There is also the issue of dynamically creating the GUI. If you create a docking/floating toolbar for example, which object stores the toolbar? The docked frame or the floating frame?
Fow win32gui, I don't worry about this. Anyway, the OS has to have some sort of "parent" property and ways to enumerate the windows. (of course, I might be wrong - I'm only very familiar with Widows OS). Thus, internally I have a map: from HWND handle to a pointer to a window. Whenever, I need something like, the parent(), I find a HWND handle to the parent, and then look it up in my map. Then, simply return it. Best, John -- John Torjo -- john@torjo.com Contributing editor, C/C++ Users Journal -- "Win32 GUI Generics" -- generics & GUI do mix, after all -- http://www.torjo.com/win32gui/ -- v1.4 - save_dlg - true binding of your data to UI controls! + easily add validation rules (win32gui/examples/smart_dlg)