Microsoft Visual C# 2005 Express Edition: Build a Program Now! (3 page)

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Prerelease Software

Questions and Comments

This book was reviewed and tested against the August 2005

If you have comments, questions, or ideas regarding the

release candidate. This book is expected to be fully compatbook or the companion content or have questions that are ible with the final release of Visual Studio 2005. If there are

not answered by visiting the sites above, please send them

any changes or corrections for this book, they’ll be collected

to Microsoft Press via e-mail to

and added to a Microsoft Knowledge Base article. See the

[email protected]

“Support for This Book” section in this Introduction for more

information.

or via postal mail to

Technology Updates

Microsoft Press

Attn: Visual C# 2005 Express Edition: Build a Program

As technologies related to this book are updated, links to

Now! Editor

additional information will be added to the Microsoft Press

One Microsoft Way

Technology Updates Web page. Visit this page periodically

Redmond, WA 98052-6399

for updates on Visual Studio 2005 and other technologies.

Please note that Microsoft offers no software product

http://www.microsoft.com/mspress/updates/

support through these addresses.

Support for This Book

Every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this

book and the companion content. As corrections or changes

are collected, they’ll be added to a Microsoft Knowledge

Base article. To view the list of known corrections for this

book, visit the following article:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905040

Microsoft Press provides support for books and companion content at the following Web site:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/support/books/

Introduction

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About the Author

Patrice Pelland

beautiful; she’s my idol, my inspiration, my sunshine, my

best friend, my love, and an awesome mother! Mon amour,

Patrice Pelland is a technical lead at Microsoft working in

thanks for being who you are and for being there for me! I

the Developer Division. He loves .NET and Web services

love you!

and, for the past four years, he has been working, teaching,

evangelizing, and talking about them to everyone.

Thanks

For the past twelve years, he has been working in

software development in various roles: developer, project

First of all, thanks to my parents. Mom, Dad, you gave me

lead, manager and mentor, and software engineer in QA

all the chances to be what I am in life and you gave me the

organizations. He has vast experience spanning multiple

values to be the man I am. Thanks and I love you!

technologies and fields: developer tools, fiber optics teleA book is a huge adventure in somebody’s life, and it communication, aviation, coffee and dairy companies, and

would not be possible without the help of many people. I’ve

also three years teaching computer science and software

always read the thank you sections in other people’s books

development at a college in Canada.

and I was always amazed at how many people are needed

When not developing great tools for developers and

to make a book what it is. Now I really understand why!!!

helping customers throughout the world, he enjoys spendWhile writing a book is tough, real tough, it’s really sating time with his family and friends, playing games on isfying at the same time. During the writing process, you

XBOX and PC, reading books, reading about Porsche and

sometimes have doubts, and I had my share of--especially

dreaming about driving one, playing hockey, watching

those nights at 3:00 a.m. when all other souls in the house

NHL hockey and NFL football, and having great dinners

are asleep, even my dog, and the product had a bug prewith good food and fine drinks with friends and family. He venting me from testing something; when I was in front of

resides with his family in Sammamish, WA.

my laptop with an exception and a white page in Word;

when everybody was on vacation this summer while I was

Dedication

working at the library in Sammamish. I can’t remember

how many times I’ve said to my friends, “No, I won’t be

This book is dedicated to my wife, Hélène. My wife is a breast

able to be there. I need to work on my book!” But it’s an

cancer survivor, and her courage and strength push me to

awesome experience to write a book; everybody who has

do better things and to face more complex challenges. She’s

the chance should take the challenge!

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With that said, I first need to thank my lovely family. My

A special thanks to Jeff Prosise for being such a good

kids (Laura, 11, and Antoine, 9) and my wife, Hélène, were

writer, an awesome trainer, and for writing a blog about the

so great and PATIENT. How many times I heard them say,

writing process. You were the spark that ignited my flame to

“Daddy, it’s movie night…oh yeah, it’s true, you’re workwrite a technical book. ing on your book again!” But at the same time, they were

Thanks also to my colleagues from the DDCPX team for

respecting the space I needed and the time alone!!! You

always giving me good words of encouragement, to Boris

guys are great and I love you!

Feldman for sharing his experiences as a writer and, finally,

I have to thank all the people at MS Learning and the

thanks to my good friend, John Cross, for his constructive

publishing team. I would especially like to thank Ben for

feedback.

helping me get in the writing world; Sandra for her constant

Thanks to my good friends here in the Puget Sound area

motivation, help, suggestions, and also for helping me to go

for the kind words of encouragement and to my family and

through all the hurdles of writing a book; and Megan for all

friends in Canada for understanding why I’m not calling or

your help getting the job done and a real, tangible product.

giving any news. Sorry, Mom and Dad!

You guys have my respect for working day in, day out in the

And thanks to my good neighbors and friends, Mike and

crazy world of publishing.

Elizabeth, for their constant encouragement and for letting

I would also like to thank all the people in the VB, C#,

me use their dog’s name, Molly, in my OOP introduction.

Windows Forms, MSDN and setup teams who helped me

Thanks to everybody I might have forgotten!

by answering all my questions in a dynamic and constantly

changing product lifecycle. I would like to thank more

Patrice Pelland

specifically Dan Fernandez, Joe Binder, Brian Keller, Brian

October 2005

Johnson, Hong Gao, Jay Roxe, Kavitha Radhakrishnan, Kent

Sammamish, WA

Sharkey, Lisa Feigenbaum, Shamez Rajan, Steve Lasker, Aaron

Stebner, and Habib Heydarian.

Chapter #: Chapter Title

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Introducing

Microsoft® Visual C#®

2005 Express Edition

What Is .NET?, 2

So maybe you’ve decided you want to try programming and you found

yourself with this book. Well, if that’s the case, you’ve come to the right

What Is C#?, 4

place. This book is all about introducing you to the art, science, and joys of creating software for Microsoft Windows®; yes, the same Microsoft

What Is Visual C# 2005

Express Edition?, 9

Windows you probably use every day. Throughout the book, I’ll show you how to build applications that are very similar to many of the applications you use on a regular basis, such as your Internet browser, your word proces
1
sor, your e-mail software, and your personal finance application. You’re probably wondering how you could possibly do this with no programming

experience. By the time you finish this book, you’ll believe it. Don’t worry. We’ll have a blast, and because you’ll actually be building the applications as you follow along with each exercise, you’ll see for yourself just how easy it can be.

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What Is .NET?

So now, what is that
.NET
thing that everybody is talking about? Maybe you’ve seen it somewhere online or have come across the term in the jobs section in your Sunday newspaper. For instance, the term might have appeared when you were logging on to Hotmail® or in an online ad where a company is looking for a developer with .NET skills. Look at Figure 1-1 for some examples of where you might have come across a reference to .NET. The Platforms SDK team is looking for a strong developer to work on our internal Tools team. The Tools team produces tools and Web sites that track WinFX API development, report metrics on our SDKs, and track the tens of thousands of files that are submitted to our SDKs for WinFX, the .NET Framework, and the Microsoft Windows operating systems.