Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#

By Matthew MacDonald

Book Overview

By using C# and the final beta of NET 2.0, this book covers Windows Forms and GDI+ namespaces thoroughly for the .NET programmer in 2005. Experienced author Matthew MacDonald achieves this by combining careful treatment of the API with detailed discussion of solid user-interface design principles. This is an update for .NET 2.0 of MacDonald's previous edition (1590590457) which gained wide community recognition. Upon reading this edition, you will be equipped to design state-of-the-art Windows interfaces and program graphics, and know how to create your own controls

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590594398
• ISBN13: 9781590594391
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 1080 Pages
• Weight: 3.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 2.2" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Master of Controls

Since the moment when I took this book in my hands and was able to make practice with the examples on this book, I was able to feel recognized the simplicity in the complexity of the controls. The examples are clear and very well done, impeccables and flawless a good thing for the newbie and the old programmer. I am enjoying the controls that allow me to click on them and assign my own properties.

Excellent Windows Forms and Custom Controls Coverage

This book covers everything you need to know about Windows Forms and Custom Controls. It is very thorough and well written. The code samples work well and are well organized. It doesn't cover the smart client gamut, like data storage, communication, or architecture in context to smart client applications. Which is ok. No book currently out covers smart client properly, but windows forms are the front end to smart clients so it would have been nice to have them placed into the smart client context. And just to clear up the review below. Turn to page 94 for all the classic common dialogs. Mathew didn't miss anything in this book. Relate to Windows Forms UI development. He also emphasizes using proper UI architecture and getting business logic out of the UI and develops his samples accordingly.

The controls and nothing but

Don't buy this book if you need to learn ADO.NET, file access, the common language runtime, or any other "starter" .NET topic. This book isn't a general introduction to writing a Windows application. (If you want that, read Jesse Liberty's fairly good "Programming .NET Windows Applications" instead.) This book is a drill-down, no-holds-barred, VERY comprehensive look at programming advanced WinForms interfaces. It gives the full details on every control, complete with great advice for customizing and extending them. (Custom controls are a major theme in this book.) There's excellent content here that just can't be found in the MSDN, like tips for using layout engines, mixing web and windows contet, and multithreading an interface. This book was written with support from Microsoft's Windows Forms team, and it shows--the content on many subjects is several degrees more comprehensive that any I've seen before. All in all, this is a stand-out choice for professional developers who already know .NET and C#.

Definitive. Comprehensive. Brilliant.

I have the author's .NET 1.0 version of the same book, so I knew this would be good. But when it was delivered I was amazed--it's more than twice as long and packed with advanced content & examples. I haven't found any book that covers the new .NET 2.0 controls (like the DataGridView, ToolStrip, and WebBrowser) in such exhaustive detail, including page after page of amazing ways to extend them. If you're at all interested, I recommend you check out the table of contents on the Apress site, and you'll be sold. After all, how can a WinForms book disappoint when it has 9 chapters about custom control development?? Not to mention multithreading, a basic doc-view framework, and the best guide to using the new layout features I've found to date. Highly recommended.

Custom Controls

Great book. As I read each chapter I've found useful information that I'm retrofitting to my current project. This a good resource book as well as a primer for control development. There's good use of pictures to identify dialog and control features something not included in MSDN's help. Additionally, the book gives better details on each control property. The code examples are solid with a good bit of detail beyond simple functionality. This is excellent book for both novices as well as advanced programmers. I've been recommending it to my coworkers. My only regret is not having this book a couple years ago when I started programming with the .Net framework and certainly at the beginning of last year when I started using the 2.0 Framework.