Chapter 1 Introduction to Objective Chart

Welcome to Objective Chart

Objective Chart is a complete library of MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class) extension classes that you can use to add efficient and complex charting capabilities to Windows applications.

Objective Chart is a graphic drawing package that can render complex chart graphics to any windows GDI. Commonly used to paint chart data in a view associated with a document, it can also draw the data to printer and metafile device contexts. The display of graphics is handled by a component-based drawing system that uses a list of individual components to create a montage of drawn items. These items include chart displays, legends, titles, and labels.

The system is interactive. Chart tips display information about the data item under the mouse cursor. Users can manipulate data values by dragging displayed items with the mouse. Data can be maintained in an internal data array or accessed from external memory.

Objective Chart supports a large variety of chart types and style settings that define the appearance of the chart elements. Through its class-based architecture, you can easily extend and enhance these basic capabilities by using the chart extension system.

The Objective Chart classes fit seamlessly with MFC and in many cases inherit from existing MFC classes, such as CView or CObject. Objective Chart is fully compatible with MFC, and with the latest 32-bit and 64-bit releases of Visual C++. For your convenience, Objective Chart is tightly integrated with the Visual Studio user interface.