Who knows the word [Instance] means?

I really hard to read and understand MSDN. So many difficult word to see. but I'll try to learn it to know more about programming. ^^

I have a question to you all guys~^^

The HInstance stands for Handle of Instance? I don't know exactly.

also I don't know the word Instance means?

I need your helps English natives.^^

I hope that it will not make you unpleasant.

Thank you for reading my notes.

A program (for example NOTEPAD.EXE) is a lump of executable code. When you "run" this you create a new process, and in that process you have some executable code (NOTEPAD.EXE). When you run notepad again (without closing the first copy), you now have two "instances" of Notepad.

So the Instance is just "this copy of my program". Some programs (Notepad) can have multiple Instances. Some programs (like Word tries to do) can only have one Instance, and when you open a new document it gets added to the first Instance of the program.

The Handle is just a pointer to the code / environment / memory / starting address / current address etc. that makes up this particular running Instance of the program.

A program (for example NOTEPAD.EXE) is a lump of executable code. When you "run" this you create a new process, and in that process you have some executable code (NOTEPAD.EXE). When you run notepad again (without closing the first copy), you now have two "instances" of Notepad.

So the Instance is just "this copy of my program". Some programs (Notepad) can have multiple Instances. Some programs (like Word tries to do) can only have one Instance, and when you open a new document it gets added to the first Instance of the program.

The Handle is just a pointer to the code / environment / memory / starting address / current address etc. that makes up this particular running Instance of the program.


Hi JordanChris,

I also having some questions about Instance.
When we are creating a Instance for a program, will it allocating required memory for that application in physical memory ??

I noticed the difference between ealy binding & late binding methods when I create a instace. Then, what is the difference between these two's when a instance creating ??