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User Interfaces in C#: Windows Forms and
Custom Controls By Matthew MacDonald Published by APress 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 as aesthetic. It then dives right into the major concepts
of WinForms - forms and controls, and many of the secrets and tips on using
them to create familiar, effective UIs for your apps. Examples are alternate ways of achieving
drag-and-drop functionality for on-form controls, creating floating toolbars
for and maintaining synchronicity in MDI apps. It's very real, very practical, and very
easy to grasp. I was found MacDonald only mentioning
certain class members for each of the controls, and the "members"
tables listed in the book don't explicitly break the members down into
properties, methods and events, which clouds a newbie's learning of a new set
of classes and their functionality for the first time. That's about the only criticism I have with
the title. The book's finest moment is evident in
what has got to be one of the best written chapters on the often-complex topic
of working with data and databinding in WinForms. It's thorough, yet easy on the brain in terms
of laying out how to work with binding in simple and complex environments. The book isn't a primer on C# or on
programming in general, so the code snippets are largely piecemeal, abstracted
modules of much larger Windows Forms and components. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing. ---------------------------------------------------
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