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Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET
- By Chris Sells, Justin Ghetland
- Published Oct 22, 2003 by Addison-Wesley Professional. Part of the Microsoft Windows Development Series series.
Book
- Sorry, this book is no longer in print.
About
Features
Striking a balance between theory and practice, "Software Legend" Chris Sells has written the definitive book on WinForms Programming.
° The WinForms team at Microsoft praises Chris as a definitive authority; Microsoft has named Chris one of eight "Software Legends"
° The content and structure are based on years of experience both building apps with WinForms as well as teaching other developers about WinForms
° Alan Cooper, the "father of Visual Basic", has provided the foreword for the book
Description
- Copyright 2004
- Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/4"
- Pages: 736
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-12519-3
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-12519-4
Much of the publicity around .NET has focused on using .NET to build Web-based applications and Web services. 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 year, 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. While this book is basically similar to his book on WinForms for C# developers, Chris has brought in Visual Basic .NET expert Justin Gehtland to make sure that the style and content of this version are fully optimized for the needs and concerns of Visual Basic coders.
Sample Content
Table of Contents
1. Hello, Windows Forms.
2. Forms.
3. Dialogs.
4. Drawing Basics.
5. Drawing Text.
6. Advanced Drawing.
7. Printing.
8. Controls.
9. Design-Time Integration.
10. Resources.
11. Applications & Settings.
12. Data Sets & Designer Support.
13. Data Binding & Data Grids.
14. Multi-Threaded User Interfaces.
15. Web Deployment.
Appendix A: Moving From VB6.
Appendix B: Delegates & Events.
Appendix C: Serialization Basics.
Appendix D: Standard WinForms Components & Controls.
Foreword
Foreword #1
Years ago Gary Kildall, the late computer scientist and guru of operating systems and programming languages, was infamous for his documentation. It was precise, accurate and complete, but so terse and austere that it was next to useless. But amazingly, once you had learned about his software the hard way, you could read his doc and see that the answers had always been right there, hidden in plain sight. That same "right-but-useless" style of documentation continues to plague us today, and .NET is certainly a devil's playground of three-inch-thick books packed with facts that don't help. The book you have in your hand right now is different.
When I began to use .NET as a platform, the first secret weapon I discovered was Chris Sells. He is a master at not just giving you the facts, but also sufficient context to really understand how to get the most from the platform. That context includes insights into what WinForms is doing, hints on good .NET programming doctrine and style, and some of the most useful source code examples I've ever seen. Too many books and blogs give snippets of source code that are too brief to be useful (Gary Kildall would have been proud). Other books and Websites give excruciatingly long source listings that obscure as much as they teach. I call Chris's source examples Goldilocks code because they are "just right." Chris can do this because he has satisfied the three big prerequisites: 1) he knows the material cold; 2) he has used it in real-world coding; and 3) he has taught it to others.
Chris is a most prolific author, speaker and commentator on all things .NET. He knows how to help you get practical, real-world software onto your screen with WinForms better than anybody and is deservedly famous for his contributions. While not alone in this field, he is one-of-a-kind in clarity and usefulness with his natural knack for making the most obscure technical processes clear and obvious. When I found myself banging my head against some unclear, uncooperative object, I could always turn to the draft manuscript of this book (which Chris had generously shared with me) and find the answer right away. Along with the answer, I could always depend on finding a concise and clear explanation of what was really going on with WinForms, along with some useful insight into how to make my code cleaner and clearer, not to mention faster.
Chris has followed the same idea in Windows Forms for Visual Basic .NET Programmers that guided me while creating the visual programming paradigm of Visual Basic: It's nice to know how everything works, but it's nicer still to know how to work everything. The result was a tool that was powerful, but that could adapt to the user's level of expertise. Like VB, regardless whether you are an alpha-geek or a newbie, this book will serve you well. Chris's explanations and detailed examples gently speak to both.
I have another author's excellent WinForms book that, in chapter one, declares the IDE to be a crutch for wimps and goes on for a thousand pages without mentioning the IDE again. I admire that purist sentiment, but most of us are going to use the IDE to build our programs because we have deadlines to meet. I have still another book on my shelf that starts on page one with a screen shot of the IDE, taking me step-by-step through the construction of WinForms software inside the IDE without ever offering up any useful understanding of what the IDE is doing behind my back. Experienced programmers believe in "trust, but verify" when it comes to programming environments. It's up to me to know what is really going on so that I can fix it when it doesn't. Chris's book, on the other hand, book uses the IDE more judiciously, giving a precise blending of the "How-to" and the "Why," which arms you to solve your own problems.
Chris Sells writes from his heart as much as from his prodigious brain. He really loves .NET, and he cares that you are a success with it. As you read, you can hear his calm voice speaking, guiding, and supporting as you steer your way around the dangerous rocks and shoals of .NET complexity. He becomes your navigator and guide, gently steering you towards understanding and competence. If you are just beginning to use WinForms, or even if you are already an experienced hand, you will find this book an antidote for confusion and a friendly companion on the road to writing modern applications.
—Alan Cooper,
Father of Visual Basic
I have been programming in VB for more than a decade. I started long ago in the days of Visual Basic 1.0. Way back then, most folks didn't know what to think of a VB guy. End users thought we were programmers. C programmers thought we were end users. We have always been hard to categorize because we are the World's first type of mammal that has the characteristics of being both a programmer and a human at the same time. As luck would have it, this particular combination of skill sets was just the ticket for rapidly creating business applications that were actually useful.
If you're a VB guy, the .NET Framework is probably the biggest opportunity you've ever had. The days of those arrogant C++ programmers with their semi-colons, their curly braces and their case sensitivity kicking silicone in your face are over. The playing field couldn't be any more level. There's nothing that's stopping you from using inheritance, multithreading or low-level security APIs. The world is yours for the taking.
The .NET Framework introduces Windows Forms as the modern framework for building desktop applications. If you're planning on using this framework, this book is an invaluable resource. Chris dives straight into the heart of what makes the Windows Forms framework tick. He has a real talent for striking the proper balance between showing you the theory behind the software and demonstrating coding techniques that will make you instantly productive. Furthermore, Chris has the respect to treat you the way you deserve to be treated; as a first-class developer who's not afraid of hearing how things really work.
You should you read this book because it will help you to build a solid understanding of how forms, dialogs, controls and advance graphics work in the Windows Forms framework. This book is also a great resource for teaching you how to utilize resources and how to localize your applications for users who speak different languages. Furthermore, this book takes on several advanced topics such as how to use data binding and how to use background threading in a safe and responsible manner.
The bottom line is that this book will give you the critical skills you need to develop and deploy Windows Forms applications. You'll be able to create desktop applications that look better and do more than ever before. This is something that will make your users very happy. It will probably also prompt all those C# developers to ask you what you did to make your latest application so successful. Whether you tell them or not is up to you.
—Ted Pattison
June 2003