Customer Reviews

Programming Microsoft Windows with C#

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

As a professional programmer, this book was not what I was looking for. In reading the title, the absence of the word visual should have set off a light bulb. The author insists on doing everything manually, and does not tell the reader how to do things in the Visual Studio environment. In a professional environment where costs and deadlines are a major factor in development, there is no time for the gung-ho programming ideology of do it all your self. Also, the book spends allot of time on those basic low level programming topics that are not practical in a real business application development environment. Unless you are doing some really low level development, which requires you to draw your own graphics on the screen etc, many of the topics in this book are of little use. If you are doing such low level programming, which I don't believe C# is the ideal language for; you will need a more advanced and less advanced book to go along with this one. The book does not cover basic syntax in much depth. The book shows allot of code, but does not explain it from a beginner level in detail. However, the book is not a complete waste. It is awesome for introducing the rules and regulations of the C# language, the classes of the Windows Forms class library which replaces the MFC used in C++, and intermediate level basic code writing. Just don't buy the book thinking it is going to get you ready to dive into Visual C#; because it will not, and I don't believe the author intended it to. If you buy the book knowing what you're getting, you will be very happy. Don't let the inclusion of the word Windows in the title mislead you.

I'm not sure why I've seen so many good reviews for this book.......I see it as 1200+ pages of wasted paper. Microsoft recommends this book as study material for their exam? Rest assured..... this book doesn't cover anything but drawing pretty little circles, lines, text, and who could forget the cute little spiral, lol! This book contains a lot of useless information regarding the many, let me emphasize that MANYMANYMANY ways of drawing shapes.
Unless you plan on writing applications that produce arrays of wonderful shapes on your screen, this book is not for you! Take the time to head down to your local book store and review the content before wasting your money.

If you carefully examine the list of "Topics Covered" given by Amazon, you will not be disappointed at how Petzold does it. No one covers what Petzold chooses to write about more thoroughly and clearly than Petzold. The book definitely assumes familiarity with a C-family language. What is absent is information that his previous "Programming Windows" books gave about the underlying Windows environment, and about interprocess communication. I suppose this is because you can simply link to other code without much work in the new framework. But he does not cover the structure of .NET; the word "Assembly" is not even in his reliable comprehensive index, nor is "Component" or "IComponent." Disposal of resources is only mentioned with regard to graphics objects. The book covers Windows Forms programming, very well, and that's all it is meant for. By all means get this book, but get other books for other purposes.

While most C# books tend to focus on :
- basic C#
- XML
- ASP.NET
"Programming Windows with C# " simply teaches you all you should know about GUI programming with C#. It looks obvious, but try to find good references in this subject and you'd be disappointed.
Not most programmers can afford Visual Studio NET and also not all programmers want RAD tools. Actually what is great with C# is that it allows the programmer to do everything manually and avoid automatic code geration. While it could delay your work, it certainly make it clear. The Forms API for C# is considerably simpler compared to MFC or WIN32 API Programming. Java programmers like me will find it usefull because its similarities with the Swing API.
The author is an excellent technical writer and make everything easy to read. And like he said "I prefer to type the code by hand and then I will learn it".
If you aim to write Windows GUIs for C#, get this book. It is a complete reference in the subject. The author does not mention it, but there is an open source and free IDE for .NET development name Sharp Develop. I use it and so far I haven't gotten many troubles. Highly recommended.

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.

Petzold does it again. This is the definitive .NET programming book. The next logical step from the "Programming Windows" book that has become required reading for windows programmers. This book is required reading for the .NET Programmer.

Typically, I find Microsoft Press books on programming to be very good. This book is very disappointing. It's like someone simply took an internal microsoft specification and reformated. The MSDN is a better reference, and is searchable. This is the only Microsoft Press book I've ever purchased where I'm sorry I spent the money.

If you want to learn the art of programming with Windows Forms get Erik Brown book on WF. About this book it's not bad but I like the way that Mr.Erik explain things also he answers readers questions online.
Michael Youssef
Microsoft.NET Architect/Trainer

I have been using C# for some time now but almost exclusively for web applications. I am now exploring Windows Forms programs using .net, so I began shopping for some books. I have always enjoyed Petzold books on Windows going back to the early days when we only had the Windows API. So I thought this would be THE book to have, i.e., the one book that will guide me through this period of getting up to speed on writing Forms programs. Sadly, it isn't that book, though it still is very worthwhile.

I was very surprised at what wasn't in the book- specifically, no mention of database access. You won't find database, SQL, Access, anywhere, even in the index. That was a major disappointment, because all of my Windows apps are doing just that - accessing a database. While the ASP.NET data access material more or less applies, there are differences in how it is done and I was hoping to have a text to help sort that out. This text does not do that.

Also omitted - anything to do with XML.

What this book does is the normal, core-Windows stuff such as drawing/painting, keyboard control, mouse, timers, fonts, images, bitmaps, menus, brushes, pens, etc. There is a very good chapter on printing. Also covered well is file input/output, drag and drop, various controls and so on.

It's a good library addition but I just wish there was some data access material in it to make it a great book.

I have found this book to be a good one to keep on the shelf

The book is very high level. Very shallow book. Good for beginners who would say after reading it:"WHAW! it so marvelous!" not because they understand but more because they do not understand what had been tried to explained in this book. Not covering the depth of programming and concepts of C#. really does not worth time of reading it.