With this completely up-to-date tutorial and reference, you'll quickly learn how to develop Visual Basic (VB) programs that leverage the latest features of Vista and .NET 3.0. The tutorial section walks you through VB.NET from scratch, providing you with in-depth descriptions of the development environment, basic program syntax, and standard controls. You'll also explore the fundamental concepts in object-oriented programming with VB.
In the comprehensive reference section, you'll find out how to take advantage of specific VB features. Expert Rod Stephens shows you how to draw images, use GDI+ routines, and generate printed output. You'll also discover how to build an application that interacts with its environment, save and load data in external sources, and use standard dialog controls. This approach makes it easier than ever to learn this powerful language and create your own dynamic programs.
What you will learn from this book
- The best methods for mastering the new features of VB.NET
- Steps for implementing custom controls and drag and drop
- Ways to use trickier class issues such as private class scope, declaring events, and shared variables and methods
- Strategies for creating new classes designed to work with specific data types
- How to define an interface using XAML
- Techniques for building service-oriented applications using the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF)
Who this book is for
This book is for programmers at all levels who are either looking to learn Visual Basic .NET or have already mastered it and want some useful tips, tricks, and language details.
About the Author
Rod Stephens started out as a mathematician but, while studying at MIT, discovered the joys of programming and has been programming professionally ever since. During his career, he has worked on an eclectic assortment of applications in such fields as telephone switching, billing, repair dispatching, tax processing, wastewater treatment, concert ticket sales, and training for professional football players. He has written 16 books that have been translated into half a dozen different languages, and more than 200 magazine articles covering Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, Delphi, and Java. He is currently a regular contributor to DevX. His popular VB Helper web site receives several million hits per month and contains thousands of pages of tips, tricks, and example code for Visual Basic programmers, as well as example code for this book.
