Customer Reviews

Windows Forms 2.0 Programming (Microsoft .NET Development Series)

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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...

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.

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.

Had this book on order since before it came out.
I finally got my copy a week ago and it's come in handy every day since.

With such a large volume of information and hogh number of topics covered, the book is a great place to go to get at any of the WinForms fundamentals.

While some topics are only touched on briefly, they all provide a great place to start.

The Data Binding chapters were particularly great. One read over completely demystified databanding for me. The presentation is logical and starts from a "common sense" place and then shows how WinForms features accomplish what you would otherwise do by hand.

Highly recommended book to have for any person or shop that develops WinForms apps.

When great brains gathered to write about the most popular development platform over the (yet) most popular operating system, the result is enjoyable journey in the .Net fields.

All major subjects are covered with unique Sellsy humor that delivered the C# Bedtime Story and such.

This book is recommended even to those who write Asp.Net apps since its dealing with the .Net fundamentals.

If you do serious Windows programming this is a must have book.
Chris and Michael covered nearly every aspect of Windows 2.0 programming, from "Hello World" to ClickOnce, from GDI+ to Databinding in a pleasant to read big book where every argument is described in a detailed way.
I recommend this book even if you own previous release, it has nearly totally rewritten and (that's what i like most) it emphasize what's new on version 2.0.

This is a mixture of reference and in depth overview. It covers all of the features and design ideas behind windows forms 2.0, but it does not walk the user through an entire application or attempt explain every subtle property or event of the DatagridView for example.
I learned about how to use many useful features of the new framework from this book and it gives a solid overview of windows forms.

This book is King of Forms! It covers all the topics needed to build a strong, full featured "Windows" like form. One of few programming books I have actually read from cover to cover and it still serves me well as reference. A must have text.

another excellent book from mr. Sells. has thorough coverage of the rich UI environment that .NET provides for windows application development. this book has complete coverage of the enormous jump in Microsoft's framework from version 1 to 2. from dialogs to settings to deployment and includes a very helpful set of appendices which includes special coverage of drap and drop, delegates, a component reference, some MFC comments, and more.

This book is all over the place, it doesn't provide good step by step instructions and it is not a good reference.