\section{wxDialog overview}\label{wxdialogoverview} Classes: \helpref{wxDialog}{wxdialog} A dialog box is similar to a panel, in that it is a window which can be used for placing controls, with the following exceptions: \begin{enumerate} \item A surrounding frame is implicitly created. \item Extra functionality is automatically given to the dialog box, such as tabbing between items (currently Windows only). \item If the dialog box is {\it modal}, the calling program is blocked until the dialog box is dismissed. \end{enumerate} Under Windows 3, modal dialogs have to be emulated using modeless dialogs and a message loop. This is because Windows 3 expects the contents of a modal dialog to be loaded from a resource file or created on receipt of a dialog initialization message. This is too restrictive for wxWindows, where any window may be created and displayed before its contents are created. For a set of dialog convenience functions, including file selection, see \rtfsp\helpref{Dialog functions}{dialogfunctions}. See also \helpref{wxPanel}{wxpanel} and \helpref{wxWindow}{wxwindow} for inherited member functions. Validation of data in controls is covered in \helpref{Validator overview}{validatoroverview}.