.Net Windows Forms in a Nutshell

.NET Windows Forms is the most significant leap forward in many years for developing rich Windows applications. Anyone involved in user interface development will not only appreciate the ease of creation and expanded capabilities provided by .NET Windows Forms, they will welcome the in-depth focus and straight-forward approach this new book brings to the topic. .NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell offers an all-inclusive guide for experienced programmers using Microsoft's new .NET Windows Forms platform to develop stand-alone Windows applications. It is an accelerated introduction to this next-generation of rich user interface development, and a compact but remarkably complete reference to the .NET Windows Forms namespaces and types.

Ian Griffiths
Ian Griffiths is an independent consultant specializing in medical imaging applications and digital video. He also works as an instructor, teaching courses on .NET for DevelopMentor. Ian holds a degree in Computer Science from Cambridge University.
Matthew Adams
Matthew is the Director of Development at Digital Healthcare Ltd. The last three years have kept him fully occupied in the development of a C#/.NET-based distributed imaging platform for healthcare applications. Before that, he studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University, worked on banking and imaging applications in North America, became a fully-paid-up C++ junkie, and was the lead architect on software solutions for drug-discovery for a large US corporation. He thinks that .NET is a major philosophical stride forward for the computer industry: so much so that he almost doesn't miss his first love - generics - in C#. He has written articles and given papers on the subject to both technical and non-technical audiences, and looks forward to the day when he doesn't have to answer the question 'So, what is .NET?' any more!

Preface

vii

Part I. Introduction to Windows Forms

.NET and Windows Forms Overview

3

(24)

Windows Development and .NET

3

(2)

The Common Language Runtime

5

(5)

.NET Programming Languages

10

(1)

Components

11

(1)

The .NET Type System

12

(13)

The .NET Framework Class Library

25

(2)

Controls

27

(27)

Windows Forms and the Control Class

27

(1)

Using Standard Control Features

28

(22)

Built-in Controls

50

(4)

Forms, Containers, and Applications

54

(37)

Application Structure

54

(5)

The Form Class

59

(12)

Containment

71

(8)

Layout

79

(4)

Localization

83

(5)

Extender Providers

88

(3)

Menus and Toolbars

91

(21)

Menus

91

(14)

Toolbars

105

(4)

Unified Event Handling

109

(1)

Office-Style Menus and Toolbars

110

(2)

Building Controls

112

(22)

Composite Controls

112

(5)

Custom Controls

117

(11)

Designing for Developers

128

(6)

Inheritance and Reuse

134

(22)

When to Inherit

135

(3)

Inheriting from Forms and User Controls

138

(5)

Inheriting from Other Controls

143

(8)

Pitfalls of Inheritance

151

(5)

Redrawing and GDI+

156

(55)

Drawing and Controls

156

(4)

GDI+

160

(51)

Property Grids

211

(35)

Displaying Simple Objects

211

(10)

Type Conversion

221

(18)

Custom Type Editors

239

(7)

Controls and the IDE

246

(36)

Design Time Versus Runtime

246

(3)

Custom Component Designers

249

(27)

Extender Providers

276

(6)

Data Binding

282

(35)

Data Sources and Bindings

282

(10)

Simple and Complex Binding

292

(3)

DataTable, DataSet, and Friends

295

(12)

The DataGrid Control

307

(4)

The DataView Class

311

(6)

Part II. API Quick Reference

How to Use This Quick Reference

317

(6)

Finding a Quick-Reference Entry

317

(1)

Reading a Quick-Reference Entry

318

(5)

Converting from C# to VB Syntax

323

(8)

General Considerations

323

(1)

Classes

324

(1)

Structures

325

(1)

Interfaces

325

(1)

Class, Structure, and Interface Members

325

(4)

Delegates

329

(1)

Enumerations

330

(1)

The System.ComponentModel Namespace

331

(63)

The System.Drawing Namespace

394

(60)

The System.Drawing.Drawing2D Namespace

454

(23)

The System.Drawing.Imaging Namespace

477

(25)

The System.Drawing.Printing Namespace

502

(20)

The System.Drawing.Text Namespace

522

(3)

The System.Windows.Forms Namespace

525

(242)

The System.Windows.Forms.Design Namespace

767

(90)

Part III. Appendixes

A. Namespaces and Assemblies

787

(2)

B. Type, Method, Property, Event, and Field Index

789

(68)

Index

857

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