<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1"><title>Introduction</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.65.1"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="GObject Reference Manual"><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="GObject Reference Manual"><link rel="previous" href="index.html" title="GObject Reference Manual"><link rel="next" href="rn01.html" title="API Reference"><link rel="preface" href="pr01.html" title="Introduction"><link rel="reference" href="rn01.html" title="API Reference"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Type-Information.html" title="GType"><link rel="refentry" href="GTypePlugin.html" title="GTypePlugin"><link rel="refentry" href="GTypeModule.html" title="GTypeModule"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-The-Base-Object-Type.html" title="GObject"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Enumeration-and-Flag-Types.html" title="Enums and Flags"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Boxed-Types.html" title="GBoxed"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Generic-values.html" title="Generic Values"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Standard-Parameter-and-Value-Types.html" title="Parameters and Values"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Varargs-Value-Collection.html" title="Varargs Value Collection"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-GParamSpec.html" title="GParamSpec"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Signals.html" title="Signals"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Closures.html" title="Closures"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-Value-arrays.html" title="Value arrays"><link rel="reference" href="rn02.html" title="Tools Reference"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-mkenums.html" title="glib-mkenums"><link rel="refentry" href="glib-genmarshal.html" title="glib-genmarshal"><link rel="refentry" href="gobject-query.html" title="gobject-query"><link rel="index" href="ix01.html" title="Index"><meta name="generator" content="GTK-Doc V1.2 (XML mode)"><link rel="stylesheet" href="style.css" type="text/css"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><table class="navigation" width="100%" summary="Navigation header" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="2"><tr valign="middle"><td><a accesskey="p" href="index.html"><img src="left.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Prev"></a></td><td><a accesskey="h" href="index.html"><img src="home.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Home"></a></td><th width="100%" align="center">GObject Reference Manual</th><td><a accesskey="n" href="rn01.html"><img src="right.png" width="24" height="24" border="0" alt="Next"></a></td></tr></table><div class="preface" lang="en"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a name="id2749050"></a>Introduction</h2></div></div><div></div></div><p> Most modern programming languages come with their own native object systems and additional fundamental algorithmic language constructs. Just as GLib serves as an implementation of such fundamental types and algorithms (linked lists, hash tables and so forth), the GLib Object System provides the required implementations of a flexible extensible and intentionally easy to map (into other languages) object oriented framework for C. The substantial elements that are provided can be summarized as: </p><div class="variablelist"><table border="0"><col align="left" valign="top"><tbody><tr><td><span class="term"></span></td><td><p> * A generic type system to register arbitrary single-inherited flat and deep derived types as well as interfaces for structured types. It takes care of creation, initialization and memory management of the assorted object and class structures, maintains parent/child relationships and deals with dynamic implementations of such types. That is, their type specific implementations are relocatable/unloadable during runtime. </p></td></tr><tr><td><span class="term"></span></td><td><p> * A collection of fundamental type implementations, such as integers, doubles, enums and structured types, to name a few. </p></td></tr><tr><td><span class="term"></span></td><td><p> * A sample fundamental type implementation to base object hierarchies upon - the GObject fundamental type. </p></td></tr><tr><td><span class="term"></span></td><td><p> * A signal system that allows very flexible user customization of virtual/overridable object methods and can serve as a powerful notification mechanism. </p></td></tr><tr><td><span class="term"></span></td><td><p> * An extensible parameter/value system, supporting all the provided fundamental types that can be used to generically handle object properties or otherwise parameterized types. </p></td></tr></tbody></table></div><p> </p></div><table class="navigation" width="100%" summary="Navigation footer" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0"><tr valign="middle"><td align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="index.html"><b><< GObject Reference Manual</b></a></td><td align="right"><a accesskey="n" href="rn01.html"><b>API Reference >></b></a></td></tr></table></body></html>