The "stuff" you are asking about is the original win32 API, which as far as I know is still the bread and butter for everything running on top of a windows install. .NET and its various frameworks like WPF or WinForms or GDI+ may be reimplementations of GUI components instead of reusing existing GDI (part of Win32) components but certainly Win32 is the gateway to anything getting done still.
I got the impression that GDI+ is some slightly off on the side, goofy thing good for some things but not the main way, say, C++, Win32 programmers at Mozilla write to the screen or a printer, that there are other, really in most ways, better ways in Win32.
So, looks like I should get some documentation on Win32, scan it, see what the major functionality is, and then see if I can find that functionality in .NET class wrappers or some such so that I don't have to do mud wresting with C structs or C++ classes.
I just did a Google search on some of these keywords and found that Microsoft is now awash in developer videos, are supposed to download as MP4 and view in Windows Media Player, now talking about not just "productivity" but "creativity" in apps. Hmm ....
It took me 30 minutes of mud wrestling, two e-mail messages, lots of retrys, a phone call from one of their robots, etc. just to "sign in". They had up a page with radio buttons or round check boxes or some such with a lot of gibberish but no instructions about what the heck I was supposed to do with that page. Typical -- just try it and find out! So, to try it, just run the mouse over and click on everything in sight, hope don't cause the universe to shrink to nothing, and see what can do. With enough such exploratory clicking, I was able to "sign in".
Hmm .... Microsoft is failing in basic, old UI lessons about being clear what are asking users to do, getting a low grade in basic functionality, but asking their devoted, dedicated developers to move from "productivity" to "creativity", e.g., where a screen now looks like some "acrylic" surface with some nice emotional impressions? Hmm.
Uh, Gates, buddy, art is one heck of a challenging field to get right! Not so easy to keep up with Michelangelo, Bernini, Bach, Wagner, Degas, Renoir, etc.!
Why don't you plan to return to art and creativity after you are able to get sign ins on your Web sites working and to write documentation that does well explaining your current work including .NET and Win32?
PS
Okay, at Google I started typing "Win32 dev ..." or some such and right away got a little window of a search for Win32 development tutorials, or some such. Sooooo, that search is very popular!
By now I've used enough Win32 applications to appreciate that Microsoft has had a framework, starter program, standard first program or some such with all the key stuff for printing, using the system clipboard, getting data from the mouse and keyboard, etc. All that stuff is rock solid standard so don't program it, maybe even don't try to study it, and just USE it as it is because it is needed and it WORKS and getting the same just from documentation might require massive mud wrestling! ]
The page does say that Win32 is not the up to date or some such way to develop. Okay, sure, for 64 bit addressing, can believe that Win32 won't work! So, this Microsoft comment seems to imply that can get all the Win32 functionality and more in 64 bit addressing with C#, VB.NET, etc. Okay. Maybe if I keep reading I'll see how to do that, too!
PPS
Yup, suddenly a little more of the world is starting to make sense!
Microsoft Win32 to Microsoft .NET Framework API Map
with "applies to"
Microsoft® .NET Framework version 1.0 or 1.1
which is essentially just what I hoped existed! And the page does fairly strongly suggest that anything that can be done in Win32 can also be done .NET! And from the 1.0 and 1.1, that's old, that is, apparently .NET offered essentially all the Win32 stuff right from the beginning of .NET! Since my code was written with .NET 4, I should be able to include in my code essentially any Win32 functionality I want!
GOOD! Thank you Microsoft! Looks good! Took me a while to find, but, again, looks good.
And it's clear from how Google responded I'm not nearly the first looking for that info!
Great! Now I don't have to get out a 20 year old book from Pezold! And I get to continue to f'get about C and C++ and stay with VB.NET, or C# if Microsoft insists -- I hope they don't drop VB.NET!
Good! And it's a nice looking Web page, printed, 64 pages long, that is, not short!
