Programming Microsoft Windows With C#: Core Reference

This is one of the most carefully constructed books on programming that I've ever read. The book builds a doggedly focused exposition of .NET Windows Forms from the ground up, and within that subject, there is very little missing here. Further, any diversions are relegated to three superbly organized appendices on Files and Streams, math functions, and string handling, three areas which rich client windows programmers have to have good mastery of anyhow. When I say that Petzold builds his subject from the ground up, I mean that the book can and should be read like "War and Peace, " from beginning to end without skipping anything. Even if you think you understand the basics, I'd be very surprised if you didn't gain important insights you might have missed before, even from the early and elementary chapters. Virtually nothing is presupposed and your knowledge is build up, block by block. After studying this book, you will understand exactly what is happening in a .NET Windows Forms application. Other books take a shotgun approach, throwing stuff at you that may work, but without providing the background to understand what is happening beneath the sheets. Petzold does not let Visual C# generate code automatically. Visual Studio provides a lot of visual tools and wizards for quickly designing dialog box layouts and generating code frameworks, but Petzold wants you to understand what is really going on, so everything is hand-coded in this book. This can either be a warning to you, or an invitation to those who want a deep understanding of how a Windows Form is really put together. I'd say, do it Petzold's way first, and after you've mastered the foundations of Windows Forms, use the visual tools to save time when your now superior perspective can do so without running the risk of not understanding something the visual tools did that isn't quite working right and you don't have the depth of understanding to quickly zero in on the cause.There is virtually nothing in this book that is not focused on .NET Windows Forms using C#. Mercifully, VB.NET isn't even mentioned. Also, you won't find diversionary chapters on ADO.NET or ASP.NET. The book treats Windows Forms basics (from the classic "Hello, World", through essential data structures and basic text output), and then alternates the chapters between topics on graphics (GDI+) and user interface elements (mouse, keyboard, timers, buttons, menus, toolbars, etc.). GDI+ is an enhancement to the old GDI and the book contains uncompromising chapters on such graphical topics as Bezier curves and other splines, including all the necessary mathematical background. In the chapter on Pages and Transforms, he presents* all the mathematical background necessary to perform the linear transformations needed to utilize the GDI+ graphical transforms. This is what I mean about uncompromising. He doesn't avoid topics in the .NET Windows Forms classes because they might require a little college algebra that most of us have probably forgotten. He just dives right in and presents everything necessary to come to grips with the deepest .NET classes in Windows Forms. About the only subject he doesn't treat is Image Color Management, a topic so vast it really deserves a book of its own (although "Windows 2000 Graphics API Black Book" has an excellent chapter on the Win32 API).With such an exhaustive treatment of his subject matter, you might think this book might be pretty dry reading. Not true. Petzold writes with supreme confidence and wry wit, never cloying, always with just the right touch. This book is fun reading, his enthusiasm for his subject matter always in evidence, even when he's exhaustively presenting the methods of a class or an enumeration. You can tell he is having a ball.There are lots of tables and code in the book. The code is available on an included CD. A minor problem I had is that sometimes the Beta 2 produced a bunch of "System.Byte not defined in the workspace" errors. If this happens to you, just choose Yes when it asks if you want to go ahead anyhow. The applications still work.His examples are short and are easily typed in by hand, something Petzold recommends anyhow. The way I worked with this book was to embellish little programs of my own anyhow, trying out the facilities he was expositing within my own framework. I probably learned even more taking this approach rather than using his examples literally.So overall, it is hard to imagine that this book could ever be surpassed. This book deservers an extra rosette, beyond the five stars for those extremely rare computer books that are destined to become a classic teaching a whole generation of programmers.

This book is a terrific introduction to C# and the Windows Forms section of .NET.Petzold's approach is great on many levels. He codes all his controls and forms by hand, so you know what the underlying code behind the Visual Studio GUI editor does (and does this without deriding the GUI editor one bit!). For the most part, you learn C# and Windows Forms concurrently - there are a few sections where he presents material in what I would call a confusing order, however.The weakest part of this book is its size. There is a lot of source code, which is good, and Petzold's explanations of new features are thorough, which is good too. But a large portion of the text is consumed by anecdotes and protracted explanations of simple features.On the one hand, he assumes the readers are familiar with some sort of object-oriented programming (although you need not be an expert). But on the other hand, several concepts are explained so exhaustively (transforms, fonts, some graphics) that I found myself skipping page after page because I already understood the topic and was ready to move on.I still highly recommend this book. I just wish they had cut the size down and made it a paperback!

I was expecting a paperback. I was delighted that I received a hardback. The 'damage' was minimal. The original companion CD was even still there in it's sealed envelope. The price was very reasonable and the shipping time was good. I would definitely buy from this book seller again should the occasion arise. I needed this particular, somewhat-dated, book for reference instead of constantly having to borrow somebody else's copy,

I spent most of the time on Visual Basic but I consider this text the appropriate companion for Balena's book. This book explain wery well GDI+ and structure of windows forms and it is full of valuable information. It is true that all of this info are also contained in the MSDN collection but here all is well organized and written in a clear language. This book is not intended to learn C#, and maybe more appropriate title would be "Programming Windows with Windows.Forms". If you also know Visual Basic or the fundamental of OOP and want to begin to program .NET with C# this is the book for you. But if you lack good knowledge of OOP and want to learn C# language instead buy another book. Remember that in this book the syntax of C# is not covered in details.

My bad - I bought a book that is very early in the evolution of C#, and there are much better books out there now in terms of completeness and being current.

Another reviewer complained that this book was not about programming Windows. This is not true -- only the title is a bit misleading. This book explains how to program very Windows-specific things, such as Windows Forms and GDI+. It is mainly for writing rich-client applications, which may become more popular now.Anyone who has read Petzold's previous books will see it is exactly the same focus. It is an excellent book, as usual, and the few things which are incorrect/out of date are corrected on his website. Programmers who have been working with Windows for many years all know that Petzold's books are a kind of standard.

This book provides a good, short introduction to C#. It was my first book on C#, and I did not feel like I needed another after reading it.After those couple of chapters, it provides rather wordy coverage of Windows Forms and drawing graphics with .Net. The title should reflect this more clearly, in my opinion. The book does not talk about programming Windows in general (assemblies, threading, XML, etc.); it focuses solely on the graphical aspects, with some brief look at file I/O.The coverage of Windows Forms and drawing is great, if a somewhat verbose.

Product was as advertised, but in better condition than I expected.Delivery was very quick.I am very happy with my purchase.

Windowsプログラマ及び、Petzoldのファンならば、ぜひ購入しましょう。Windowsの歴史にも要領よくまとめてありますし初期のwindowsについてはＣやＣ＋＋のコードでも一部解説してあります。主流となる部分は本書のタイトルどおりＣ＃により記述されています。また、Windowsのプログラミング開発手法もいろいろありますが、著者はVisual C#.NETにコードを生成させることなしに今回もスクラッチでＣ＃でコードを書いてwindowsの基本を解説を淡々と進めていきますので「Petzoldを参照せよ。」という言葉がまさにあてはまります。また、毎度の読者にとっては、Windows９５版や第５版などと対比（ＣやＣ＋＋での記述とＣ＃での記述について）しながら読み進めることができます。また、私の本棚にはまた一冊分厚い本が並びました。windows3.1時代のPetzoldからありますがなぜかしまう気にはなれませんので・・・。Ｃ＃によるWindowsの解説本としてお勧めの一冊です。

この本は最高です。全てが系統だっており、また、網羅されている。私は原書で読んでいますが、一通り入門書を読み、実際にプログラミングを始めようという人は是非とも一読を。ただ、分量が多いのですので、かなり大変ですが

This is a sluggish work by one of the most renowned Windows programmer's authors:It's merely a diary which should be subtitled: "How I get to learn about .NET Windows Forms".Highly unstructured with respect to .NET framework, the important issues like units/values have to the sought within the text behind the lines. It takes a heap of time to work through the huge bulk of pages with its partly erroneous, and very often contradictable remarks.The best thing about the book is the code source on CD which serves as base of a study, and that it's up to now probably the only book about Windows Forms. Note: it's far from being a complete description of programming Windows apps with .NET: there's no description of GC, PInvoke, profiling, debugging techniques.. etc..., so that you still need some good books on the framework.

I'm an absolute lover of Petzold's original "Programming Windows" book and based all my programming on that. I bought the updates when they came out. I was therefore pretty excited when I found that he'd done a new book that covered .Net programming in C#. Contrary to the other reviewers so far, I wasn't looking for in-depth stuff on .Net programming or the CLR - there are lots of other books that cover that. What I was looking for was good coverage of C# programming based around what most people will (I believe) use - the .Net IDE. In that, I was disappointed. Petzold throughout insists on coding all his forms using the C# language, rather than creating them in the IDE. In doing that, he (to me) exposes 2 clear problems. 1) his code is idiosyncratic and has too much forms baggage; 2) he doesn't cover anything on how to get the best out of the ISE. I'm also disappointed in the breadth of coverage - there's (IMHO) too much on different pens and various aspects of graphics, and too little on many of the other language features. Still, YMMV.