In-Depth

Books: Master WinForms Programming

With the ease of deployment for .NET applications, WinForms are once again a viable solution for large deployment environments. If you're considering WinForm programming, Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET is a must-have.

• By Hal Hayes
• 04/01/2004

It used to be that Windows Forms development for user interfaces was the VB programmer's bread and butter. In the MSDN article "Death of the Browser?," Billy Hollis opines that browser-based interfaces lack the rich feature set available in Windows Forms that most Visual Basic developers have been working in for years. With the ease of deployment for .NET applications, WinForms are once again a viable solution for large deployment environments. If you're considering WinForms programming, Chris Sells and Justin Gehtland have you covered in their book, Windows Forms Programming in Visual Basic .NET.

This must-have reference is not a rehash of the help files. The authors' knowledgeable discourse on matters of WinForms programming is clear, detailed, and enjoyable to read. The sample code sections are short and provide a straightforward explanation of the topic. I wish more computer books were written this well.

The first part of the book covers forms, controls, events, dialogs, drawing, and printing. These topics are covered at a level that will appeal to novice and experienced programmers alike. More advanced sections follow on resources, settings, control design, data controls, databinding, and code security. The sections on multithreaded user interfaces and Web deployment will be of interest to many developers.

This is not an entry-level developer book, because it requires some knowledge of .NET programming. The book's source code is available for download.