Functionality such as drag-and-drop placement of visual controls makes it easy to build desktop apps. It provides one of the most productive ways to create desktop apps based on the visual designer provided in Visual Studio.
Windows Forms is a UI framework for building Windows desktop apps. You can also create subforms to include in your forms. You can create a form using either the Form Wizard or the Form Designer without the wizard. The Form Designer gives you an object-oriented, visual environment for creating graphical forms and other user interface elements. This helps in controlling the form position in the Windows environment. What is form design window?įorm Layout window is a simple visual basic design tool whose purpose is to give the user a thumbnail view of the current form. Forms allow the Visual Basic developer to create windows and layout controls (such as buttons, labels etc) in those forms to provide the application’s user interface. In fact, the terms window and form are often used interchangeably. Visual Studio creates a default form for you when you create a Windows Forms Application.įorms essentially provide the windows that make up a Windows application. Every window you see in a running visual basic application is a form, thus the terms form and window describe the same entity. (Forums appear on the “social” subdomain of the site.Visual Basic Form is the container for all the controls that make up the user interface. You can visit the Visual Basic forums in a separate part of the MSDN site. There are a few additional Visual Studio resources that are common to both Visual Basic and C#. You may want to explore CodePlex for add-ons and projects. You’ll also find a link to the language reference section - it includes a table with all the keywords and another with all the attributes.
You can access conceptual documentation and a video library through the Visual Studio section of the Microsoft Software Developer Network (MSDN). Of course Microsoft itself provides lots of resources.
It's quite a reference, but it's not necessarily written for the true beginner.įunctionX also provides an introduction to Visual Basic.NET. There are lots of categories and subcategories - you click on what you want and see the code. Make sure that you are learning the current version of Visual Basic. Tutorials are taught primarily through video. Do them all or select particular concepts (if statements, progress bar etc.).
How to Start Programming starts with the most basic concepts - and a reassurance that you won't be typing binary - and progresses through 52 lessons. The main thing is to make sure that you are learning the current version (or the one that matches what you have installed on your computer). There are many online resources for learning Visual Basic. Īlthough Visual Basic 6 is no longer supported by Microsoft, you will still find job ads citing experience with the language. Positions may favor those who have experience with SQL and other Microsoft languages - and a college degree. VB.NET is often used for business applications. TIOBE places VB at #7 - the same spot it was at a year earlier (in October of 2011).
Visual Basic is among the more popular computer languages. Microsoft is ubiquitous and so are its programming environments. It can also extend the functionality of other Microsoft Office applications. VBA does things like automate reports and database communications. The VB.NET language is not to be confused with Visual Basic Applications (VBA), although VBA incorporates elements of Visual Basic. There are of course multiple versions of Visual Basic to suit different needs.
Microsoft did something with the VB.NET programming environment that it hadn't done with earlier releases: It released a free (Express) version. It's arguably still one of the easiest languages to pick up.įor the first time, VB was placed within the reach of hobbyists. The language has become more flexible, but some argue that it's not quite as simple or intuitive. This created some controversy in the Visual Basic community. One big change was that there was now a shared library between VB and other. The goal of Visual Basic was to simplify the process of writing Windows programs.