With this tutorial, you will explore all aspects of using .NET Windows Forms class libraries and the associated programming tools in Visual Studio .NET, enabling you to build applications for the Windows 9x, Windows 2000 and Windows XP desktop platforms. Step-by-step, you'll learn ways to design applications that either function alone on a PC, or work in combination with your web-based application server to take advantage of the richer interface and higher level of security.
This book will teach you all you need to know to use Windows Forms effectively. We assume you have some background with either C# or Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), or sufficient programming experience to pick up what you need to know from the examples shown.
Windows Forms is not difficult. All of its concepts are straightforward, and the Visual Studio .NET environment makes building powerful applications much simpler than writing code by hand. The only difficulty of Windows Forms is that many pieces must be woven together to build a robust, scalable, and efficient application.
You will find two authors' names on this book. Each chapter was written initially by one or the other author, but all chapters were then edited by both authors. Jesse Liberty then extensively edited and rewrote every chapter to give the book a more unified voice. The chapters were subsequently edited by the O'Reilly editors and then again by the authors. The bottom line is that although two authors wrote this book, it should read as if it were written by a single author.