VISUAL BASIC History of Visual Basic The History of Visual Basic dates back to 1991 when VB 1.

0 was introduced. The core of Visual Basic was built on the older BASIC language, which was a popular programming language throughout the 1980s. Alan Cooper had developed a drag-and-drop interface in the late-1980s, Microsoft approached him and asked his company, Tripod, to develop the concept into a form building application. Tripod developed the project for Microsoft. It was called Ruby and it did not include a programming language at all. Microsoft decided to bundle it with the BASIC programming language, creating Visual Basic. Ruby also provided the ability to load dynamic link libraries containing additional controls (then called 'gizmos'), which later became the VBX interface. Brief History of Visual Basic (1.0 to 6.0) Visual Basic 1.0 for Windows was released in May 1991 at a trade show in Atlanta, Georgia. Visual Basic 2.0 was released in November 1992. The programming environment was easier to use, and its speed was improved. Notably, forms became core objects, thus laying the foundational concepts of class modules as were later offered in VB4. Visual Basic 3.0 was released in 1993 and came in Standard and Professional versions. VB3 included version 1.1 of the Microsoft Jet Database Engine that could read and write Jet (or Access) 1.x databases. Visual Basic 4.0 was released in August 1995. It was the first version that could create 32-bit as well as 16-bit Windows programs. It also introduced the ability to write non-GUI classes in Visual Basic. While previous versions of Visual Basic had used VBX controls, Visual Basic now used OLE controls (with files names ending in .ocx) instead. These were later to be named ActiveX controls. With version 5.0 release in February 1997, Microsoft released Visual Basic exclusively for 32-bit versions of Windows. Programmers who preferred to write 16-bit programs were able to import programs written in Visual Basic 4.0 to Visual Basic 5.0, and Visual Basic 5.0 programs could easily be converted with Visual Basic 4.0. Visual Basic 5.0 also introduced the ability to create custom user controls, as well as the ability to compile to native Windows executable code, speeding up calculation-intensive code execution. A free, downloadable Control Creation Edition was also released for creation of ActiveX controls. Visual Basic 6.0 released in mid-1998 improved in a number of areas including the ability to create web-based applications. VB6 has been the most successful version in the history of Visual Basic, it has entered Microsoft's 'non-supported phase' as of March 2008. Although the development environment is no longer supported, the runtime is supported on Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.

Mainstream Support for Microsoft VB 6.0 ended on March 31, 2005. Extended support ended in March 2008. In response, the Visual Basic user community expressed its grave concern and lobbied users to sign a petition to keep the product alive. Microsoft has so far refused to change their position on the matter. Brief History of Visual Basic .NET (7.0 to 9.0) Visual Basic .NET is Microsoft's designated successor to VB 6.0, and is part of Microsoft's .NET platform. It compiles and runs using the .NET Framework and is not backwards compatible with VB 6.0. An automated conversion tool exists, but for most projects automated conversion is impossible. Visual Basic.NET is designed to create .NET applications, Windows or Web applications, and Web Services. Visual Basic .NET 2003 was released in April 2003. Microsoft re-engineered Visual Basic from the ground up, including full object-based programming facilities and complete integration with the .NET Framework Common Language Runtime (CLR). This release became the first version in the history of visual basic to provide programming tools for Pocket PCs and other mobile devices; it also had better XML features and support for Windows Server 2003. In 2005, Microsoft released Visual Studio 2005, which included Visual Basic 8.0 and the .NET Framework 2.0. Visual Basic 2005 is the name used to refer to this update as Microsoft decided to drop the .NET portion of the title. The new features included Design-time expression evaluation, My pseudo- namespace, dynamically generated classes and Data Source binding for easier database client/server development. These enhancements were mainly intended to reinforce VB's focus as a rapid application development platform and further differentiate it from C#. In 2005, Microsoft also launched the Visual Basic 2005 Express as part of the Visual Studio Express product range, The Express editions are free development tools having a streamlined version of the user interface, and lack more advanced features of the standard versions. Microsoft created these for students, hobbyists and novices. This was a milestone event in the history of visual basic as it was the first time VB became available free of cost. In 2008, Microsoft launched Visual Studio 2008 including VB 9.0 and the .NET Framework 3.5. Visual Basic 2008 as it is known, includes features like Anonymous types, support for LINQ, Lambda expressions and XML literals. In 2008, Microsoft also released the free Visual Basic 2008 Express as an updated version of Visual Basic 2005 Express. At the time of writing this article Microsoft is testing the beta 2 version of their upcoming release Visual Basic 2010 (VB 10.0) which is part of the Visual Studio 2010 with .NET Framework 4.0. This version includes many Compiler and Language improvements like AutoImplemented Properties, Collection Initializers and Implicit Line Continuation. The Integrated Development Environment included new features like Highlighting References and IntelliSense Suggestion Mode. Thought-out the History of Visual Basic the focus has always been on rapid application development and that's what makes Visual Basic such a widely used programming environment.

Getting Started: Opening Visual Basic 6.0 The first window that you will see after clicking the VB6 is the Project Wizards New Project dialog box. From this window, you can select several types of projects. This window has three tabs: New, Existing and Recent. New Existing Recent it display the project type you can open. it locates and selects the project that you want to open. list the most recently opened projects and their locations.

New Project Wizard s window tab offers you several project templates: Standard EXE ActiveX DLL VB Application Wizard Data Project Add-in ActiveX Document EXE VB Enterprise Edition Controls Active EXE ActiveX Control VB Wizard Manager IIS Application ActiveX Document DLL DHTML Application Drawing Controls Controls are seen in the form layout window, a general purpose window. These are the graphics and i/o devices. All control drawing tools are located in the Toolbox which is a panel on the left of the screen. Visual Basic Environment The Visual Basic Environment plays an important role in developing a project. This is where you will spend most of your time in putting together all of you r applications. Visual Basic Environment is also called Integrated Development Environment (IDE). IDE is the term used in the programming world to describe the interface and environment to create your application. Visual Basic is called IDE

because you can access virtually all of the development tools you need from one screen. The Visual Basic Environment is made up of different components:

The Visual Basic 6.0 IDE Visual Basic Workplace The Visual Basic workplace is what you see on your screens. This is where you create your applications. The Visual Basic workplace contains different windows and bars with different functions. Menu Bar The Menu Bar displays the Visual Basic s IDE commands.

Tool Bar This provides the quick access to commonly used commands in the programming environment. Tool Box This contains useful tools needed during design time. These tools are used to place controls in a form. Form Designer Serves as the window or frame to customize the design of an application s interface.

Code Editor Window Serves as the editor for entering the application code. You can open the code window by simply double-clicking the form.

Form Designer Window

Code Editor Window

File Name Internal Name

Project Explorer Project Explorer Display all the forms and modules of the current project. A project is a collection of files (form and modules) used to build an application. Internal Name Is used in code to refer to a specific form or module. File Name A file name of a form should be unique. It includes the name of public procedures, methods and properties. Form Layout Window Gives designer more control over the screen positioning of forms. It contains an icon representing a computer screen and icon(s) for the form(s) in the project. Properties Window
Displays the property setting of the selected form or control. It contains different characteristics or properties of selected objects. It has different values for each property. The following are some of the example of properties and their uses.

Form Layout Window

Properties Window Mouse Techniques Visual Basic is designed to be used in conjunction with the mouse. The mouse has two buttons; the left button which is used most of the time, and the right button which is used for special functions. However, operation in Visual Basic can also be controlled using a keyboard. Below are Mouse Techniques to remember:

MOUSE TECHNIQUE

MEANING To quickly press and release the mouse button

CLICK To click the mouse button twice in rapid succession. To hold down the mouse button while you move the mouse. To move the mouse until its pointer rests on the item of choice.

DOUBLE-CLICK

DRAG

POINT

Building a Visual Project In making a Visual Basic Project, you have to consider the design of the form, setting of property values inside the properties window, setting controls and the codes that you will input inside the code window. Creating a New Project Load the Visual Basic Program When the computer prompts in the New Project window choose the Standard EXE project. Click the Open button. Opening a Project There are two ways in opening a Project: Open the New Project window icon. Click File menu, then Open Project command.
Title Bar Command Button

Property Basics A rectangular window on the screen is called the form. The windows appearance is defined by a set of properties. The position of the form on the screen is named by its Left and Top properties while its Size is labeled by its Width and Height Properties. What you see in the Title Bar is the caption property and if you specify the control buttons, they will appear on the form. Placing Controls on the Form
Internal Name

Height

Controls are the building blocks of a Visual Basic application. They are easy to use, when used properly. They add significant functionality to your programs. Setting Control Properties (Design Mode) After placing controls on the form, set control properties inside the Properties Window. Event Procedure Visual Basic is an event-driven language. It is governed by an event processor. If the event detected, the project finds a series of instructions related to that event, called event procedure. The procedure is executed, then the program control is returned to the event. Event procedures are the steps taken when we do the actual computer programming.

Some of the main user actions that execute events in a program.      Starting the program Press a key Click the mouse Move the mouse Close the program