Preface

This book is a desktop reference and tutorial for Windows Forms, the new API for writing GUI applications for Windows. Windows Forms is a part of the .NET Framework, the first version of which shipped in February 2002.

.NET Windows Forms in a Nutshell is divided into two parts. The first half is a tutorial, which introduces the most important concepts and classes in Windows Forms and describes how to use these to build interactive applications. It also describes GDI+, the drawing API that most Windows Forms applications will use.

The second half is a quick reference to the Windows Forms and GDI+ namespaces. It provides namespace maps, type descriptions, member signatures, and useful cross-references and annotations.