Visual Basic .NET is a radically new version of Microsoft Visual Basic, the world’s most widely used rapid application development (RAD) package. Whether you are just beginning application development with Visual Basic .NET or are already deep in code, you will appreciate just how easy and valuable the VB.NET Language Pocket Reference is. VB.NET Language Pocket Reference contains a concise description of all language elements by category. These include language elements implemented by the Visual Basic compiler, as well as all procedures and functions implemented in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace. Use it anytime you want to look up those pesky details of Visual Basic syntax or usage. With concise detail and no fluff, you’ll want to take this book everywhere.

One of the most significant features of Visual Basic .NET is the full support of object-oriented programming. For years, developers have been asking for it, but you may not be quite sure how it can help to create and maintain scalable .NET applications. VB.NET is a language that facilitates object-oriented programming, but does not guarantee good object-oriented code. That’s where Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET comes in. It will show you how to think about similarities in your application logic and how to design and create objects that maximize the benefit and power the .NET Framework enables. The concept of separating the interface from the implementation has been around for years, but with Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET you’ll put it all into practice and you’ll never willingly go back to those old ways. With chapters on object fundamentals and class anatomy, you’ll lay a foundation that will prepare you to think and apply code reuse principles. Following that, you’ll be ready to dive deep into code and the dynamic ecology that it interacts with. Inheritance, containment, polymorphism, overloading, and overriding are just the beginning of this adventure. From there, you’ll discover exception handling, reflection, serialization, and I/O. Packed with examples that will guide you through every step, Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET is a guide for those with some programming experience. This book is for those who know Visual Basic 6.0 and are ready or have started the process of developing with Visual Basic .NET. It is an essential tool that will build your skills, as you become a master of Visual Basic .NET. It is one thing to know how to write object-oriented code. Knowing the when and the why is what makes good programmers. That’s exactly what you’ll know after reading this book.

The .NET platform gives Visual Basic developers access to an entirely new and comprehensive class library that promises to further simplify and speed VB application development. In VB.NET Core Classes in a Nutshell, VB Programmers will find a concise and thorough reference to the types found in the core namespaces of the .NET Framework Class Library. The heart of this book is a classic Nutshell Quick Reference to all the types found in 22 core .NET namespaces. The entry for each type describes its significance, explains how the type is used in .NET applications and lists its members and their signatures in readable VB.NET syntax. The core namespaces documented in this book include types in the following areas:

• Essential system and programming services found in the System namespace
• Text handling and regular expression pattern searches
• Diagnostics, debugging, and performance monitoring
• Generalized and specialized collection objects
• Reflection
• Extensible Markup Language (XML)
• Input/output and serialization
• Networking
• Threading and timers
• COM interop and globalization

This book teaches you how to create your own role-playing game (RPG) using Visual Basic and DirectX.I teach you,step-by-step,how to construct each part ofthe game using DirectX components such as Direct3D.Ifyou think RPGs are fun to play,wait until you start working on your very own! Constructing an RPG is far more interesting than playing one, because you are in complete control over the RPG world,and you can let your imagination loose to create adventures for others to enjoy.

Before you can get to the point where you can design an adventure and build an RPG with Visual Basic,you need to learn the language and get up to speed on DirectX.My goal with this book is to teach you just what you need to know in order to make this happen,without going into detail.You learn what you need to know to construct an RPG and nothing more.

You might choose to use a product such as RPG Maker, rather than writing your own RPG with Visual Basic.That is certainly a good alternative,but wouldn’t it be more interesting to have complete control over how the game works? Certainly you can create many complete RPGs of your own design with RPG Maker in the time it takes to build just one RPG from scratch and doing all of your own programming. But after writing your own code,you have learned a promising skill—game programming! In addition,you have complete creative control over how the game operates.

This book reads like a hobby book, with no pressure and limited goals, because the primary purpose is to help you have fun learning about game programming. Typing long source-code listings out of a book is not fun,so I don’t ask you to do that in every single chapter. Instead, you learn to write short programs to demonstrate the major topics in each chapter, and over time you get the hang of it. There is no memorization required here,as I’m a firm believer that repetition—practice—is the best way to learn,not theory and memorization.

In this lively, eye-opening, and hands-on book, all you need is a computer and the desire to learn how to program with Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition. Featuring a full working edition of the software, this fun and highly visual guide walks you through a complete programming project—a desktop weather-reporting application—from start to finish. You’ll get an introduction to the Microsoft Visual Studio development environment and learn how to put the lightweight, easy-to-use tools in Visual Basic Express to work right away—creating, compiling, testing, and delivering your first ready-to-use program. You’ll get expert tips, coaching, and visual examples at each step of the way, along with pointers to additional learning resources.

You are probably thinking, “This is just another .NET book.” That was what I thought at first, when I was asked to read a couple of draft chapters by Jeff. Well, I have to admit that this is not just another .NET book. Jeff has really done a fine job in this book; he describes the logical process and notes the considerations you must take into account to create excellent code. He uses examples of code and personal experience to effectively illustrate his points. Furthermore, Jeff has captured some keen insights in this book that have come from the projects he has worked on in the recent past.The reader will definitely benefit from these shared insights. I first met Jeff at a meeting with mutual customers over a year ago. Jeff was tasked with architecting, prototyping, and then leading a team of developers to create an application for this customer using the new Microsoft .NET Framework technology that was actually in beta at the time. I worked with Jeff on several of the challenges he faced. I was impressed by his professional skills and deep technical acumen. He uncovered some issues and really put me to task in assisting him in gathering answers because when Jeff asked for help, I came to expect that it was not a trivial issue.

Based on the newest version of Microsoft’s VB. NET, this revision of Schneider’s best-selling text is designed for students with no prior computer programming experience. The author uses Visual Basic .NET to explore the fundamentals of programming, building a strong foundation that will give students a sustainable understanding of programming. A broad range of examples, case studies, exercises, and programming projects give students significant hands-on experience. A “tried and true” text, this book has been consistently praised by both students and instructors.

This book provides more than enough material for a complete semester course. The topics must be trimmed for courses lasting considerably less than a full semester. The following syllabus provides one possible way to present an abbreviated introduction to programming.

Programs such as Visual Basic, which are designed for Microsoft Windows, are easy to useonce you learn a little jargon and a few basic techniques. This section explains the jargon, giving you enough understanding of Windows to get you started in Visual Basic. Although Windows may seem intimidating if you’ve never used it before, you need to learn only a few basic techniques, which are covered in this section.

Since its creation, Visual Basic (VB) has steadily grown into the world’s most popular programming language. But popularity doesn’t always mean respect, and for years the development community has been split between those who think Visual Basic is a revolutionary way to solve just about any programming problem and those who think VB should be sent to the bargain bin to make room for a return to “serious” C++ or Java coding. As a result, Visual Basic programmers have a reputation for being a slightly paranoid bunch.Recently, Visual Basic has been through the greatest change of its life. It’s morphed into a modern, object-oriented language that’s built on MS’s .NET Framework—the same plumbing that powers such heavyweights as C#. Although most VB developers believe that the .NET Framework will eventually replace old-style Visual Basic 6, a surprising number haven’t made the jump yet. Some don’t trust the new technology (and the never-ending name changes). Others are too busy with real work to think about making a move. And a few are scared off by the radical new model and inevitable migration headaches.

Now MS has introduced Visual Basic 2005, along with the second version of the .NET Framework. MS’s developers have expended considerable resources making Visual Basic 2005 easier to understand, use, and embrace, and they’re earmarking this release as the version that will finally make die-hard classic VB-ers switch to .NET. So have they succeeded?

It has been my experience as a Visual Basic trainer that most people do not have trouble picking up the syntax of the language. What perplexes and frustrates many people are the higher-level concepts of object-oriented programming methodology and design. To compound the problem, most introductory programming books and training classes skim over these concepts or, worse, do not cover them at all. It is my hope that this book fills this void. My goal in writing this book is twofold. First, to provide you with the information needed to understand the fundamentals of programming with Visual Basic. Second and more importantly, to present you with the information required to master the higher-level concepts of object-oriented programming methodology and design.This book provides you with the information needed to understand how you go about architecting an object-oriented programming solution aimed at solving a business problem. As you work your way through the book, first you will learn how to analyze the business requirements. Next, you will model the objects and relationships involved in the solution design. Finally, you will implement the solution using Visual Basic .NET. Along the way, you will learn the fundamentals of software design, the Unified Modeling Language (UML), object-oriented programming, Visual Basic (VB), and the .NET Framework.

Because this is an introductory book, it is meant to be a starting point for your study of the topics presented. As such, this book is notdesigned to make you an expert in object-oriented programming and UML; nor be an exhaustive discussion of VB and the .NET Framework; nor be an in-depth study of Visual Studio. It takes considerable time and effort to become proficient in any one of these areas. It is my hope that by reading this book, your first experiences in object-oriented programming will be enjoyable, comprehensible, and instill a desire for further study.

This book was born out of a lunch that I had with two colleagues of mine. They both had an extensive background in mainframe development, but they were struggling to understand what OOP was and how they should apply it. During the conversation, I explained some of the basics of OOP and afterwards thought about better ways to teach these developers the concepts of OOP. That lead me to decide that I should write a book, which lead me to Apress—and the rest is history.

Object-Oriented Programming is important in today’s ever-changing world. More and more businesses are abandoning mainframe development for client/server development. Client/server development is greatly enhanced by OOP techniques. OOP techniques teach developers to build reusable code and to think about a problem in terms of the real world. OOP is all about modeling the real world to make more user- and business-friendly software applications.

In the past couple of years, Microsoft announced a new version of .NET that was to be delivered in 2005. Visual Basic 2005, Visual Studio 2005, and ASP.NET 2.0 all provide new functionality and great advantages. This book first teaches the concepts of OOP and then uses the newest version of .NET to develop ASP.NET web sites. Many companies are starting to develop most, if not all applications, as web applications. This book helps position the reader to develop web sites with the newest version of .NET and with OOP concepts.

If you have developed web sites with traditional ASP, you will learn how to develop web sites with VB.NET, which is a very big improvement over traditional VBScript and JavaScript.