1.2 What is Visual Basic?
VISUAL BASIC is a high level programming language which evolved from the earlier DOS version called BASIC. BASIC means Beginners'
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It
is a very easy programming language to learn. The code look a lot like
English Language. Different software companies produced different
versions of BASIC, such as Microsoft QBASIC, QUICKBASIC, GWBASIC ,IBM
BASICA and so on. However, people prefer to use Microsoft Visual Basic
today, as it is a well developed programming language and supporting
resources are available everywhere.
Now, there are many versions of VB exist in the market, the most
popular one and still widely used by many VB programmers is none other
than Visual Basic 6. We also have VB.net, VB2005, VB2008 and the latest
VB2010. Both Vb2008 and VB2010 are fully object oriented programming
(OOP) language.
VISUAL BASIC is a VISUAL and events driven
Programming Language. These are the main divergence from the old BASIC.
In BASIC, programming is done in a text-only environment and the program
is executed sequentially. In VB, programming is done in a graphical
environment. In the old BASIC, you have to write program code for each
graphical object you wish to display it on screen, including its
position and its color. However, In VB , you just need to drag and drop
any graphical object anywhere on the form, and you can change its color
any time using the properties windows.
On the
other hand, because the user may click on a certain object randomly, so
each object has to be programmed independently to be able to response
to those actions (events). Therefore, a VB Program is made up of many
subprograms, each has its own program code, and each can be executed
independently and at the same time each can be linked together in one
way or another.
1.3 What programs can you create with Visual
Basic 6?
With VB 6, you can create any program depending on your objective.
For example, if you are a college or university lecturer, you can
create educational programs to teach business, economics, engineering,
computer science, accountancy , financial management, information system
and more to make teaching more effective and interesting. If you are in
business, you can also create business programs such as inventory
management system , point-of-sale system, payroll system, financial
program as well as accounting program to help manage your business and
increase productivity. For those of you who like games and working as
games programmer, you can create those programs as well. Indeed, there
is no limit to what program you can create ! There are many such
programs in this tutorial, so you must spend more time on the tutorial
in order to learn how to create those programs.
1.4 The Visual Basic 6 Integrated Development Environment
Before you can program in VB 6, you need to
install Visual Basic 6 in your computer.
On start up, Visual Basic 6.0 will display the following dialog box as
shown in figure 1.1.
You can choose to either start a new project, open an existing project or select a list
of recently opened programs. A project is a collection of files that make up
your application. There are various types of applications that we could create,
however, we shall concentrate on creating Standard EXE programs (EXE means
executable program). Now, click on the Standard EXE icon to go into the actual
Visual Basic 6 programming environment.
1.2 What is Visual Basic?
VISUAL BASIC is a high level programming language which evolved from the earlier DOS version called BASIC. BASIC means Beginners'
All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code. It
is a very easy programming language to learn. The code look a lot like
English Language. Different software companies produced different
versions of BASIC, such as Microsoft QBASIC, QUICKBASIC, GWBASIC ,IBM
BASICA and so on. However, people prefer to use Microsoft Visual Basic
today, as it is a well developed programming language and supporting
resources are available everywhere.
Now, there are many versions of VB exist in the market, the most
popular one and still widely used by many VB programmers is none other
than Visual Basic 6. We also have VB.net, VB2005, VB2008 and the latest
VB2010. Both Vb2008 and VB2010 are fully object oriented programming
(OOP) language.
VISUAL BASIC is a VISUAL and events driven
Programming Language. These are the main divergence from the old BASIC.
In BASIC, programming is done in a text-only environment and the program
is executed sequentially. In VB, programming is done in a graphical
environment. In the old BASIC, you have to write program code for each
graphical object you wish to display it on screen, including its
position and its color. However, In VB , you just need to drag and drop
any graphical object anywhere on the form, and you can change its color
any time using the properties windows.
On the
other hand, because the user may click on a certain object randomly, so
each object has to be programmed independently to be able to response
to those actions (events). Therefore, a VB Program is made up of many
subprograms, each has its own program code, and each can be executed
independently and at the same time each can be linked together in one
way or another.
1.3 What programs can you create with Visual
Basic 6?
With VB 6, you can create any program depending on your objective.
For example, if you are a college or university lecturer, you can
create educational programs to teach business, economics, engineering,
computer science, accountancy , financial management, information system
and more to make teaching more effective and interesting. If you are in
business, you can also create business programs such as inventory
management system , point-of-sale system, payroll system, financial
program as well as accounting program to help manage your business and
increase productivity. For those of you who like games and working as
games programmer, you can create those programs as well. Indeed, there
is no limit to what program you can create ! There are many such
programs in this tutorial, so you must spend more time on the tutorial
in order to learn how to create those programs.
1.4 The Visual Basic 6 Integrated Development Environment
Before you can program in VB 6, you need to
install Visual Basic 6 in your computer.
|
On start up, Visual Basic 6.0 will display the following dialog box as
shown in figure 1.1.
You can choose to either start a new project, open an existing project or select a list
of recently opened programs. A project is a collection of files that make up
your application. There are various types of applications that we could create,
however, we shall concentrate on creating Standard EXE programs (EXE means
executable program). Now, click on the Standard EXE icon to go into the actual
Visual Basic 6 programming environment.
|
