Rating:  - The .NET/C# book to have
I am coming from C++/MFC and this book was just what I needed. Great reference even after you have gone through the initial learning curve. If you only get one book on programming Windows Forms, get this one.
Rating: - The one to have
If I could have just one book about .Net WinForms programming, this would be the book. I turn to this book 10 times more often than any other book, and it's rare not to find what I'm looking for quickly. If you do Winforms for a living, you need this book. If you do .Net for a living, this is somewhere in the top 3 or 4 books to have. Not only is it worth your money, more importantly, it's worth your time.
Rating: - The MUST HAVE Guide to WinForms Development
Whether you're approaching .NET for the first time or digging yourself out of trouble in mid-project, this is the book for you.
It's more than thirty years since I was a novice developer so I can't say this should be your very first programming book. It doesn't teach C#. It doesn't teach general programming skills. So maybe you could get lost if you'd never built a real application before.
Let's just say I've had more than a little experience building commercial applications. So when my next project was in .NET, I bee-lined to the big box bookstore and settled in for a long day of skimming every relevant book I could find. Most were easily discarded ... the 800 pound regurgitations of MSDN, the illiterate tours of the obvious, ... you know the breeds.
Then I picked up Sells on WinForms. My next few hours, wedged among the stacks, were rewarded with thoughtful, informative, clear, well-illustrated and entertaining accounts of subjects I desperately needed to know. If you are the least bit uncomfortable with delegates and events (or can't admit it to yourself but know someone who does), read the fairy tale in appendix `B'.
The early chapters on Forms and User Controls are a model of good pacing and rich detail. Sells doesn't tell us everything we could know. He tells us what we might want to know ... and why. He is superb at motivating each concept and example. Motivation aids our understanding and propels us forward through the chapters, certain of their direction and significance.
This wonderful book doesn't cover every topic and indulges some I could do without. I skipped the two long chapters on drawing, something I've never used in a business application. On the other hand, the "Applications and Settings" and "Data Binding" chapters are without peer.
Many months later, I've finished several WinForms projects ... and been well-paid for them. I'm still going back to this book, now mostly to compare notes. I've got my quarrels but I always find over-looked gems and subtleties that escaped my first few readings. Maybe I'll get around to those Drawing chapters.
One reason I come back is that I'm doing my own training these days. My company hires and trains seasoned developers and we train our clients too. Not all have .NET experience. I'm grateful to lean on Sells and I tell everyone: buy this book.
Rating:  - No organization
Very rarely do I read a programming book and feel this confused. In the opening chapters, the author, jumps through every major topic without a decent explanation. I found the book's organization and explanations poor and lacking. Ultimately, I just decided to buy a different book instead of trying and to figure out what this guy doing.
Rating: - The best book about WinForms
It is the best book about WinForms, I have ever read. It is good for beginner and advanced users too, who want to write Winforms applications in c#.
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