Events

In the 1950s and 1960s, computer programs allowed for little user interaction. You fed in your data and instructions, and an answer popped out. As computers evolved, simple text-based menus were added. At specified times in the running of the program, the user could make choices and the program would respond accordingly. In the 1980s and 1990s, Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) were developed, and computer programming was revolutionized.

In a modern Windows program, the user constantly interacts with the system: moving, clicking, and dragging the mouse or entering characters at the keyboard.

In Microsoft Windows the widgets with which the user interacts are called controls, and controls are visible on the monitor from the moment a modern program starts. In a Windows application, the user's action completely determines the order of execution of a program. This is called event-driven programming.

User actions, such as clicking on a button, generate (or "raise") events. Other events are generated by the system itself. For example, your program might raise an event when a file has been read into memory, your battery's power is running low, or a timer indicates that a specified time interval has passed.