Sams Teach Yourself .NET Windows Forms in 21 Days

Book excerpt: .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. Sams Teach Yourself .NET Windows Forms in 21 Days covers 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 the reader 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.