Visual Basic 2012 Programmer's Reference

SUMMARY

Although forms are just one kind of control, they have some very special characteristics. They form the basic pieces of an application that sit on the desktop, and they have many properties, methods, and events that set them apart from other controls. Appendix J provides more information about form properties, methods, and events.

This chapter described some of the more typical uses of forms. It explained how to build About, splash, and login forms; manage a form’s mouse cursor and icon; override WndProc to intercept a form’s Windows messages; and make dialog boxes and wizards. After you master these tasks, you can build the forms that implement the large-scale pieces of an application.

Chapters 7, 8, and 9 described Windows Forms controls and the Form class. The next three chapters provide corresponding information for Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) controls and forms. Chapter 10, “Selecting WPF Controls,” starts by providing an overview of WPF controls and giving tips on which you might like to use for given purposes, much as Chapter 7 did for Windows Forms controls.