Goal for this part
Prompt when closing unsaved work.
Treat 11-Dirty-Flag as the source of truth for this checkpoint. If your local tree drifted, re-clone that folder rather than mixing files from neighbors.
What you should already know
You do not need prior WinForms experience for part 1. Later parts assume you finished the earlier snapshots on the same machine.
- .NET 8 SDK is installed
- You can run
dotnetfrom a terminal - WinForms snapshots target Windows
Why WinForms fits Pagepress
WinForms RichTextBox gives bold/italic/fonts quickly so the course can focus on documents, not rendering engines.
ToolStrip + RichTextBox is the classic Windows writer. Track dirty state and warn on close.
After you run the snapshot, you should recognize the behavior described in the goal—before you move on. If the window (or server) never appears, stop and fix the run steps.
Code shape
Snapshots stay small on purpose. Look for this kind of core call as you read the folder:
richTextBox.SaveFile(path, RichTextBoxStreamType.RichText);How to run it
Clone the teaching repo, open 11-Dirty-Flag, install what the README asks for, then run dotnet run.
git clone https://github.com/michaeldunga1/fcc-winforms-writer.git
cd fcc-winforms-writer/11-Dirty-Flag
dotnet restore
dotnet build
dotnet runCommon mistakes
- Ignoring platform-specific install notes in the snapshot README
- Hiding a feature in the UI without enforcing it in code
- Leaving trash/spam actions irreversible
- Forgetting a status message after a bulk action