User Interfaces in VB .Net: Windows Forms and Custom Controls

by Matthew MacDonald

Book Overview

* Shows how to create elegant custom controls tailored to your data and application logic--in almost every chapter! * Describes the architecture of a well-planned user interface: everything from data binding strategies to document-view architecture with MDI * Shows how to create dynamic user interfaces, dockable windows, and your own vector-based drawing program * Teaches GDI+ essentials like hit testing, irregularly shaped forms, owner-drawn menus,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1590590449
• ISBN13: 9781590590447
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Apress
• Length: 624 Pages
• Weight: 2.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 7.5" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Great book

I'm a fairly new programmer in vb.net(finished vb.net II) and I found this book to be VERY good. Yes it is very theory intensive but the examples it gives are fairly straight forward and if you aren't the world's best programmer they show you how to make controls to make some really slick looking programs.There are a few .net 1.0 examples that will not work in the new 1.1 (notably the xp theme visualizations) but this book is well worth it if you are interested in making some "professional" looking forms for your application.

Comprehensive Guidelines on .NET Controls

I found this book to be excellent. It isn't 100% comprehensive, but it is full of real, practical code and suggestions for using controls. It's the only book I've found that dealt with the treeview, listview, and imagelist in enough detail. Particularly noteworthy are the descriptions on how to create custom controls based on these controls that have built-in application meaning. For example, the book explains how to create a treeview that has a hard-coded "structure" and exposes custom methods for adding/navigating your type of data. Similar advice is given with validation, drag-and-drop, form inheritance, MDI workspaces, and data binding strategies. Basically, the book is a solid guide to mastering .NET controls. Note that this book isn't the best place to learn GDI+. Although there are two excellent chapters on the subject and the basic charting control, both Apress and Wrox provide dedicated GDI+ books that focus more closely on custom drawing. Probably the best example in the book is the document-view architecture with the print preview--simple, elegant, and worth the trouble. Overall, high-content, well-written and genuinely **USEFUL**!

Great book, just what you need to know

It is interesting to compare this book to the one by Petzold which I also regard as a "must buy" - but for different reasons. Macdonald's book is much more manageable than Petzold but still seemed to contain everything I wanted to know about Windows forms. Petzold on the other hand is roughly twice as long and thus far more complete. Petzold is also perhaps a slightly more interesting writer than MacDonald - but then I am not sure everybody needs the details provided by Petzold...In sum if you can afford only one book and need the definitive reference, get Petzold as it is *so* complete. However if you want a book you will turn to on a day to day basis and likey read from cover to cover get Macdonald.

Matthew MacDonald never disappoints..!

I were undecided whether to buy "Windows Forms Programming with C# by Erik Brown" but then waited for this book. I totally enjoyed reading his ASP.NET Complete Reference book, know his "The book of VB.NET" is extremely good. His other ASP.NET in a nutshell book also got good reviews and i am eagerly waiting for his New Rider's ".NET Distributed Applications: Integrating Web Services and Remoting". So far he is one of my most favorite author other than Andrew Troelsen, Jeffrey Richter and Jeff Prosise - so knowledgeable and clear..!. Anybody who has read any other book written by MacDonald so far knows what i am talking.Almost every visual basic.net control is explained with utmost clarity with their usage, examples and even design. Covers everything you will ever need to become a rich client front-end .NET developer..!

Exactly what I was looking for

I have bought a whole bunch of books about VB.NET only to find that they all gloss over Windows Forms and don't teach you very much about making rich Windows client applications with this very capable language. This book gives in-depth coverage of all of the major Windows Forms controls and lots of good advice for how to use them to present good user interfaces as well a comprehensive chapters on user and custom controls. I highly recommend it.