Chapter 15: Windows Forms

Overview

Windows Forms is the part of the .NET Framework base classes used to create user interfaces for local applications, often called Win32 clients. It is dramatically improved over the forms and controls available in pre-.NET versions of Visual Basic. Although some familiar controls have been retired, no significant functionality has been lost, and a lot of new capabilities have been added.

Windows Forms uses the version number of the related .NET Framework. Thus, the version in Visual Basic 2005 is Windows Forms 2.0. That version number is retained even for .NET Framework version 3.0, because no changes were made to Windows Forms in that version. This chapter sometimes refers to the version number to emphasize differences from the versions included in Visual Basic 2002 and 2003. Those versions are Windows Forms 1.0 and 1.1, respectively.

After explaining why Windows Forms is an important user interface option for .NET applications, this chapter starts its technical content by summarizing the changes in Windows Forms 2.0. This enables those with some experience in previous versions of Windows Forms to quickly identify key changes.

Then the chapter looks at forms, controls, and their behaviors, with emphasis on those elements that are most important for routine application development. Windows Forms is one of the larger namespaces in .NET, so a complete discussion is beyond the scope of this chapter. Instead, this chapter highlights those things developers need to know first.

Chapter 16 includes more advanced treatment of certain aspects of Windows Forms. After gaining a basic understanding of the key capabilities in this chapter, you’ll be ready to go on to the more advanced concepts in that chapter.