Can someone please clarify what WinForms is in relationship to C# development

I have seen a number of C# roles that specifically require WinForms experience. However although I am a confident C# developer, I have never heard of this term.

I have a lot of experience with C# Windows Applicat开发者_StackOverflow社区ions, specifically that using the system.windows.forms api. Is 'WinForms' just another name for this? Or is it instead a specific toolkit/framework that is supplementary to the default api's?

I would love further clarification. Many thanks all

Winforms is sort of API to create GUI client application. It is part of the .Net framework (exists in C# and in VB.NET). Today you also have Silverlight and WPF to create non command line application. The namespace you stated is part of it. When you create a new project in VS, you select Windows Forms Application. If you'r application contains Forms, buttons, text boxes and more of those, then yes. You are using the winforms framework.

See more at wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Forms

I've always thought of WinForms experience as creating .NET GUI applications using System.Windows.Forms API, as opposed to WPF experience.

Yes. WinForms is the shortened version of Windows Forms Applications.

WinForm - Windows Forms is the name given to the graphical application programming interface (API) included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework, providing access to native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the extant Windows API in managed code.

From SO winform tag info:

WinForms is the informal term given to the graphical application programming interface (API) included as a part of Microsoft's .NET Framework, providing access to the native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the existing Windows API in managed code.

The proper terminology is Windows Forms, and it is still supported by Microsoft.

In addition to Microsoft .NET Windows Forms is available through Mono.

So in short, answer is Yes.