Rating: 
Summary: Best resource I've found for C#
Review: Petzold is a literate writer who effectively uses information (and anecdotal material) from the history of Windows programming, and the broader history of computer programming, to put his technical examples in a rich context.I find his exposition of C# grounded in practical problem-solving with .Net's Forms and Controls extremely useful. The kinds of problems he poses and solves (with source code in the text and on the accompanying cd) are the types of problems that I face creating user interfaces and interacting with Windows system services. The book is, as other reviewers commented, focused purely on client-side issues, but I disagree with another reviewer who felt it didn't cover COM : He does mention and show examples of using the InterOp facilities, and, I believe, that since .Net is designed to replace both COM and ActiveX, this is very appropriate. There are a lot of other resources for COM and COM+. For myself I would rather learn a language bottom-up through studying and using concrete code examples that accomplish real-world tasks than read abstract books on the structure of the language, etc. Perhaps if you are a "top-down" learner who prefers to start with a very formal language definition and Backus-Naur diagrams and then implement some algorithms, and then, finally, get around to implementing the algorithm in a specific OS environment, this may not be the right book for you to start with on .Net. I have other books by Troelsen, Gunnerson, and Liberty, and they are useful also, but Petzold's book is the one I keep coming back to and re-reading over and over. The clear technical writing style that Petzold has achieved is, imho, very rare these days. I have the wonderful sense reading the book that I am sitting across a table from a wise friend who is gently and patiently guiding me forward through a complex technical subject.
Rating:
Summary: if you didn't like MFC, skip this
Review: Petzold is a great writer/teacher, but I agree with his previous assessment that MFC is clumsy, best to use win32 API directly with C++, so why bother with a reduced basterd language like C#, beats me. He's a great teacher if you want to learn thouroughly, but C#, give me a break. read his 5th edition windows book (and some C++ books), it's all you need. also Shildt is probably more efficient for learning faster. my humble opinion.
Rating:
Summary: This Is the One...
Review: If you are looking for coverage on the features of Visual Studio.NET, this isn't the book to get. However, if you want to learn about Windows Forms programming, this book is your last stop. Get it, because it's excellent.
Rating:
Summary: An instant classic for .net programmers
Review: This is the BEST book on the market covering windows forms, gdi+ and .net application programming!!! I'm not kidding and have no relationship with the author or publishers. Every application programmer developing in .net will want to have this next to them. This includes those programming in VB.net. This is not a book about c#. It is about developing applications and since the API calls are identical across all .net languages you can use this as a reference to program in any of them. All the nitty gritty details that you need to draw, print, size fonts, write your own controls etc are here. The demo programs are brilliant. Petzold creates tiny demos that show off each section of the API and let you explore the options. Then he shows you every possible alternative way to get the same effect. The book is very large (1290 pages), but it is worth reading all the way through. It explains, elucidates and, dare I say it, entertains. Finally a .net book that goes beyond mere syntax and repetition of the msdn reference.
Rating:
Summary: Very good book
Review: After being frustrated with MFC, this book has given me a hope. Windows programming with C# is much simpler than MFC and API programming. It is different, too. The author points out the diffences as well as introduce new concepts like override and delegate that are new in C#. This book teaches you the basics of GDI and Windows Classes. I am also glad he shows different ways to handle events in chapter 2. Sample codes are readable, simple, and straight to the pint. As other reviewers say, this book only teaches Windows programming and does not cover any of web, XML, database, or Microsoft enterprise applications.
Rating:
Summary: Six stars for this book
Review: This book overcames my expectancy. The author is very clear in each detail and explains everything you need to know about GDI+
and Windows Forms. I guess this is the right book to learn windows programming using C#.
Rating:
Summary: Great book, so-so index
Review: Like a visit to a highly paid doctor - you know you are in the hands of an expert. Like driving a car you _know_ will become a classic one. My only problem: The index does not do justice to this book! For example, there are more than a hundred little programs in the book. All are named, and all are referenced in the text. The index, however, does not mention them.
Rating:
Summary: Very GUI oriented
Review: I picked up this book primarily to advance my C# skills. As I have not programmed a standard EXE type UI in ages, I doubt I will get to use it for much more. I tell you this, as there is a possibility my review my be a bit clouded due to my programming of web apps. As I have given a great rating, I hope my neutrality on the content comes through. Opening the front cover, you can instantly see the focus of the book (if you did not figure out by the title). The inside cover is a list of the system class that relate to typical window UI applications. The back cover also contains information for UI apps, namely the colors you can set Windows Forms too. The first chapter deals with the basics of C#. The chapter covers C# from the perspective of one with programming experience. As this is not a beginner's book, this is not a bad thing. This introduction continues through the next couple of chapters, which cover the basics of Windows Forms and their structure. From this point on, you learn in bite size chunks, the workings of every part of a Windows Forms application, including text, drawing, IO, time, images and menus. This is not a book for the casual reader. The entire tome weighs in at over 1200 pages of content, and Microsoft has not added thunk by using overly large fonts and huge graphics. My favorite part of the book is the appendices. I especially enjoyed learning more about file IO and strings. I am also very fond of the fact that Microsoft did not take the yearbook approach to this work, like Wrox. The consistency of the material is excellent compared to the competition, and having a single author may be the most important point. The biggest negative here is the title. When I think of Programming Windows, I am not necessarily thinking of GUI. I am sure my focus on web apps has something to do with this, but I have also poked around in the Windows API prior to .NET. While this book covers some of the Framework under the hood, it is mostly aimed at the UI. Fortunately, the material is compelling enough to not knock off points for the misleading title. If you read the back cover, you will understand that this is not a API style book going in, so it is not that bad.
Rating:
Summary: Just what I expected...
Review: I had forgotten how good it is to read text written by a really good writer. He starts with the basics, covering enough to get you going, and moves into more advanced topics for developing Windows Forms applications, including things like drawing and all of the standard widget control you would expect in a book from Charles Petzold. Quibbles? Some lax editing (for instance, on Page 12, it says date when I am pretty sure he meant data) but as a writer myself, I know how difficult it is to get a "perfect" book out the door. That said, I am thrilled to have this book, and have read a good bit of it, and will continue to read it to the end (though given the length, it may take a while!).
Rating:
Summary: Destined to become a classic
Review: This is one of the most carefully constructed books on programming that I've ever read. The book builds a doggedly focused exposition of .NET Windows Forms from the ground up, and within that subject, there is very little missing here. Further, any diversions are relegated to three superbly organized appendices on Files and Streams, math functions, and string handling, three areas which rich client windows programmers have to have good mastery of anyhow. When I say that Petzold builds his subject from the ground up, I mean that the book can and should be read like "War and Peace, " from beginning to end without skipping anything. Even if you think you understand the basics, I'd be very surprised if you didn't gain important insights you might have missed before, even from the early and elementary chapters. Virtually nothing is presupposed and your knowledge is build up, block by block. After studying this book, you will understand exactly what is happening in a .NET Windows Forms application. Other books take a shotgun approach, throwing stuff at you that may work, but without providing the background to understand what is happening beneath the sheets. Petzold does not let Visual C# generate code automatically. Visual Studio provides a lot of visual tools and wizards for quickly designing dialog box layouts and generating code frameworks, but Petzold wants you to understand what is really going on, so everything is hand-coded in this book. This can either be a warning to you, or an invitation to those who want a deep understanding of how a Windows Form is really put together. I'd say, do it Petzold's way first, and after you've mastered the foundations of Windows Forms, use the visual tools to save time when your now superior perspective can do so without running the risk of not understanding something the visual tools did that isn't quite working right and you don't have the depth of understanding to quickly zero in on the cause. There is virtually nothing in this book that is not focused on .NET Windows Forms using C#. Mercifully, VB.NET isn't even mentioned. Also, you won't find diversionary chapters on ADO.NET or ASP.NET. The book treats Windows Forms basics (from the classic "Hello, World", through essential data structures and basic text output), and then alternates the chapters between topics on graphics (GDI+) and user interface elements (mouse, keyboard, timers, buttons, menus, toolbars, etc.). GDI+ is an enhancement to the old GDI and the book contains uncompromising chapters on such graphical topics as Bezier curves and other splines, including all the necessary mathematical background. In the chapter on Pages and Transforms, he presents* all the mathematical background necessary to perform the linear transformations needed to utilize the GDI+ graphical transforms. This is what I mean about uncompromising. He doesn't avoid topics in the .NET Windows Forms classes because they might require a little college algebra that most of us have probably forgotten. He just dives right in and presents everything necessary to come to grips with the deepest .NET classes in Windows Forms. About the only subject he doesn't treat is Image Color Management, a topic so vast it really deserves a book of its own (although "Windows 2000 Graphics API Black Book" has an excellent chapter on the Win32 API). With such an exhaustive treatment of his subject matter, you might think this book might be pretty dry reading. Not true. Petzold writes with supreme confidence and wry wit, never cloying, always with just the right touch. This book is fun reading, his enthusiasm for his subject matter always in evidence, even when he's exhaustively presenting the methods of a class or an enumeration. You can tell he is having a ball. There are lots of tables and code in the book. The code is available on an included CD. A minor problem I had is that sometimes the Beta 2 produced a bunch of "System.Byte not defined in the workspace" errors. If this happens to you, just choose Yes when it asks if you want to go ahead anyhow. The applications still work. His examples are short and are easily typed in by hand, something Petzold recommends anyhow. The way I worked with this book was to embellish little programs of my own anyhow, trying out the facilities he was expositing within my own framework. I probably learned even more taking this approach rather than using his examples literally. So overall, it is hard to imagine that this book could ever be surpassed. This book deservers an extra rosette, beyond the five stars for those extremely rare computer books that are destined to become a classic teaching a whole generation of programmers.
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