Windows Programming

Over the years, I have always had a subconscious aversion to 'Windows programming'.  Now I know why:

In a sense, the whole history of new programming languages and class libraries for Windows has involved the struggle to reduce the windows hello-world program down to something small, sleek, and elegant. -- Petzold, Programming Microsoft Windows with C#, Microsoft Press, 2002, p. 47 (via Lambda the Ultimate).

If doing the simple things is difficult, then doing complex things must be well-nigh impossible!