Windows Forms Programming in C# (Microsoft .Net Development) [Paperback]

Much of the publicity around .NET has focused on using .NET to build Webbased applications. Many developers, however, are using .NET to build traditional Windows-based applications. Microsoft has provided a package called Windows Forms, or WinForms, which makes the development of these apps easier and faster than ever. Chris Sells has written the definitive book to help experienced Microsoft developers master the use of this powerful toolkit.

Based on the experience he has gained developing with and teaching WinForms for the last two years, he goes beyond other books currently on the market. Chris has a critically acclaimed writing style that allows him to keep the material concise and easy to follow. He concentrates on what you won't find in the documentation, giving developers the information they really need.

Reviewers are already calling this "the best WinForms book around", "the definitive book for every Windows Programmer", and "without a doubt the best and most useful C#/WinFOrms book I have ever read." We will be publishing a Visual Basic .NET version later this year.

Praise for Windows Forms Programming in C#

“Chris may have a strong affinity for semi-colons, but anybody who’s programming Windows Forms needs to read this book.”

“Chris Sells has done it again. This book has everything a developer needs to know to write serious WinForms applications. Chris leaves no stone unturned in explaining the WinForms programming model and arming developers with the knowledge they need to exploit WinForms to the fullest. And, as if that weren’t enough, Chris’s writing style makes this book a page-turner for geeks. I couldn’t put it down! Until John Grisham gets the .NET religion, you won’t find a better WinForms book anywhere.”

“Chris is clearly *the* expert on web deployment of WinForms. In this book, Chris explains this material clearly and the power of the technology really shows. Unlike other WinForms books, this manuscript takes a more practical approach to the use of programming tools, such as Visual Studio. Sells’s book strikes a nice balance between theory and practice. Windows Forms is an important technology that needs more press. Chris Sells’ book is in great position to be the definitive work on the emerging technology.”

“Chris has written the best WinForms book around. Period.”

“Chris does a nice job of presenting the core elements of WinForms complete with many concise samples and graphic depictions of UI features in action. Even more compelling, however, is how Chris anticipates how most developers will want to use these features, and presents techniques and paradigms of usage that will be invaluable for any serious WinForms developer. This book is destined to become dog-eared in the hands anyone building WinForms applications.”

“I don’t want just a description of the WinForms widgets. I can get that online or from other books. What I want is a roadmap for pitfalls to avoid, and innovative solutions for common problems. That is where this book shines.”

“This is the definitive book for every Windows Programmer.”

“After browsing through countless books that introduce me to Windows Forms basics, it is refreshing to find a book that dives right into some real hard-core programming. This is, without a doubt the best and most useful C#/WinForms book I have ever read. I would suggest this book to be essential reading for very serious .NET WinForms developer who wants to work smarter instead of harder.”

“In this book, Chris Sells discusses how the Windows Forms classes and their supporting infrastructure can be used to write robust and rich smart client applications. If you’re an experienced Windows programmer who has previously used MFC or directly utilized the Win32 API to write such applications, you will find Chris’s direct delivery very appropriate for transferring your knowledge to the managed classes. If you’re a developer with less Windows development experience, you’ll find the treatment of core concepts in application UI programming indispensable.”

"I think this book does a great job of hitting a huge number of features—sometimes I forget how much there is to WinForms!"—Chris Anderson, Software Architect, Microsoft Windows Forms team

Programming Windows Forms in C# is the ultimate guide to using the Microsoft .NET forms package. Readers learn how to build smart client applications that take full advantage of both the rich user interface features of the Microsoft Windows operating system and the deployment features of HTML-based applications. Author Chris Sells draws upon his WinForms research and programming experience to provide what the Windows Forms documentation could not: a clear picture of exactly how C# programmers will want to use WinForms.

Well-written and easy to navigate, this book presents the building blocks of WinForms and the best practices for creating stand-alone client applications and front ends to databases and Web services. Readers gain an understanding of the rationale behind aspects of WinForms' design and will find out how to avoid or solve common problems. Figures illustrate WinForms' user interface features and code samples are used throughout the book to demonstrate best practices. All code has been tested with Visual Studio .NET 1.1 and is available at www.sellsbrothers.com, where readers will also find updates to the book.

This book focuses on the topics readers need to understand in order to build real-world applications. These topics include:

• Multiple top-level windows
• Non-rectangular windows
• Accessing data from the middle tier, filesystems, XML, databases, and Web services
• Classes outside the System.WinForms namespace, including System.Drawing and System.Security
• Custom drawing
• Hosting and building controls
• Design-time integration
• Data binding
• Multithreaded user interfaces
• Deploying WinForms over the Web
• Moving from MFC
• Delegates and events
• Serialization basics

Programming Windows Forms in C# is the tutorial for experienced Windows programmers who are serious about mastering Windows Forms.