User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and Custom Controls goes beyond simply covering the Windows Forms namespaces by combining a careful treatment of the API with a detailed discussion of good user-interface design principles. The combination will show you how to create the next generation of software applications using the .NET Framework. After reading User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and Custom Controls, you'll know how to design state-of-the-art application interfaces, as well as how to extend .NET controls, create data-binding strategies, program graphics, and much more.
This book contains the following:
An overview of how to design elegant user interfaces the average user can understand.
A comprehensive examination of the user interface controls and classes in .NET.
Best practices and design tips for coding user interfaces and integrating help
Although this book isn't a reference, it does contain detailed discussions about every user interface element you'll use on a regular basis. But you won't just learn how to use .NET controlsyou'll learn how and why to extend them, with owner-drawn menus, irregularly shaped forms, and custom controls tailored for specific types of data. As a developer, you need to know more than how to add a control to a window. You also need to know how to create an entire use interface framework that's scalable, flexible, and reusable.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Not very useful, unless you are new to Windows Forms
The book is for absolute novices. I haven't found anything of use for intermediate (and above) windows developers.
Maybe my expectations were wrong, but I was looking for more of a best practices book.
Rating: - user interfaces without richTextbox control?
i still can't believe it--that anyone would write a comprehensive book on windows user interfaces and forget to mention the RichTextBox control. The author devoted 3 pages to the Textbox control, but said virtually nothing about one of the the most powerful text display controls.
As said by another reviwer, there is nothing here on threading either. This book deserves 3 stars but no more because it is incomplete.
That said, I still must commend the author for a well written book that ... Read More
Rating: - Outstanding overview of WinForms development in general
I've "grown up" in programming working exclusively with the Web, and recently moved into the very unfamiliar world of desktop development. This is a fantastic piece of work that gives you a very high-level view of the major concepts and considerations you'll need when attempting to conquer the world of Windows Forms.
The book starts out with a brief discussion of some of the more visual aspects of great UI design, which, as author Matthew MacDonald describes, is as much technical ... Read More
Rating: - dodges multithreading
No detailed coverage of the Progress Bar control. Reason: so that multithreading and concurrency could be avoided. It is a common GUI programming task to allow a user to cancel a long running operation while keeping the GUI updated and responsive. However, this requires spawning off a separate thread to handle the long-running operation. That thread must also be able to communicate with the main GUI thread. This must be performed carefully but it is easily done by experienced GUI programmers. You won't get ... Read More
Rating: - A book for experienced developers moving to .Net
I'm finding this book to be a tremendous leg up in transitioning to .Net from VB6. For an experienced programmer trying to move from VB language functions to .Net object methods, this book strikes the right balance in showing and describing how to use the .Net control objects. It supposes you've used each control before, and need a reliable introduction to how to employ the .Net replacement.
MSDN has all the technical details you want, but is lacking in the kind of "big picture" overviews of a control. ... Read More
- Not very useful, unless you are new to Windows Forms
- user interfaces without richTextbox control?
- Outstanding overview of WinForms development in general
