original MFC containers (CList, CArray, etc.). Why STL containers are preferred over MFC containers?
MFC multi-threading support is some what heavy and C++17/C++20 multi-threading and coroutines may be a better approach for background worker threads. However MFC has good support for user interface threads which require a message pump as well as support for the WinAPI thread synchronization library.
While earlier versions of Visual Studio provided an easy selection to install the MFC components as one of several standard packages, later versions appear to have MFC as more of an option that must be turned on.
More details at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Foundation_Class_Library
