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# Event Handling
Event handling is primarily supported for COM classes (C++ classes that implement COM objects, typically using ATL classes or the [coclass](../windows/coclass.md) attribute).  For more information, see [Event Handling in COM](../cpp/event-handling-in-com.md).  
  
 Event handling is also supported for native C++ classes (C++ classes that do not implement COM objects), however, that support is deprecated and will be removed in a future release.  For more information, see [Event Handling in Native C++](../cpp/event-handling-in-native-cpp.md).  
  
 Event handling supports single- and multithreaded usage and protects data from simultaneous multithread access. It also allows you to derive subclasses from event source or receiver classes and support extended event sourcing/receiving in the derived class.  
  
 Visual C++ includes attributes and keywords for declaring events and event handlers. The event attributes and keywords can be used in CLR programs and in native C++ programs.  
  
|Topic|Description|  
|-----------|-----------------|  
|[event_source](../windows/event-source.md)|Creates an event source.|  
|[event_receiver](../windows/event-receiver.md)|Creates an event receiver (sink).|  
|[__event](../cpp/event.md)|Declares an event.|  
|[__raise](../cpp/raise.md)|Emphasizes the call site of an event.|  
|[__hook](../cpp/hook.md)|Associates a handler method with an event.|  
|[__unhook](../cpp/unhook.md)|Dissociates a handler method from an event.|  
  
## See Also  
 [C++ Language Reference](../cpp/cpp-language-reference.md)   
 [Keywords](../cpp/keywords-cpp.md)   
 [Event Handling Samples](http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/cc0287d4-f92b-4da5-85fc-a0f186e16424)