Introduction to Visual Basic 2008
Visual
Basic is the most widely used programming language for creating Windows
applications. It's very easy to learn because, unlike other programming
languages, Visual Basic uses keywords that closely resemble English.
Creating a Windows application ordinarily requires you to write lengthy and
complex code. But Visual Basic 2008 relieves you of this task. It enables
you to create an application and its components literally with the click of
a button or menu item. It even writes all of the necessary code to get the
application started for you. You can view and fine-tune the code, but it
spares you a lot of the grunt work.
While the Visual Basic programming language helps you write a Windows
application, you still need to write code and be able to plan your
application. This course will show you how. You'll learn the building blocks
of programming, including using variables, control structures, and loops.
You'll find out how to use the large function library built into Visual
Basic 2008, including the .NET Framework, as well as how to write and use
your own functions. You'll learn how to use the large and varied library of
controls Windows offers. And you'll learn how to access files and handle
errors. Since Windows applications are event-driven and everything in Visual
Basic 2008 is treated as a programmable object, you'll also find out about
event-driven and object-oriented programming, concepts important not just in
Visual Basic, but also in other programming languages you may want to learn
in the future.
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
Requirements:
Required: Visual Basic 2008, free Express edition (software must be installed and fully operational before the course begins); Computer with Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 or Server 2008; Internet access, e-mail, the Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox Web browser, and the Adobe Flash and PDF plug-ins (two free and simple downloads you obtain at http://www.adobe.com/downloads by clicking Get Adobe Flash Player and Get Adobe Reader). Note: this course is not suitable for Macintosh users. Prior programming education or experience is not a prerequisite.
Syllabus:
All courses run for six weeks, with a two-week grace period at the end.
Two lessons are released each week for the six-week duration of the course.
You do not have to be present when the lesson is released, but you must
complete each lesson within two weeks of its release.
A new section of each course starts on the second or third Wednesday of each
month. If enrolling in a series of two or more courses, please be sure to
space the start date for each course at least two months apart.
| Week One |
| Wednesday - Lesson 01 |
| What's the best way to learn Visual Basic
programming? Well, you have to write programs, of course! And your
first step toward writing your first program is to install Visual
Basic 2008. So in our opening lesson, you'll learn which of the
different editions of Visual Basic 2008 might be right for you and
how to install it on your computer. After that, we'll walk through
creating your first Windows application program while we discuss how
a Windows application works. |
| Friday - Lesson 02 |
| In the first lesson, you were able to create a
working Windows application with just a few mouse clicks. In today's
lesson, you'll find out what Visual Basic 2008 did behind the scenes
to help you create that application. You'll also learn about
properties, which are characteristics of an object—such as its size
and color—and how to change those properties. |
| Week Two |
| Wednesday - Lesson 03 |
| Windows applications are all about events, such
as the event a user causes just by clicking a button in the
application. Today you'll first learn about event procedures. Then
you'll get your feet wet in Visual Basic by writing your first code. |
| Friday - Lesson 04 |
| So far, we've been focusing on the form, which is
perhaps the most important part of a Windows application's graphical
user interface (or GUI). However, a form's primary role is to host
other controls that enrich the GUI of Windows applications—menus,
toolbars, buttons, text boxes, and list boxes. In this lesson,
you'll find out how to add controls to your form, and how to write
code for these controls. |
| Week Three |
| Wednesday - Lesson 05 |
| Most computer programs store information, or
data. Today you'll learn all about data types, which represent
different varieties of data (such as numeric data or text data).
Then we'll go over how to store that information in a variable. |
| Friday - Lesson 06 |
| As a former professional chess player, I've
marveled at the ability of some computers to play world champion
chess players on even terms. But once you understand that computers
can calculate far more quickly and accurately than people can, it's
easy to see how they're able to outplay the best players. In this
lesson, you'll discover how to harness the computer's calculating
ability using arithmetic operators. |
| Week Four |
| Wednesday - Lesson 07 |
| As your programs become more sophisticated,
they'll often branch in two or more directions based on whether a
condition is true or false. For example, a calculator first needs to
determine whether the user chose addition, subtraction,
multiplication, or division before performing the indicated
arithmetic. Today you'll see how to use comparison and logical
operators to determine a user's choice. |
| Friday - Lesson 08 |
| Picking up where Lesson 7 left off, once you know
the user's choice, you'll want to execute different code based on
that choice. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use If and Select
Case statements to execute alternative code statements. |
| Week Five |
| Wednesday - Lesson 09 |
| When you were a child, your parents may have told
you not to repeat yourself. But sometimes your code needs to repeat
itself. For example, if your application's users enter invalid data,
your code may continue to ask whether they want to retry or quit
until they either enter valid data or quit. Today we'll explore how
to use loops, which repeat code execution until a condition is no
longer true. Then we'll delve into arrays, which may hold multiple
values at one time, and work very well with loops. |
| Friday - Lesson 10 |
| Many textbooks are several hundred pages long.
Imagine how much harder a textbook would be to understand if it
consisted of only one very long chapter, rather than being divided
into manageable sections? In today's lesson, you'll learn how to
similarly divide up your code into separate procedures. |
| Week Six |
| Wednesday - Lesson 11 |
| When I finish writing something for the evening,
I close my word-processing program, and I might even shut down my
computer. Of course, the next evening I don't have to start over.
What I wrote the previous evening is preserved. However, up until
now, our programs haven't saved data so that it's available even
after the application exits. Today we'll discuss how to write code
that reads from and writes to a text file in order to preserve the
data. You'll also learn how to add Open and Save dialog boxes, such
as those used in sophisticated programs like Microsoft Word, so you
can open a text file to read from it and save to a text file to
write to it. |
| Friday - Lesson 12 |
| Nobody's perfect, right? Well, your applications
won't always run perfectly either. Sometimes they'll stop due to a
runtime error, also called an exception. In our final lesson,
you'll find out how to prevent and handle exceptions. |
To enroll in this course, click the Enroll Now button below:
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