Chapter 1. Visual Basic .NET and .NET Programming

Learning Visual Basic .NET was written to introduce the .NET version of the Visual Basic language specifically , and the .NET development platform more generally , to programmers with little or no object-oriented programming experience. Along the way, you will learn a great deal about writing high-quality , industrial-strength programs for .NET.

In this brief introduction, you will learn the basics of the Visual Basic .NET language. You will also learn some of the concepts integral to object-oriented programming, which has revolutionized how web and Windows applications are developed.

The goal of this book is to go beyond the syntax of VB.NET (the keywords and punctuation of the language) to examine the semantics of .NET programming with VB.NET (the meaning and structure of the code). VB.NET and the .NET Framework are built on the concepts of object-oriented design and programming, and these concepts will be explained as the book progresses to provide a deeper insight into how .NET programs are organized.