PROGRAMMING IN VISUAL BASIC.NET INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL BASIC.NET Bilal Munir Mughal 1 Chapter-1

Topics  Understanding Programming and Visual Basic's Role  The Importance of Application Design  Tips for a Good Design  Big Changes in Visual Basic.NET 2

Understanding Programming and Visual Basic's Role  What Is a Computer Program?  A computer program(also known as an application) is a series of instructions that enables a computer to perform a specific task.  A programming language such as Visual Basic is used to translate instructions, as we humans understand them, into the steps that the computer can comprehend and follow e.g. track of your grocery list, calculating conversions between different units, tracking the satellites orbiting Earth 3

Understanding Programming and Visual Basic's Role Broad categories of computer programs  Packaged programs are those that you can purchase in a software store, via mail order, direct from a manufacturer, and so on. Packaged programs (sometimes known as canned programs) are predesigned to accomplish one or more specific tasks e.g. Microsoft Word  Custom programs (also known as proprietary programs) are usually designed for a specific purpose within a particular organization.  Distributed applications utilize the Internet (or other large-scale connectivity, such as a local intranet) to allow several different layers of an application to run at different locations. Application Service Providers (ASPs) allow companies to access programs and store data on their servers. Thanks to the Internet, these services are accessible to nearly everyone. 4

Understanding Programming and Visual Basic's Role  Visual Studio.NET Framework, is Microsoft's attempt to bring these types of applications within the domain of the programmer .NET Framework (pronounced dot net) is a software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows.  It includes a large library and provides language interoperability (each language can use code written in other languages) across several programming languages.  Programs written for.NET Framework execute in a software environment (as contrasted to hardware environment), known as the Common Language Runtime (CLR), an application virtual machine that provides services such as security, memory management, and exception handling.  The class library and the CLR together constitute.NET Framework. 5

Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) 6

Understanding Programming and Visual Basic's Role  The Evolution of Visual Basic  Visual Basic is a descendant of BASIC (Dartmouth University in 1964 )  Succeeding the classic Visual Basic version 6.0, the first version of Visual Basic.NET debuted in As of 2014, seven versions of Visual Basic.NET are released.  in 2002 (VB 7.0)  in 2003 (VB 7.1)  in 2005 (VB 8.0)  in 2008 (VB 9.0)  in 2010 (VB 10.0)  in 2012 (VB 11.0)  in 2013 (VB 12.0) 7

The Importance of Application Design  Program's purpose is to solve a specific problem, and the design determines how it will solve that problem.  Investing a significant amount of time in program design will benefit both you and the users of your programs. 8

How Design Fits into the Programming Process The following types of questions must be addressed when designing your programs:  What are the specific tasks the program needs to perform?  Who are the users of this program?  What will the user interface (screens) look like?  What type of architecture should I use (Web-based, client-server)?  What will the databases look like? 9

Tips for a Good Design  TIP 1: Understand the Requirements in Detail  TIP 2: Make Your Design Flexible  TIP 3: Keep Code Maintainability in Mind  TIP 4: Design for Reuse  TIP 5: Test Your Design 10

Systems Development Life-cycle (SDLC) 11

Systems Development Life-cycle (SDLC) 12

13 Q & A ?