Rating:  - Incomplete title
OK, I'm a little ticked off because I have just wasted some money. If you're a VB developer like I am, this book is not for you. If you're a C# developer, then maybe it is; maybe it isn't. I don't know. All the coding examples are in C#, although the title of the book doesn't say it's exclusively C#. I gave it four stars (since that's the current overall rating) just so I wouldn't be responsible for changing the overall rating. And considering I'm really ticked off at the moment, I'd say that's pretty good of me.
Now for my rant:
I just don't understand why in the year 2007 these authors and publishers can't properly identify whether their books are for VB or C# developers if they're going to make all of their coding examples in one or the other language. While most do, many still don't, like these authors. If you're not going to indicate which language, then include examples in both. If you're only going to show all the coding examples in just one language, THEN INDICATE THIS IN THE TITLE!!!
Is this done to purposely trick people in to buying a book they can't use just to increase sales?
Rating:  - Excellent reference for Winforms 2.0
This may be the best Winforms 2.0 book out there. It serves as an excellent reference, given the breadth of information that it covers. It also is a great way to learn Winforms from scratch. Sells does a wonderful job of explaining how things work and has very clear and understandable examples.
Rating: - Very helpful, but not a tutorial
This is a mixture of reference and in depth overview. It covers all of the features and design ideas behind windows forms 2.0, but it does not walk the user through an entire application or attempt explain every subtle property or event of the DatagridView for example.
I learned about how to use many useful features of the new framework from this book and it gives a solid overview of windows forms.
Rating: - Best book(s) I've found on Windows Forms programming
I purchased the first edition of this book not long after it came out and subsequently bought this, the second edition (covering .NET 2.0). These are the best books I've found for Windows Forms programming.
One of the problems I've had with other books (e.g. the books by Charles Petzold) is that they will often show several ways to do the same thing with no discussion as to the advantages and drawbacks to each. In Windows Forms Programming, the authors get to the point and concisely explain the reasoning behind the code shown. As an example, in the beginning of the first chapter they start with creating your main form and displaying it - just a few lines of code. But they show that there are a few ways one might consider doing this which are wrong and explain why, going on to show the canonical way to start your app's main form. With experience, what they show seems obvious but as someone new to Windows programming I found this instructive. The Windows API is huge for someone coming to it for the first time and there are often many different ways to do a one thing. I felt like this text gave me some of the same 'group wisdom' that I got from many of the great Unix programming texts I've used in the past (APUE by Stevens for example). Just because something can be done a particular way doesn't mean it's the best/'right' way to do something and this text seemed to show just that.
I also found the writing style very readable. This book didn't strike me as being for completely inexperienced/beginner programmers, but it's completely accessible for beginning Windows programmers with clear explanations that were just the right length. Based on other books I've purchased, I've found that most other authors in this area seem to enjoy explaining and will use 20 words where 10 will do. I won't mention any more names of competing authors, but I hate reading programming texts that spend half their time trying to be witty with silly chapter titles and long-winded text. I don't like going back to look something up just to find, e.g., a chapter entitled "Console Thyself". I want to get the information quickly and get back to work. This book seemed logically structured and until now moving to WPF, I referenced the text often.
Highly recommended.
Rating: - King of Forms
This book is King of Forms! It covers all the topics needed to build a strong, full featured "Windows" like form. One of few programming books I have actually read from cover to cover and it still serves me well as reference. A must have text.
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