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Desktop User Interfaces

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Programming with Windows Forms

S

ince the release of the .NET platform (circa 2001), the base class libraries have included a partic-

ular API named Windows Forms (represented by the System.Windows.Forms.dll assembly). As you

may know, the Windows Forms toolkit provides the types necessary to build desktop graphical user

interfaces (GUIs), create custom controls, manage resources (string tables, icons, etc.), and perform

other GUI-centric programming tasks. In addition, a separate API named GDI+ (bundled within the

System.Drawing.dll assembly) provides additional types that allow programmers to generate 2D

graphics, interact with networked printers, and manipulate image data.

The Windows Forms (and GDI+) APIs are still alive and well with the release of .NET 3.5, and

will exist within the base class library for quite some time (arguably forever, in fact). However, since

the release of .NET 3.0, Microsoft shipped a brand new GUI toolkit called Windows Presentation

Foundation (WPF). As you will see beginning in the next chapter, WPF provides a massive amount

of horsepower that can be used to build bleeding-edge user interfaces.

The point of this chapter, however, is to provide a tour of the traditional Windows Forms API

for one simple reason: many GUI applications simply might not require the horsepower offered by

WPF. In fact, for many UI applications, WPF can be overkill. Furthermore, there are many existing

Windows Forms applications scattered throughout the .NET universe that will need to be main-

tained.

Given these points, in this chapter you will come to understand the Windows Forms program-

ming model, work with the integrated designers of Visual Studio 2008, experiment with numerous

Windows Forms controls, and receive an overview of graphics programming using GDI+. To pull

this information together in a cohesive whole, we wrap things up by creating a (semicapable) paint-

ing application.