Teach Yourself .NET Windows Forms in 21 Days

.NET Windows Forms are a new programming paradigm introduced with Microsoft's .NET initiative. Windows Forms are very similar to Web Forms, which allow programmers to build complex Web application interfaces easily, sharing the same underlying framework and programming concepts. Windows Forms, however, are used for the Win32 platform, instead of the Internet, and allow programmers to build traditional Windows desktop-based applications structured around .NET.

This book will cover all the major aspects of Windows Forms necessary to build professional, functional applications. This book follows the tried-and-tested 21 Days tutorial model to guide readers through Windows Forms. It features code examples and tips for programmers migrating from pre-Windows Forms Microsoft technologies.

The reader will be introduced to the many controls available for .NET Windows Forms and how to build them, learn how to create events and event handlers, explore ADO.NET and methods to retrieve data from dynamic data sources, and learn how to take advantage of the Internet and Internet Explorer from their .NET Windows Forms applications. As readers advance through the tutorials, they progress toward more advanced topics and projects by creating simple graphical applications and enhancing existing ones, learn how to integrate with other .NET applications, use Web services, build Windows services, build Windows forms controls, create multi-threaded applications, work with COM and COM+, configure and deploy .NET Windows Forms, and how to de-bug .NET Windows Forms.

User review
Typos, Missing Code, Poor Author/Publisher Support
I'm currently working my way through Day 3 of this book. On the good side, I am producing working Windows Forms using the .NET Framework SDK and this book. I'm generally able to follow the text and the exercises. My forms are on the simple side, of course, and follow the book examples, but I feel I am progressing well.

On the bad side, the book has numerous typos to this point (Day 3). The downloaded code does not have some image files such as .ico and .bmp files crucial to one of the Day 3 exercises. Also some code written in vb.net in the book is provided as C# in the downloaded code. Some downloaded code seem missing entirely. A bad omen for the remaining days. I visited the author's web site and emailed him a question. So far he has not answered. I used the publisher's web site `Contact Us` page to let them know the downloaded code is missing some files, and got a response that must have been sent by an email robot -- it didn't at all speak to my concern. There is no published errata on either the publisher's or author's web sites.

I admit that I am getting some Windows Forms juice out of this particular fruit. I don't know how intelligible coming chapters will be. But the very poor product support means that if you buy this book and have a question or concern you are out of luck. Good technical writers are proud of their books and respond to reader questions. Some are also extremely active in mailing list forums. Good publishers like O'Reilly respond to readers with replies that speak to the questions being posed.

I have a tough time reccomending this book. You might do better elsewhere. Maybe that Windows Forms title offered by the Manning publishing house will be a help? I don't know.

User review
Pretty good book
I'd like to offer a different perspective on this book than the previous reviewer. I think it's a pretty well written book and I still use it today as a reference in my job training MCSD candidates. One of the good things about the book is it's comprehensive coverage of so many topics (which is one reason I use it as a reference source). Also, Chris's writing style is enjoyable and he communicates well - his ASP.NET book is extremely popular and this book shares a lot of the same qualities.

Yes, it would have been better if it had covered using VS.NET instead of just using text files and the command line compilers but like many .NET books this book was written while VS.NET was still in beta. If you publish a book full of pictures and instructions dealing with the beta version of a tool and then the released version is significantly different, you have big problems. So most publishers produced books on the command line tools. Besides, to really understand something like .NET it's good to know how to code it by hand. Ideally you'd read two books, one like this that codes by hand and one that shows you how to use the power of the IDE.

As to having to download anything extra to compile and run the programs in the book, if you have VS.NET installed then you have the command line compilers. Duh!

If you like the `teach yourself in 21 day` style of learning topics by working with lots of example programs and if you want to know how to code .NET by hand (so you can understand the code the IDE is generating) this is a good book for you.

User review
Don't buy this book
I often purchase based upon the reviews and am grateful people take the time to write them.

I'm writing this review to warn you NOT to buy this book. For me, it has been a waste of time and money.

There are two main problems:

1) The author for some reason I do not understand chose to NOT use Visual Studio .Net tools or the Form Designer to do the examples. Duh! Apparently, by only downloading the .Net runtime you can compile programs from the command line and run them. All the samples assume your going to do that. Perhaps his editor told him to do this to 'reach a larger market'. But first off, if you don't have the development tools you probably aren't serious about development and won't be buying many books. Second, learning windows forms IMHO is all about using the VS.Net Form Designer and if you don't have that there is little point. The fact is when you get a real job, they're going provide you with and want you to know how to use the VS.Net tools. I consider this a MAJOR flaw for this book. If you buy this book, you'll spend all your time cutting and pasting his sample code into a real project and setting up the compilation etc. Yup, he doesn't even include project files since there's no assumption you are using the de-facto tools! What a pain. You'll also spend hours and hours trying to figure out how to use the Forms Designer to do what he did manually. 21 days, right. More like 21 weeks.

2) The other problem with this book, though this is more a personal preference, is the author obviously focused on VB.Net and only seems to have added C# at the end of the process. Many examples are only given in VB and most of the text explains VB first and then makes a few comments about C#. As a professional C++ developer, I want to use C# and am disappointed about the VB focus. If you're learning VB, then great, you'll probably like this. If you're doing C#, then switching back and forth from the VB based text to your C# code can be annoying and time consuming.

If your a VB developer and don't have the tools, then maybe this book would be for you, but I think it silly to write a book called 'Teach Yourself .Net Windows Forms' and not use the obvious de-facto tools.

As for the content, it seems ok, but I'm having such trouble converting the projects and shifting from VB to C# that I honestly haven't gotten very far into the book (first 5 or 6 chapters) and have finally come to the conclusion I will have to find another book.

I have from time to time used this book as a reference because I have no other (yet), and have found it somewhat useful for that, but as a tutorial on learning forms forget it.

To be fair, there are a number of other books out there that don't provide samples with project files and don't assume the tools everyone will use (VS.NET), and I hate that too, but for a .net FORMS book, I think this a fatal flaw.