Visual Basic (VB), formerly called Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), is an object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that uses "Object_" and their interactions to design applications and computer programs.... computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft's
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices.... Visual Basic
Visual Basic
'Visual Basic' is the third-generation programming language event-driven programming and integrated integrated development environment from Microsoft for its Component Object Model programming model.... (VB) implemented on the Microsoft .NET framework
.NET Framework
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework.... . Its introduction has been controversial, as significant changes were made that broke backward compatibility
Backward compatibility
In technology, for example in telecommunications and computing, a device or technology is said to be backwards compatible if it allows input generated by older devices.... with older versions and caused a rift within the developer community.
f November 2007, there are four versions of Visual Basic .NET that were implemented by
original Visual Basic .NET was released alongside Visual C# and ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, web applications and web services.... in 2002.
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Encyclopedia
Visual Basic (VB), formerly called Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), is an object-oriented
Object-oriented programming
Object-oriented programming is a programming paradigm that uses "Object_" and their interactions to design applications and computer programs.... computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft's
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is a multinational corporation computer technology corporation that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of computer software products for computing devices.... Visual Basic
Visual Basic
'Visual Basic' is the third-generation programming language event-driven programming and integrated integrated development environment from Microsoft for its Component Object Model programming model.... (VB) implemented on the Microsoft .NET framework
.NET Framework
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework.... . Its introduction has been controversial, as significant changes were made that broke backward compatibility
Backward compatibility
In technology, for example in telecommunications and computing, a device or technology is said to be backwards compatible if it allows input generated by older devices.... with older versions and caused a rift within the developer community.
Versions of Visual Basic .NET
As of November 2007, there are four versions of Visual Basic .NET that were implemented by
Visual Basic .NET (VB 7)
The original Visual Basic .NET was released alongside Visual C# and ASP.NET
ASP.NET
ASP.NET is a web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic web sites, web applications and web services.... in 2002. C# — widely touted as Microsoft's answer to Java — received the lion's share of media attention, while VB.NET (sometimes known as VB7) was not as widely covered.
Visual Basic .NET 2003 (VB 7.1)
Visual Basic .NET 2003 was released with version 1.1 of the .NET Framework. included support for the .NET Compact Framework
.NET Compact Framework
The Microsoft .NET Compact Framework is a version of the .NET Framework that is designed to run on Windows CE based mobile/embedded devices such as Personal digital assistant, mobile phones, factory controllers, set-top boxes, etc.... and a better VB upgrade wizard
Wizard (software)
A wizard is a user interface element where the end-user is presented with a sequence of dialog box. Through these dialog boxes, the user is led through a series of steps, performing tasks in a specific sequence.... . Improvements were also made to the performance and reliability of the .NET IDE (particularly the ) and runtime.
In addition, Visual Basic .NET 2003 was also available in the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Edition (VS03AE). VS03AE is distributed to a certain number of scholars from each country for free.
Visual Basic 2005 (VB 8.0)
Visual Basic 2005 is the name used to refer to the update to Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft having decided to drop the .NET portion of the title.
For this release, Microsoft added many features, including:
A namespace is an abstract container or environment created to hold a logical grouping of unique identifiers or symbols . An identifier defined in a namespace is associated with that namespace.... (, ), which provides:
easy access to certain areas of the .NET Framework that otherwise require significant code to access
dynamically-generated classes (notably My.Forms)
Improvements to the VB-to-VB.NET converter
The Using keyword, simplifying the use of objects that require the Dispose pattern
Design pattern (computer science)
In software engineering, a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into code .... to free resources
Just My Code, which hides boilerplate code written by the Visual Studio .NET IDE
A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model.... client/server development
The above functions (particularly My) are intended to reinforce Visual Basic .NET's focus as a rapid application development
Rapid application development
Rapid application development is a software development methodology, which involves iterative development and the construction of prototypes.... platform and further differentiate it from C#.
Visual Basic 2005 introduced features meant to fill in the gaps between itself and other "more powerful" .NET languages, adding:
Generic programming is a style of computer programming in which algorithms are written in terms of to-be-specified-later types that are then instantiated when needed for specific types provided as parameters and was pioneered by Ada which appeared in 1983....
A partial class, or partial type, is a feature of some object oriented computer programming languages in which the declaration of a class may be split across multiple source code files, or multiple places within a single file.... , a method of defining some parts of a class in one file and then adding more definitions later; particularly useful for integrating user code with auto-generated code
In programming, nullable type is a feature of some programming languages which allows a data type to be set to Null instead of their common range of possible values....
XML comments that can be processed by tools like NDoc
NDoc
NDoc is a code documentation generator for the Common Language Infrastructure. It is licensed under the GNU General Public License.... to produce "automatic" documentation
In computer programming, operator overloading is a specific case of polymorphism in which some or all of operator s like +, =, or have different implementations depending on the types of their arguments....
In computer science, the term integer is used to refer to a data type which represents some finite subset of the mathematical integers. These are also known as integral data types.... data types commonly used in other languages
'IsNot' operator patented
One other feature of Visual Basic 2005 is the conversion of 'If Not X Is Y' to 'If X IsNot Y' which gained notoriety when it was found to be the subject of a Microsoft patent application .
Visual Basic 2005 Express
As part of the Visual Studio product range, Microsoft created a set of free development environments for hobbyists and novices, the Visual Studio 2005 Express series. One edition in the series is Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, which was succeeded by Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition in the 2008 edition of Visual Studio Express.
The Express Editions are targeted specifically for people learning a language. They have a streamlined version of the user interface, and lack more advanced features of the standard versions. On the other hand, Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition does contain the Visual Basic 6.0 converter, so it is a way to evaluate feasibility of conversion from older versions of Visual Basic.
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework.... on November 19, 2007.
For this release, Microsoft added many features, including:
A true conditional operator If (boolean, value, value) to replace the IIF function.
Anonymous types are a feature of the C Sharp 3.0, Visual_Basic_.NET#Visual_Basic_2008_.28VB_9.0.29, and Oxygene_ that allows data types to encapsulate a set of read-only properties into a single object without having to first explicitly define a type.... s
LINQ is a word-based card game from Endless Games, introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 2005.Gameplay requires at least four Player s, two of which are dealt cards with the same word, while the others receive blanks....
Type inference, or implicit typing, refers to the ability to deduce automatically the type of a value in a programming language. It is a feature present in some strongly-typed programming language static typing#Static and dynamic typing languages....
The Dynamic Language Runtime from Microsoft is an ongoing effort to bring a set of services that run on top of the Common Language Runtime and provides language services for several different dynamic languages.... (DLR). VB 10 is planned to be part of Silverlight 2.0
Microsoft Silverlight
Microsoft Silverlight is a programmable web browser plugin that enables features such as animation, vector graphics and multimedia that characterizes rich Internet applications.... .
Relation to older versions of Visual Basic (VB6 and previous)
Whether Visual Basic .NET should be considered as just another version of Visual Basic or a completely different language is a topic of debate. This is not obvious, as once the methods that have been moved around and that can be automatically converted are accounted for, the basic syntax
Syntax
In linguistics, syntax is the study of the principles and rules for constructing Sentence s in natural languages. In addition to referring to the discipline, the term syntax is also used to refer directly to the rules and principles that govern the sentence structure of any individual language, as in "the Irish syntax".... of the language has not seen many "breaking" changes, just additions to support new features like structured exception handling
Exception handling
Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of exceptions - special conditions that change the normal flow of execution.... and short-circuited expressions. Two important data type changes occurred with the move to VB.NET. Compared to VB6, the Integerdata type
Data type
A data type in programming languages is an attribute of a data which tells the computer something about the kind of data it is. This involves setting constraints on the datum, such as what values it can take and what operations may be performed upon it.... has been doubled in length from 16 bits to 32 bits, and the Longdata type
Data type
A data type in programming languages is an attribute of a data which tells the computer something about the kind of data it is. This involves setting constraints on the datum, such as what values it can take and what operations may be performed upon it.... has been doubled in length from 32 bits to 64 bits. This is true for all versions of VB.NET. A 16-bit integer in all versions of VB.NET is now known as a Short. Similarly, the Windows Forms
Windows Forms
Windows Forms is the name given to the graphical user interface application programming interface included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework, providing access to the native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the existing Windows API in managed code.... GUI
Gui
Gui or guee is a generic term to refer to grillinged dishes in Korean cuisine. These most commonly have meat or fish as their primary ingredient, but may in some cases also comprise grilled vegetables or other vegetarian ingredients.... editor is very similar in style and function to the Visual Basic form editor.
The version numbers used for the new Visual Basic (7, 7.1, 8, 9, ...) clearly imply that it is viewed by Microsoft as still essentially the same product as the old Visual Basic.
The things that have changed significantly are the semantics — from those of an object-based programming language running on a deterministic, reference-counted
Reference counting
In computer science, reference counting is a technique of storing the number of references, pointers, or handles to a resource such as an object or block of memory.... engine based on COM
Component Object Model
Component Object Model is an interface standard for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. It is used to enable interprocess communication and dynamic object creation in a large range of programming languages.... to a fully object-oriented language backed by the .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework.... , which consists of a combination of the Common Language Runtime
Common Language Runtime
The Common Language Runtime is a core component of Microsoft .NET Framework initiative. It is Microsoft's implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure standard, which defines an execution environment for program code.... (a virtual machine
Virtual machine
In computer science, a virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a real machine.Definitions... using generational garbage collection
Garbage collection (computer science)
In computer science, garbage collection is a form of automatic memory management. The garbage collector, or just collector, attempts to reclaim garbage , or memory used by Object that will never be accessed or mutated again by the Application software.... and a just-in-time compilation
Just-in-time compilation
In computing, just-in-time compilation , also known as dynamic translation, is a technique for improving the runtime performance of a computer program.... engine) and a far larger class library. The increased breadth of the latter is also a problem that VB developers have to deal with when coming to the language, although this is somewhat addressed by the My feature in Visual Studio 2005.
The changes have altered many underlying assumptions about the "right" thing to do with respect to performance and maintainability. Some functions and libraries no longer exist; others are available, but not as efficient as the "native" .NET alternatives. Even if they compile, most converted VB6 applications will require some level of refactoring
Refactoring
Code refactoring is the process of changing a computer program's internal structure without modifying its external Functional requirement behavior or existing functionality.... to of the new language. Documentation is available to cover changes in the syntax, debugging applications, deployment and terminology.
Comparative samples
The following simple example demonstrates similarity in syntax between VB and VB.NET. Both examples pop up a message box saying "Hello, World" with an OK button.
Classic VB example:
Private Sub Command1_Click
MsgBox "Hello, World"
End Sub
A VB.NET example:
Public Class Form1
Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
MessageBox.Show("Hello, World")
End Sub
End Class
Both Visual Basic 6 and Visual Basic .NET will automatically generate the Sub and End Sub statements when the corresponding button is clicked in design view. Visual Basic .NET will also generate the necessary Class and End Class statements. The developer need only add the statement to display the "Hello, World" message box.
Note that all procedure calls must be made with parentheses in VB.NET, whereas in VB6 there were different conventions for functions (parentheses required) and subs (no parentheses allowed, unless called using the keyword Call).
Also note that the names Command1 and Button1 are not obligatory. However, these are default names for a command button in VB6 and VB.NET respectively.
In VB.NET, the Handles keyword is used to make the sub Button1_Click a handler for the Click event of the object Button1. In VB6, event handler subs must have a specific name consisting of the object's name ("Command1"), an underscore ("_"), and the event's name ("Click", hence "Command1_Click").
There is a function called MsgBox in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace which can be used similarly to the corresponding function in VB6. There is a controversy about which function to use as a best practice (not only restricted to showing message boxes but also regarding other features of the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace). Some programmers prefer to do things "the .NET way", since the Framework classes have more features and are less language-specific. Others argue that using language-specific features makes code more readable (for example, using int (C#) or Integer (VB.NET) instead of System.Int32).
In VB 2008, the inclusion of "Byval sender as Object, Byval e as EventArgs" has become optional.
The following example demonstrates a difference between VB6 and VB.NET. Both examples unload the active window.
Classic VB Example:
Sub cmdClose_Click
Unload Me
End Sub
A VB.NET example:
Sub btnClose_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles btnClose.Click
Me.Close
End Sub
Note the 'cmd' prefix being replaced with the 'btn' prefix, conforming to the new convention previously mentioned.
Visual Basic 6 did not provide common operator shortcuts. The following are equivalent:
VB6 Example:
Sub Timer1_Timer
Me.Height = Me.Height - 1
End Sub
VB.NET example:
Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick
Me.Height -= 1
End Sub
Criticism
Many long-time Visual Basic users have complained about Visual Basic .NET because initial versions dropped a large number of language constructs and user interface features that were available in VB6 (which is now no longer sold), and changed the semantics of those that remained; for example, in VB.NET parameters are (by default) passed by value, not by reference. Detractors refer pejoratively to VB.NET as Visual Fred or DOTNOT. On March 8, 2005, a petition was set up in response to Microsoft's refusal to extend its mainstream support for VB6.
VB.NET's supporters state that the new language is in most respects more powerful than the original, incorporating modern object oriented programming paradigms in a more natural, coherent and complete manner than was possible with earlier versions. Opponents tend not to disagree with this, instead taking the position that although VB6 has flaws in its object model, the cost in terms of redevelopment effort is too high for any benefits that might be gained by converting to VB.NET. Independent developers producing software for Internet distribution have also taken issue with the size of the runtime.
A decompiler is the name given to a computer program that performs the reverse operation to that of a compiler. That is, it translates a file containing information at a relatively low level of abstraction into a form having a higher level of abstraction .... languages that target Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language
Common Intermediate Language is the lowest-level human-readable programming language in the Common Language Infrastructure and in the .NET Framework.... , including VB.NET, compared to languages that compile to machine code
Machine code
Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data executed directly by a computer's central processing unit. Machine code may be regarded as a primitive programming language or as the lowest-level representation of a compiled and/or assembly language computer program.... . Tools like .NET Reflector
.NET Reflector
.NET Reflector is a free software utility for Microsoft .NET combining class browser, static analysis and decompiler, originally written by Lutz Roeder.... can provide a close approximation to the original code due to the large amount of metadata
Metadata
Metadata is "data about other data", of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.... provided in CIL.
Microsoft supplies an automated VB6-to-VB.NET converter with Visual Studio .NET, which has improved over time, but it cannot convert all code, and almost all non-trivial programs will need some manual effort to compile. Most will need a significant level of code refactoring to work optimally. Visual Basic programs that are mainly algorithmic in nature can be migrated with few difficulties; those that rely heavily on such features as database support, graphics, unmanaged operations or on implementation details are more troublesome.
However in 2005 ArtinSoft, the company that developed the VB6-to-VB.NET converter for Microsoft that comes with Visual Studio .NET, developed a migration tool called the ArtinSoft Visual Basic Upgrade Companion. This tool expands upon the migration wizard included in Visual Studio .NET by providing some automated code refactoring, such as type inference for late-bound variables—producing explicitly typed variables—and conversion to structured error handling, among many other tweaks that improve code quality.
Using artificial intelligence algorithms, it is possible for this new tool to recognize certain code patterns that can be reorganized into more structured versions, potentially yielding a higher quality .NET code. For example, the tool is able to automatically recognize commonly used patterns of “On Error GoTo”, analyze them, and convert them to code blocks that use “Try ... Catch” instead of the legacy error handling model—in many cases with no human intervention. However, a line-by-line conversion will not be able to create the object-oriented style of programming that is at the heart of .NET programming. Other tools such as NewCode's use a model-driven approach to enable users to re-engineer the application structure on a model, prior to .NET code generation.
In computer science, runtime or run time describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination .... libraries for VB6 programs are provided with Windows 98 SE and above, while VB.NET programs require the installation of the significantly larger .NET Framework
.NET Framework
The Microsoft .NET Framework is a software framework that is available with several Microsoft Windows operating systems. It includes a large Library of coded solutions to prevent common programming problems and a virtual machine that manages the execution of programs written specifically for the Software framework.... . The framework is included with Windows Vista
Windows Vista
Windows Vista is one member in a family of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business Desktop computer, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media center PCs.... , Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003
Windows Server 2003 is a Server operating system produced by Microsoft. Introduced on 24 April 2003 as the successor to Windows 2000 Server, it is considered by Microsoft to be the cornerstone of its Windows Server System line of business server products.... . For other supported operating systems such as Windows 2000
Windows 2000
Windows 2000 is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on business desktops, Laptop, and Server . Released on 17 February, 2000, it was the successor to Windows NT 4.0, and is the final release of Microsoft Windows to display the "Windows NT" designation.... or Windows XP (Home or Professional Editions)
Windows XP
Windows XP is a line of operating systems produced by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptop, and media centers.... , it must be separately installed.
Microsoft's response to developer dissatisfaction has focused around making it easier to move new development and shift existing codebases from VB6 to VB.NET. Their latest offering is the , which offers code samples and articles for:
completing common tasks in VB6, like creating a print preview
integrating VB6 and VB.NET solutions (dubbed VB Fusion)
Cross-platform and open-source development
The creation of open-source tools for VB.NET development have been slow compared to C#, although the Mono
Mono (software)
Mono is a project led by Novell to create an Ecma International standard compliant, .NET Framework-compatible set of tools, including among others a C Sharp compiler and a Common Language Runtime.... development platform provides an implementation of VB.NET-specific libraries and a VB.NET 8.0 compatible compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language . The most common reason for wanting to transform source code is to create an executable program.... written in VB.NET, as well as standard framework libraries such as Windows Forms
Windows Forms
Windows Forms is the name given to the graphical user interface application programming interface included as a part of Microsoft .NET Framework, providing access to the native Microsoft Windows interface elements by wrapping the existing Windows API in managed code.... GUI library.
SharpDevelop is a free and open source Integrated development environment for the C Sharp programming language, Visual Basic .NET , Boo , and F Sharp and IronPython programming languages.... and MonoDevelop
MonoDevelop
MonoDevelop is an open source integrated development environment for the Linux platform, primarily targeted for the development of software that uses both the Mono and Microsoft .NET framework.... are open-source
Open source
Open source is an approach to design, development, and distribution offering practical accessibility to a product's source . Some consider open source as one of various possible design approaches, while others consider it a critical Strategy element of their business operations.... alternative IDEs
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment also known as integrated design environment or integrated debugging environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development.... .
Hello world example
The following is a very simple VB.NET program, a version of the classic "Hello world" example created as a console application:
Module Module1
Sub Main
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!")
End Sub
End Module
The effect is to write the text Hello, world! to the command line. Each line serves a specific purpose, as follows:
Module Module1
This is a module definition, a division of code similar to a class
Class (computer science)
In object-oriented programming, a class is a programming language construct that is used as a blueprint to create Object s. This blueprint includes Attribute s and Method s that the created objects all share.... , although modules can contain classes. Modules serve as containers of code that can be referenced from other parts of a program. This module matches the name of the code file: Module1.vb
Sub Main
This is the entry point where the program begins execution. Sub is an abbreviation of "subroutine."
Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!")
This line performs the actual task of writing the output. Console is a system object, representing a command-line console where a program can input and output text. The program calls the Console method WriteLine, which causes the string passed to it to be displayed on the console. Another common method is using Message Box.
The Common Language Runtime is a core component of Microsoft .NET Framework initiative. It is Microsoft's implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure standard, which defines an execution environment for program code....
Mono is a project led by Novell to create an Ecma International standard compliant, .NET Framework-compatible set of tools, including among others a C Sharp compiler and a Common Language Runtime.... , an open source implementation of .NET
Microsoft Visual Studio is an integrated development environment from Microsoft. It can be used to develop Console application and graphical user interface applications along with Windows Forms applications, web sites, web applications, and web services in both native code together with managed code for all platforms supported by Microsoft W... , IDE for .Net languages
Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of freeware integrated development environments developed by Microsoft that are lightweight versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio product line....
Programming languages are used for controlling the behavior of a machine . Like natural languages, programming languages conform to rules for syntax and semantics....
This is a comparison of the C Sharp programming language with the Java . As the two are both garbage collection runtime-compiled languages with syntax derived from C and C++, there are many similarities between Java and C#.... (Relevant since many of the comparisons are really comparisons of the platform, and not the actual language.)
Visual Basic for Applications is an implementation of Microsoft Event-driven programming programming language Visual Basic, and associated integrated development environment , which is built into most Microsoft Office applications....
