Summary

Visual Basic offers a fully object-oriented language with all the capabilities you would expect. In this chapter, you explored the basic concepts around classes and objects, as well as the separation of interface from implementation and data.

You’ve learned how to use the Class keyword to create classes, and how those classes can be instantiated into specific objects, each one an instance of the class. These objects have methods and properties that can be invoked by the client code, and can act on data within the object stored in member or instance variables.

You also explored some more advanced concepts, including method overloading, shared or static variables and methods, and the use of delegates. Finally, the chapter wrapped up with a brief discussion of attributes and how they can be used to affect the interaction of classes or methods with the .NET environment.

The next chapter continues the discussion of object syntax as you explore the concept of inheritance and all the syntax that enables inheritance within Visual Basic. You will also walk through the creation, implementation, and use of multiple interfaces - a powerful concept that enables objects to be used in different ways, depending on the interface chosen by the client application.

Also covered in the next chapter is a discussion of objects and object-oriented programming, applying all of this syntax. It discusses the key object-oriented concepts of abstraction, encapsulation, polymorphism, and inheritance, and shows how they all tie together to provide a powerful way of designing and implementing applications.

Chapter 5 explores the .NET common language runtime (CLR). Because the .NET platform and runtime are object-oriented at their very core, this chapter examines how objects interact with the runtime environment, and covers topics such as using and disposing of objects, and memory management.