Event-Driven Programming: Introduction, Tutorial, History

Stephen Ferg — January 2006


In late 2005, I was trying to learn event-driven programming. I searched the Web for an explanation of the basic concepts of event-driven programming, but I couldn't find one. So I wrote one. I hope it will help you in your attempt to learn event-driven programming.

You can download the paper HERE. It is available in both PDF format and in Microsoft Word format. I make it available in Microsoft Word format so that it will be easy to translate or subset the document, complete with embedded images.

This document is finalized and no longer being actively maintained, but if you wish you can leave a review.


Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 License.


The Creative Commons Attribution License gives you permission to do virtually anything you want with this work, including copying all or part of it, distributing it, and making derived works (including translations) based on it - as long as you give credit to the original author (Stephen Ferg).

In particular, I encourage teachers to make copies of all or parts of this document for their students, and I encourage translators to translate this document into other languages. It is not necessary to ask for permission.

A diagram of the Extended Handlers design pattern