Introduction

If you are writing a desktop application, you are dealing with forms and controls. Since its first release, Visual Basic has made the dream of drag-and-drop programming possible: just add some controls to a form, press F5, and go.

While this method works, it allows you to design only the most rudimentary applications. Most programs require gobs of code for each on-screen control. Fortunately, .NET simplifies a lot of the plumbing associated with complex controls, so you can just focus on the logic that responds directly to a user action. This chapter shows you how to take advantage of the control features included with .NET's Windows Forms library.