| The short answer is that you will need Microsoft Visual Studio .NET Professional Version or higher. Any machine that will run that will be capable of executing the examples in the book. If you are not sure if your machine will run Visual Studio .NET, the requirements are: -
A Pentium II 300mhz or higher. I have successfully run Visual Studio on a Pentium II 300mhz Notebook. I recommend a faster machine if possible. NO Pentiums or 486s. -
At least 256 megabyte (MB) of random access memory (RAM); ' 512 MB is preferred. Unless you have access to a server, you will also need to run the Microsoft Database Engine (MSDE) or SQL Server 2000 and Internet Information Server (IIS) services so this memory is not all yours. -
I can't see using a display with anything less than 1024x768 resolution, unless you have really great eyesight. A 17-inch monitor is also preferred. -
A 10-gigabyte (GB) hard drive. Visual Studio .NET fully installed takes a whopping 1.7 GB! You will need to install the Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) library that comes with it. -
Microsoft Windows NT 4 Workstation with Service Pack 6, 2000 Professional or XP Professional. The IDE will not run on Windows 95, 98, or Millennium Edition Me. (Programs developed for the .NET framework will run on Windows 98 and Me, but you must have NT 4 or higher for development. It may run on XP Home; check with Microsoft on this. -
Access to MSDE or SQL Server 7.0 or 2000. The MSDE comes with Visual Studio .NET Professional Edition. We will not be using the Jet Engine (Microsoft Access). This is because Microsoft Access does not support stored procedures or triggers. You will also need the Northwind database. This comes with the full versions of SQL Server, but when I installed the MSDE, it was not there. If the entry price of Visual Studio .NET Professional makes you unhappy (the nonupgrade version is about $800), you can get a free 60-day evaluation copy from Microsoft. Or you can get your boss to buy it for you. Just convince him or her that the next big project cannot be done without it! Microsoft will love you and so will I. There is a "Standard" version of VB .NET on the market. It has a really great price, but, unfortunately , it lacks too many features to make it usable for this book. You will also need some programming experience. It's good if you've programmed in previous versions of VB, but experience with any Basic language will do. If you've programmed in another object-oriented language, even better. Some experience with databases is also desirable. A decent understanding of basic SQL (Select, Update, Insert, and Delete) will help a great deal; we are not going to attempt to teach SQL. We will give you the basics, but there are other great books on SQL. The purpose of this book is to teach you how to use ADO .NET from within VB .NET and that is what we shall do. When you finish this book, you will be well-equipped to begin developing serious business applications in VB .NET. |
