Programminig .Net Windows Applications

Summary

For those of you who develop standalone Windows applications for PCs and other devices, Microsoft's .NET Windows Forms provide a much better way to get it done. This new technology gives you more power and flexibility for a fraction of the effort compared to classic Win32 development, with a streamlined programming model that deals automatically with many tedious details that once plagued developers.

As with most things .NET, the only hitch is the learning curve. But that's where acclaimed author Jesse Liberty makes the difference with Programming .NET Windows Applications. 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.

The book also explains how your new Windows applications can sidestep problems that used to arise from the use of DLLs (known collectively as "DLL hell"), and how .NET Windows Forms can be used as an alternative to ASP.NET and browser-based approaches for building web application clients.

Jesse Liberty definitely knows his stuff when it comes to the .NET platform. As the author of O'Reilly's Programming C# and Learning Visual Basic .NET, he's well-known for his clear and concise style that prompted one reviewer to say, "It's as if he knows exactly what questions I'm going to ask ahead of time." Jesse also co-authored Programming ASP.NET with contract programmer Dan Hurwitz, and now the two have teamed up again to bring you this comprehensive tutorial--without a doubt, the best source available for learning how to program with .NET Windows Forms.

Table of Contents

Preface

1. Windows Forms and the .NET Framework

     The .NET Framework

     Windows Forms

2. Getting Started

     System Requirements

     Hello World

3. Visual Studio .NET

     Overview

     Start Page

     Projects and Solutions

     The Integrated Development Environment (IDE)

     Building and Running

4. Events

     Publish and Subscribe

     Performance

     Some Examples

5. Windows Forms

     Web Applications Versus Windows Applications

     The Forms Namespace

     Form Properties

     Forms Inheritance

     User Interface Design

6. Dialog Boxes

     Modal Versus Modeless

     Form Properties

     DialogResult

     Termination Buttons

     Apply Button

     CommonDialog Classes

7. Controls: The Base Class

     Control Class

8. Mouse Interaction

     SystemInformation Properties

     Mouse Events

9. Text and Fonts

     Text

     Fonts

10. Drawing and GDI+

     The Drawing Namespace

     The Analog Clock Project

11. Labels and Buttons

     Label

     Button Classes

12. Text Controls

     Text

     Editable Text Controls: TextBoxBase

     RichTextBox

13. Other Basic Controls

     Containers

     Tabbed Pages

     PictureBox

     ScrollBar

     TrackBar

     Up-Down Controls

     ProgressBar

14. TreeView and ListView

     Class Hierarchy

     Splitter

     TreeView

     ListView

15. List Controls

     Class Hierarchy

     ListControls

16. Date and Time Controls

     Class Hierarchy

     Date and Time Values

     DateTimePicker

     MonthCalendar

     Timer Component

17. Custom Controls

     Specializing an Existing Control

     Creating a User Control

     Creating Custom Controls from Scratch

18. Menus and Bars

     Creating Your First Menu

     The MainMenu Object

     Toolbars

     Writing It by Hand

     Status Bars

19. ADO.NET

     Bug Database: A Windows Application

     The ADO.NET Object Model

     Getting Started with ADO.NET

     Managed Providers

     Binding Data

     Data Reader

     Creating a DataGrid

20. Updating ADO.NET

     Updating with SQL

     Updating Data with Transactions

     Updating Data Using DataSets

     Multiuser Updates

     Command Builder

21. Exceptions and Debugging

     Bugs Versus Exceptions

     Exceptions

     Throwing and Catching Exceptions

     Bugs

     Debugging in Visual Studio .NET

     Assert Yourself

22. Configuration and Deployment

     Class Hierarchy

     Configuration

     Assemblies

     Build Configurations

     Deployment

Appendix:. Characters and Keys

Index