Section 1.4. The VB.NET Language

1.4 The VB.NET Language

The VB.NET language is disarmingly simple, but VB.NET is highly expressive when it comes to implementing modern programming concepts. VB.NET includes all the support for structured, component-based, object-oriented programming that one expects of a modern language.

The goal of VB.NET is to provide a simple, safe, object-oriented, Internet-centric, high-performance language for .NET development. VB.NET is simple because there are relatively few keywords. This makes it easy to learn and easy to adapt to your specific needs.

Keywords are special words reserved by the language and that have a specific meaning within all VB.NET programs. Keywords include If , While , For , and so forth. You'll learn about these keywords in the coming chapters.

VB.NET is considered safe because it provides support in the language to find bugs early in the development process. This makes for code that is easier to maintain and programs that are more reliable.

VB.NET provides full support for object-oriented programming. This book will explain not only how to write object-oriented programs, but will explain why object-oriented programming has become so popular. The short answer is this: programs are becoming increasingly complex, and object-oriented programming techniques help you manage that complexity.

VB.NET was developed for .NET, and .NET was designed for developing web and web-aware programs. The Internet is a primary resource in most .NET applications.

Finally, VB.NET was designed for professional high-performance programming.