Visual Basic 2005 for Programmers (2nd Edition)

2.7. Wrap-Up

In this chapter, we introduced key features of the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE). You used the technique of visual programming to create a working Visual Basic program without writing a single line of code. Visual Basic programming is a mixture of the two stylesvisual programming allows you to develop GUIs easily and avoid tedious GUI programming; conventional programming (which we introduce in Chapter 3) allows to specify the behavior of your programs.

You created a Visual Basic Windows application with one form. You worked with the Solution Explorer, Toolbox and Properties windows, which are essential to developing Visual Basic programs. The Solution Explorer window allows you to manage your solution's files visually. The Toolbox window contains a rich collection of controls for creating GUIs. The Properties window allows you to set the attributes of a form and controls.

You explored Visual Studio's help features, including the Dynamic Help window and the Help menu. The Dynamic Help window displays links related to the item that you select with the mouse. You also learned how to set Help options to display help resources internally or externally in a Web browser. We also demonstrated context-sensitive help.

You used visual programming to design the GUI portions of a program quickly and easily, by dragging and dropping controls (a Label and a PictureBox) onto a form or by double clicking controls in the Toolbox.

In creating the ASimpleProgram program, you used the Properties window to set the Text and BackColor properties of the form. You learned that Label controls display text and that PictureBoxes display images. You displayed text in a Label and added an image to a PictureBox. You also worked with the AutoSize, TextAlign and SizeMode properties of a Label.

In the next chapter, we discuss "nonvisual," or "conventional," programmingyou'll create your first programs that contain Visual Basic code that you write, instead of having Visual Studio write the code. You'll study console applications (programs that display only text and do not have a GUI). We'll discuss memory concepts, arithmetic, decision making and how to use a dialog to display a message.