Application Development Using Visual Basic and .NET By Robert J. Oberg, Peter Thorsteinson, Dana L. Wyatt
Table of Contents
Part 1. .NET Architecture Overview
Visual Basic .NET (or just VB.NET) represents the biggest change to the popular Visual Basic programming language since the original version 1.0. What is special about VB.NET is its tight integration into the .NET Framework. .NET is Microsoft's vision of applications in the Internet age. .NET provides enhanced interoperability features based upon open Internet standards. .NET improves the robustness of classic Windows applications. .NET offers developers a new programming platform and superb tools, with XML playing a fundamental role.
Microsoft .NET is a platform built on top of the operating system. Three years in the making before the public announcement, .NET represents a major investment by Microsoft. .NET has been influenced by other technological advances such as XML, Java, and COM.
Microsoft .NET provides
The Common Language Runtime, a robust runtime platform.
Multiple language development, with no language being preferred over any other.
The .NET Framework, an extensible programming model, which provides a very large class library of reusable code available to any .NET language.
Support for a networking infrastructure built on top of Internet standards that allows a high level of communication among applications.
Support for the new industry standard of Web services. Web services represent a new mechanism of application delivery that extends the idea of component-based development to the Internet.
ASP.NET, which allows you to use standard programming practices to develop Web applications.
A Deployment model that allows for versioning and the end of "DLL Hell."
A Security model that is easy for programmers to use in their programs.
An interoperability mechanism that enables .NET programs to access legacy code, including COM components .
Powerful development tools.
In this chapter we will look at the big picture of .NET and then see how VB.NET fits into it.
