Review: Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls

During my holiday, I finally completed reading the 1000+ pages of the excellent book Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls by Matthew MacDonald. I’ve already read many .NET books (both good and bad), but this one really kept my attention from front to back.It covers all aspects of developing Windows Forms application and building rich control libraries. Especially the chapters on building a professional design-time environment were really helpful. In fact, as a long-time Windows Forms developer, I even learned some stuff that was already available in Visual Studio 2003, but which the MSDN failed to explain properly. It also explicitly notes the differences and changes introduced in Windows Forms 2.0. I always find it incredible how an author manages to get so much in-depth details while the actual product is still in development (the book was released in December 2005). Make sure you check out the customer reviews on Amazon as well. What’s next? Well, XAML of course…