Chapter 1 Introduction to Visual Basic Exploring Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 1 Chapter 1 Introduction to Visual Basic Programming and Applications Copyright 1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Objectives Machine language vs.. High-level language Procedure-oriented, object-oriented, and event-driven languages Background of Visual Basic VB Integrated Development Environment Online documentation and Help features

Application Programs Program - detailed set of instructions for a computer to execute Application programs (applications or apps) - self-contained collection of programs that perform a task for the end user Programming language - formal language used to give instructions to computers

History of Programming Languages Machine language Procedure-oriented languages Object-oriented languages Event-driven languages Natural languages

History of Programming Languages Machine Language different for each computer processor Procedure-Oriented Languages FORTRAN COBOL Pascal C Ada

History of Programming Languages Object-oriented languages Smalltalk C++ Ada 95 Event-driven languages Visual Basic most Visual languages

History of Programming Languages Natural languages computer will accept a user’s native or natural language, such as English Researchers continue to work in this area

Background of Visual Basic Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code By John Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz Designed to teach programming to beginners BASIC language interpreter, one of Microsoft’s first products

Background of Visual Basic Included with DOS QBASIC - included with DOS Version 5 - subset of BASIC Visual Basic 1992 - Visual Basic 1 for Windows 3 Visual Basic 4 - for Windows 95 Visual Basic 5 - for Office 97 Visual Basic 6 - for Windows 98 & Office 2000

Visual Basic Editions Learning Edition Professional Edition Enterprise Edition Included in Visual Studio suite (analogy Office for programmers)

Visual Basic Editions Other Visual Basic packaging options VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) Windows CE Toolkit for Visual Basic Visual Basic Scripting Edition Control Creation Edition

Copyright 1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc. Visual Basic 6 Interactive Development Environment Project Explorer Toolbox Form Designer Window Properties window Code Editor Window Form Layout Window Exploring MS Visual Basic 6 Copyright 1999 Prentice-Hall, Inc.

Elements of the Integrated Development Environment Application icon Application name Context menus Controls Current project Design view mode Title bar Major windows Form Designer Form Layout Toolbox Project Explorer Object Browser Properties Code Editor Immediate, Locals, Watch

Introduction to Visual Basic Hands-On Exercise 1 Start Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Open the Welcome Project Open the Welcome Form Run the Welcome Project End the Welcome Project Exit Visual Basic

Get Help When You Need It MSDN Library Microsoft on the Web Learning Edition of Visual Basic 6.0 Visual Basic 6.0 in Action book Learn Visual Basic Now multimedia tutorial

MSDN Library Navigation Pane Topic Pane

MSDN Library Visual Basic Documentation Documentation Map What’s New Programmer’s Guide Samples Reference Guidebooks Component Tools Guide Data Access Guide

Summary ... Event-driven languages is a major improvement in programming languages Editions include Learning Edition, Professional Edition, and Enterprise Edition CD-ROM includes the MSDN Library, and many sample programs

Summary Integrated Development Environment includes Form Designer, Form Layout Code Edition, Project Explorer Properties and Object Browser Choose the right tool for the job Visual Basic is the glue that binds Windows objects together