Visual Basic .NET from the Ground Up

Chapter 1

Visual Basic .NET from the Ground Up

Welcome to the brave new world of Microsoft Visual Basic .NET. You might be reading this book because you are one of the almost 3.5 million Visual Basic programmers around the world who have made Visual Basic the most popular Windows programming language in history. Or you might be experienced in other computer programming languages, such as C, C++, or Java, and want to understand the new Microsoft .NET (pronounced "dot net") technology. Or you might just be curious. In any case, this book is for you.

Before we jump head first into Visual Basic .NET, it's instructive to understand how we've arrived at this important juncture, where the .NET technology is rapidly going to become a prerequisite for every serious production programmer. It's mind numbing to think that the IBM PC was introduced in 1981 with a floppy drive, no hard drive, a green phosphorous monitor, and 128 KB of RAM. The PC has even been heralded as Time magazine's "Man of the Year," with a photograph of the machine featured on the cover. This notoriety was extraordinary because this annual special issue of the magazine had always featured the photograph of a prominent world leader or another influential individual. This time—ouch! no pun intended—the magazine cover featured a machine. In retrospect, those were simpler days.

A short 20 years later, PCs have grown up to be muscular machines using the Internet to communicate with every other PC or wireless device on the planet. And most exciting of all, no end to this evolution is in sight. In less than a generation, computer technology has mushroomed to the point where if you can imagine an application, you can probably build it. We literally are limited only by our imagination.



Coding Techniques for Microsoft Visual Basic. NET
Coding Techniques for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET
ISBN: 0735612544
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2002
Pages: 123
Authors: John Connell

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