| Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart is written for VB 6 programmers who have yet to move to Visual Basic 2005, the latest release of Microsoft Visual Basic, one of the world's most popular programming languages. With VB 2005, Microsoft has given VB 6 developers a host of reasons to upgrade now, including the return of VB 6 features omitted from earlier versions of VB.NET. My aim is to provide you with a starting point a jumpstart that demonstrates how easy it is to become productive with the new language when it's paired with the Visual Studio 2005 development environment. To get the most out of this book, you'll need a copy of Visual Studio 2005 that supports Visual Basic (see "What You Need to Use This Book"). I encourage you to work your way through the sample applications, especially those in Chapters 1, Chapters 4, and Chapters 5, as they are purposefully small and designed to show off the best of the new features in VB 2005. You'll be surprised at how easily and quickly you can build a relatively sophisticated Windows or web application. The complete source code for the book (along with any errata) is available on the O'Reilly web page for this book, http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/vbjumpstart/. How This Book Is Organized Visual Basic 2005 Jumpstart consists of six chapters, each of which focuses on a particular aspect of the VB 2005 language or a type of project that VB 6 programmers are likely to encounter in making the move to the new tool.
Chapter 1, Introducing Visual Basic 2005 -
You'll use VB 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 to build a simple Windows application that any VB 6 programmer will recognize. Though the application is simple, building it illustrates a number of powerful features present in the VB 2005 language and the Visual Studio 2005 development tool. Among these are new Windows controls with Smart Tasks, new Windows application templates, restored support for edit-and-continue, improved IntelliSense and Code Editor facilities, the Data Source Configuration Wizard, and Application Settings.
Chapter 2, Programming with Visual Basic -
you will be taken on a whirlwind tour of the VB 2005 language and its syntax, and you'll see how it compares with that of VB 6. If you are a VB 6 programmer, you'll be happy to learn that much of what you already know is still supported (or enhanced) in VB 2005. You'll also be introduced to the My namespace, which vastly expands the trove of functions available to Visual Basic programmers and provides easier access to the rich functionality of the .NET Framework Class Library.
Chapter 3, Putting Object-Oriented Programming to Work -
You will be introduced to the support for object-oriented programming (OOP) available in VB 2005 and will learn why it matters. A principal reason for using OOP features in VB 2005 is the support they provide for reusing, customizing, and controlling the use others make of your code, and you'll learn about a variety of techniques for accomplishing these tasks. You'll also learn about the VB 2005 Class Designer, how to extend an existing class by inheriting from it, generic classes, Partial classes, and advanced OOP concepts such as abstract classes and methods, interfaces, attributes, and access modifiers.
Chapter 4, Developing a Windows Application -
You will build a Windows application that demonstrates the ease with which Visual Studio 2005 and VB 2005 can be used to create professional Windows applications. You will also learn how to consume web services and how data can be persisted in a SQL database, and you will see how ClickOnce makes deployment and updating of smart clients easy and effortless.
Chapter 5, Building Web Applications -
You will build a simple e-commerce web application using new controls in ASP.NET 2.0 that let you build powerful applications without writing much VB 2005 code at all. You will see how to use a Master Page to maintain a consistent look and feel for the pages of your site. You will also see how information about users could be persisted using the new Profile service. Last but not least, you will learn how easy it is to implement security in your web applications using new ASP.NET 2.0 security controls with the Membership class that powers them.
Chapter 6, Moving from VB 6 to VB 2005 -
You will learn about the various factors that you need to consider when deciding whether to upgrade an exisitng application. Upgrading from VB 6 to VB 2005 requires careful review of the application as well as analysis of the various benefits that a migration will bring you. You will also learn how you can continue to use your legacy COM components in VB 2005 and how the new RegFree COM feature in VB 2005 shields you from the notorious DLL hell problem. Finally, the chapter ends with a demonstration of the Visual Basic 6.0 Code Advisor and the Upgrade Wizard, which aim to ease the upgrade of your existing VB 6 applications to VB 2005, should you decide to go that route. |
