Windows Forms and the .NET Framework

.NET is a new development framework that provides a fresh application programming interface to the services and APIs of classic Windows operating systems and brings together several disparate technologies that emerged from Microsoft during the late 1990s. These new technologies include COM+ component services, a commitment to XML and object-oriented design, and a clean interface to the Internet.

To lay the foundation for a full understanding of Windows Forms, this chapter begins with an introduction to the .NET platform and a focus on the .NET Framework.