Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (Microsoft .NET Development Series) [Paperback]

Chris Sells (Author), Michael Weinhardt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 26, 2006 | ISBN-10: 0321267966 | ISBN-13: 978-0321267962 | Edition: Second edition

Any Windows programmer using .NET will need to deal with Windows Forms, also known as WinForms. And use of .NET among Windows programmers continues to grow at a rapid pace. The bestselling book on WinForms 1.X, and by far the best reviewed one, was Chris Sells' book. Chris and his coauthor, Mike Weinhardt, have updated it completely for the just released WinForms 2.0. The first edition was so successful in fact that there will be much less competition for this new edition. It is almost twice as long, reflecting the increased complexity of WinForms 2.0 and the number of changes made. It is also much more timely, coming out just a few months after the release of the product; it should be the first book on WinForms 2.0 tested completely against the final release code, not just the Beta 2 code. Given the amount of changes in WinForms 2.0, people who have already purchased the first edition will want the new edition, not just programmers just starting with .NET. So all in all, this book should sell even better than the very successful first edition did.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

“Some books are different-the content can't be Googled from the Internet, the authors have real-life experiences to share, the code can be used in real-world projects. This is one of those books.”

–Neal Myrddin, Independent Developer

 

“Chris and Michael nail the soul of Windows Forms 2.0. This book provides an insightful view into the design of Windows Forms and the integration of new 2.0 features. It is just as applicable for the first-time Windows Forms programmer as the seasoned line of business developer. The ‘What’s New in 2.0’ appendix is worth the price of admission alone.”

–Mike Harsh, Windows Forms Program Manager, Microsoft, Inc.

 

“This book takes an amazingly broad and deep technology, and breaks it into manageable pieces that are easily consumed. You cannot survive building a complex WinForms application without this book.”

–Ryan Dorrell, Chief Technology Officer, AgileThought

 

“Windows Forms 2.0 Programming offers something for every .NET developer. Experienced developers will appreciate the in-depth coverage of new 2.0 features, including the most comprehensive coverage of ClickOnce deployment, multithreading, and the new designer integration found anywhere. Developers new to Winforms programming will appreciate the coverage of the fundamentals all Winforms developers need to know. Whether you’re an experienced WinForms developer or just beginning, you need this book.” 

–Fritz Onion, cofounder of Pluralsight, author of Essential ASP.NET, and ASP.NET MVP

 

“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. All of us who found the first edition of this book to be an indispensible part of our reference library will appreciate this updated edition that describes WinForms 2.0.”

–Johan Ericsson, Software Engineer, Agilent Technologies

 

“The books Chris Sells writes are always insightful and this newest addition is no different. This book in particular is for those who want to understand not just the flashy surface of Windows Forms 2.0, but also how it fits into the .NET environment. Readers will have this book at their desks, not stuck on their shelves, for quite a long time.”

–Yoshimatsu Fumiaki, Software Engineer based in Tokyo Japan

 

“Chris and Mike have done an excellent job presenting the information you need to be successful with Windows Forms.”

–Jessica Fosler, Dev Tech Lead, Microsoft

 

“This book is the ‘must have’ teaching and reference book for WinForms 2.0.”

–Jim Rittenhouse, Senior Software Engineer, Siemens

 

Windows Forms 2.0 Programming is the successor to the highly praised Windows Forms Programming in C#. This edition has been significantly updated to amalgamate the sheer mass of new and improved support that is encompassed by Windows Forms 2.0, the .NET Framework 2.0, and Visual Studio 2005. This is the one book developers need in order to learn how to build and deploy leading-edge Windows Forms 2.0 applications.

 

Readers will gain a deep understanding from Sells and Weinhardt’s practical, well-balanced approach to the subject and clear code samples.

 

  •  Windows Forms 2.0 fundamentals, including forms, dialogs, data validation, help, controls, components, and rendering

  •  Static and dynamic layout, snap lines, HTML-style flow and table layout, automatic resizing, and automatic cross-DPI scaling

  •  Office 2003-style tool strip control coverage, including dynamic layout and custom rendering

  •  Design-time integration with the Visual Studio 2005 Properties Window and Smart Tags

  •  Resource management, strongly typed resources, and internationalization considerations

  •  Strongly typed application and user settings

  •  SDI, MDI, Single Instancing, Multiple-Instance SDI, Single-Instance MDI, database-centric, and document-centric applications

  •  Databinding data-source management, drag-and-drop databinding, the BindingSource, the BindingNavigator, and applied databinding

  •  Events, delegates, multithreaded UIs, long-running operations, simplified multithreading with the BackgroundWorker, and asynchronous web service calls

  •  ClickOnce application development publishing, shell integration, and partial trust security

  •  Best practices for developers transitioning from Windows Forms 1.0 and MFC

 

About the Author

Chris Sells is a program manager for the Connected Systems Division. He’s written several books, including Programming Windows Presentation Foundation (O’Reilly), Windows Forms Programming in C# (Addison-Wesley), and ATL Internals (Addison-Wesley). In his free time, Chris hosts various conferences and makes a pest of himself on Microsoft internal product team discussion lists. More information about Chris–and his various projects–is available at www.sellsbrothers.com.

 

Michael Weinhardt is a programmer/writer at Microsoft, working on the Windows Client SDK. Michael has coauthored a variety of articles with Chris, contributed to the “Wonders of Windows Forms” column at MSDN Online, reviewed several Windows technology books, and generally loves communicating the whys and wherefores of technology to his peers. Michael is sure that his parents attribute his fascination in technology to their purchase of an Amiga 1000 in the mid-80s. They would be right.

 

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 1296 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional; Second edition edition (May 26, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0321267966
• ISBN-13: 978-0321267962
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.2 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (30 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #134,710 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Computers & Technology > Microsoft > Development > .NET

More About the Author

Chris Sells is a Program Manager for the Microsoft Developer Division. He's written several books, including Programming WPF, Windows Forms 2.0 Programming and ATL Internals. In his free time, Chris hosts various conferences and makes a pest of himself on Microsoft internal product team discussion lists. More information about Chris, and his various projects, is available at http://www.sellsbrothers.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not good but the only book around, August 28, 2006

By 

R. Meier "book guru" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (Paperback)

I own Chris Sells "Windows Forms Programming in C#". This is an absolutely excellent book. I was expecting that "Windows Forms 2.0 Programming" by Chris & Michael will be mainly an update and extension to version 2.0. Unfortunately, this is not the case at all. The book is a mess with bits an pieces all over. Compared to the formarly mentioned book the examples are bad and often not very helpful. The index is terrible, too. At the time I bought this book (I ordered it before it was out) it was the only one about Windows Forms 2.0. If you find another one don't buy this book. If there is no other one, well, I guess then you don't have another choice...

20 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Try MSDN Instead..., September 8, 2006

By 

F. Quintanilla (TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (Paperback)

What a disappointment. I went in to this book knowing almost nothing about Windows Forms. After reading it, I think I know less now than when I started.

It's hard to describe what's so wrong about this book. I think someone else who reviewed it said that it's neither a beginner's tutorial nor an advanced guide to Forms. That's so true! It's like the authors cobbled together little scraps of knowledge about MANY different aspects of Forms programming and called it a book. There's absolutely no depth here. They typically start off talking about a subject, and then quickly end this discussion with an implied "...the rest of this should be fairly intuitive. Now, on to the next mini-topic..."

What a waste. This book could have been so much more. I think they could have put the paper is was printed on to a better use by just printing out all of the Microsoft Forms namespace members/classes/etc. I learned a lot more about Forms by just looking at the free info on MSDN. Save yourself the $40 and do the same.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book(s) I've found on Windows Forms programming, January 12, 2007

By 

J. Tentschert - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (Microsoft .NET Development Series) (Paperback)

I purchased the first edition of this book not long after it came out and subsequently bought this, the second edition (covering .NET 2.0). These are the best books I've found for Windows Forms programming.

One of the problems I've had with other books (e.g. the books by Charles Petzold) is that they will often show several ways to do the same thing with no discussion as to the advantages and drawbacks to each. In Windows Forms Programming, the authors get to the point and concisely explain the reasoning behind the code shown. As an example, in the beginning of the first chapter they start with creating your main form and displaying it - just a few lines of code. But they show that there are a few ways one might consider doing this which are wrong and explain why, going on to show the canonical way to start your app's main form. With experience, what they show seems obvious but as someone new to Windows programming I found this instructive. The Windows API is huge for someone coming to it for the first time and there are often many different ways to do a one thing. I felt like this text gave me some of the same 'group wisdom' that I got from many of the great Unix programming texts I've used in the past (APUE by Stevens for example). Just because something can be done a particular way doesn't mean it's the best/'right' way to do something and this text seemed to show just that.

I also found the writing style very readable. This book didn't strike me as being for completely inexperienced/beginner programmers, but it's completely accessible for beginning Windows programmers with clear explanations that were just the right length. Based on other books I've purchased, I've found that most other authors in this area seem to enjoy explaining and will use 20 words where 10 will do. I won't mention any more names of competing authors, but I hate reading programming texts that spend half their time trying to be witty with silly chapter titles and long-winded text. I don't like going back to look something up just to find, e.g., a chapter entitled "Console Thyself". I want to get the information quickly and get back to work. This book seemed logically structured and until now moving to WPF, I referenced the text often.

Highly recommended.