The System::Windows::Forms Namespace

The Windows Forms classes are provided in two namespaces: System::Windows::Forms and System::Windows::Forms::Design. The second of these contains classes for design-time use, which typically means customizing and extending the designers used in Visual Studio .NET. Because this namespace is more advanced than we have time or space for here, I won’t mention this namespace again.

System::Windows::Forms is a very large namespace, containing more than 300 classes and enumerations. The following table shows some of the major members of this namespace, and you’ll meet lots more during the rest of this chapter.

Name	Description
Application	Provides static methods to manage applications, including starting and stopping them, and getting information about them.
AxHost	Provides a way to host ActiveX controls in Windows Forms applications.
BorderStyle	An enumeration that specifies the border style for controls. BorderStyle has three members: Fixed3D for three-dimensional borders, FixedSingle for simple line borders, and None for no border.
Button	Represents a Windows button control.
ButtonState	An enumeration that specifies the appearance of a button. Members include Inactive, Pushed, and Normal.
CheckBox	Represents a Windows check box control.
Clipboard	Lets you place data onto and retrieve it from the system clipboard.
ColorDialog	Displays a standard dialog box to let the user pick a color.
ComboBox	Represents a Windows combo box control.
Cursor	Represents a cursor.
DataGrid	Displays ADO.NET data in a scrollable grid.
DateTimePicker	Represents a Windows date-time picker control.
Form	Represents a window or a dialog box.
HScrollBar	Represents a Windows horizontal scroll bar control.
ImageList	Represents a collection of images typically used by toolbars.
Label	Represents a Windows label control.
ListBox	Represents a Windows list box control.
ListView	Displays a list of items in one of four views.
Menu	Represents a menu.
MessageBox	Displays a message box.
Panel	A control that can contain other controls.
ProgressBar	Represents a Windows progress bar control.
RadioButton	Represents a Windows radio button control.
Splitter	Provides splitter functionality to a window.
StatusBar	Represents a Windows status bar control.
TextBox	Represents a Windows edit control.
ToolBar	Represents a Windows toolbar control.