Sams - Teach Yourself VisualBasic.NET In 21 Days

Introduction

Welcome to an exciting and informative 21-day lesson in Visual Basic .NET, the newest incarnation of the world’s most popular programming language. This book is designed to give you an introduction to the .NET Framework and Visual Basic .NET, and get you started programming real applications as quickly as possible.

Overview

The .NET Framework is the core set of concepts and technology underlying Microsoft’s newest set of development tools, and it will form the foundation for the next set of servers, applications, and Web-based services deployed around the world. As you might expect, .NET is not something that can be completely covered in an hour, or even in 21 days, so this book is taking a more focused approach. You need to be productive quickly, and that is exactly what you will get from the next 21 days as you read this book and work through the associated exercises. By providing you with the core elements of the Visual Basic .NET language and enough coverage of the .NET Framework itself, you will be ready to start programming now and prepared to keep learning as you go. From the beginning, it is important to note a key fact about .NET: The language you use is less relevant than it has been in the past. The Framework (the underlying set of technology that all of .NET is based on) is the true .NET platform, and it can be accessed equally well from any .NET language (including Visual Basic, C#, C++, and others). This is excellent news for Visual Basic and both new and experienced Visual Basic developers. Visual Basic is no longer a second-class language, with certain advanced functionality of the operating system restricted only to programmers who use C++. Now, any system, no matter what type, can be created in Visual Basic.

This language independence also means that you are free to choose to work in whichever language you (or your company) want. Given the choice, many people, including the authors of this book, are going to be picking Visual Basic .NET. Its easy-to-use syntax and style have made it the most popular programming language in the world, even with the limitations the previous version had. Now with .NET, there is nothing stopping it from being used on any project in any company.

If you are interested in learning more than just Visual Basic .NET—perhaps C# seems pretty exciting—then you are still starting at the right place. This book is going to give you an understanding of how to use the .NET Framework, which is knowledge that can be transferred easily to any .NET language.