3.5. Summary

This chapter has explored several concepts central to the practice of OOP and demonstrated how you can use them with VB 2005. Here is what you have learned:

• The benefits of using the OOP features of VB 2005, especially code reuse

• How to create a new class using the Class Designer and the VB 2005 language, and how to instantiate it at runtime

• How to extend an existing class by inheriting from it and overriding or overloading its methods

• Enhancements to VB 2005 that provide additional support for code reuse: generics and partial classes

• Advanced OO techniques for controlling how classes are implemented and objects are handled at runtime, such as the use of abstract classes and methods, interfaces, attributes, and access modifiers

In the next chapter, you will learn more about what's new in Windows development in VB 2005 and see how to put the VB 2005 language and its new support for OOP to work.