Beginning VB.NET, 2nd Edition

Microsoft Visual Basic is the most popular programming language in the world, with millions of lines of code used in businesses and applications of all types and sizes. With Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft introduces some fundamental new features, particularly the ability to program against the .NET Framework.

Keeping a constant view on real-life programming practices, Beginning VB .NET will guide you from your first Visual Basic .NET program right through to producing powerful, database driven applications for Windows and the Web.

This book is suitable whether you are new to programming, have some experience with other versions of Visual Basic, or are migrating to Windows programming from another platform. It will give you the thorough grounding you need to write real-world, commercial applications.

What you will learn from this book:

• How to get up and running with the Visual Basic .NET or Visual Studio .NET IDE
• How to write Visual Basic .NET code
• What the .NET Framework is and why it is important
• How to use loops and branching structures so that your programs can make decisions
• How to use menus, toolbars, dialog boxes, and other controls in your Windows programs
• What object-oriented programming is, and what it means to you
• How to create re-usable class libraries and user controls

About the Authors

After working with Wrox Press on a number of projects since 1999, Matthew Reynolds is now an in-house author for Wrox Press writing about and working with virtually all aspects of Microsoft .NET. He’s also a regular contributor to Wrox’s ASPToday and C# Today, and Web Services Architect.

Richard Blair is a Web Application Architect specializing in Microsoft Web Technologies, focusing on emerging technology and its impact on business and development. Key areas that he has helped clients evaluate include: streamlining the electronic business process, expanding access to vital information, and creating usable systems. He now works as a Senior Consultant for SEI-Information Technology. Besides his consulting work, he has also co-authored Professional ASP XML, Beginning Visual Basic .NET, and Professional VB .NET, all published by Wrox Press Ltd. Richard has a dual concentration bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan in English Literature and Theatre.

Jonathan Crossland is co-author of Professional Windows DNA, Professional VB .NET, and Beginning VB .NET. He is currently working at Yokogawa Electric Corporation in the UK, where he is happily involved with the creation of software for the Batch manufacturing industry. Jonathan has been working in and out of various software technologies for eight years now, and spends most of his time in C# and XML, ASP, and writing Web Services.

Thearon Willis began his career in computers in 1980 as a computer operator. After learning the BASIC language, Thearon moved on to learn COBOL and began writing programs to help automate some of his daily tasks as a computer operator. Advancing his career, Thearon became an Operations Analyst and learned several other languages to assist in his job. The first application that Thearon worked on was written in assembler language and included over 70 assembler programs. To help automate some of the tasks that were performed by the department that used this application, he wrote several programs in Visual Basic. One of these programs read and processed data from message queues that were populated from the mainframe and performed automated balancing. He first began working with Visual Basic in version 3.0. After 4 was released he switched his career from the mainframe to client-server development. He currently works as a senior consultant and develops intranet applications using ASP, DHTML, XML, JavaScript, VBScript, VB COM components, and SQL Server.