Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours

By Greg Perry

• Table of Contents
  • Copyright
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Who Should Read This Book
  • What This Book Will Do for You
  • Can This Book Really Teach Visual Basic in 24 Hours?
  • What You Need
  • Files on the Visual Basic Distribution CD-ROM
  • Conventions Used in This Book
  • Enough! Time Is Ticking!
  • Part I: Introducing Visual Basic
  • Hour 1. Visual Basic at Work
    • What's Visual Basic About?
    • Languages
    • Visual Basic's Various Editions
    • The VB Programming Process
    • Starting Visual Basic
    • Stopping Visual Basic
    • Mastering the Development Environment
    • Help Is at Your Fingertips
    • Summary
    • Q&A
    • Workshop
  • Hour 2.Analyzing Visual Basic Programs
  • Hour 3.Controls and Properties
  • Hour 4.Examining Labels, Buttons, and Text Boxes
  • Part II: Coding the Details
  • Hour 5.Putting Code into Visual Basic
  • Hour 6.Message and Input Boxes
  • Hour 7.Making Decisions
  • Hour 8.Visual Basic Looping
  • Part III:Putting Code to Work
  • Hour 9.Combining Code and Controls
  • Hour 10.List Boxes and Data Lists
  • Hour 11.Additional Controls
  • Hour 12.Dialog Box Basics
  • Part IV:Programming with Data
  • Hour 13.Modular Programming
  • Hour 14.Built-In Functions Save Time
  • Hour 15.Visual Basic Database Basics
  • Hour 16.Printing with Visual Basic
  • Part V:Sprucing Up Programs
  • Hour 17.Menus and Visual Basic
  • Hour 18.The Graphic Image Controls
  • Hour 19.Toolbars and More Graphics
  • Hour 20.Writing Correct Applications
  • Part VI:Advancing Visual Basic Applications
  • Hour 21.Visual Basic and ActiveX
  • Hour 22.Object Basics
  • Hour 23.Distributing Your Applications
  • Hour 24.Online Visual Basic
  • Part VII:Appendixes
  • Appendix A.Operator Precedence
  • Appendix B.Answers
  • Appendix C.Using the CD-ROM

What's Visual Basic About?

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, the latest and greatest incarnation of the old BASIC language, gives you a complete Windows application development system in one package. Visual Basic (or VB, as we often call it) lets you write, edit, and test Windows applications. In addition, VB includes tools you can use to write and compile help files, ActiveX controls (covered in Hour 21, "Visual Basic and ActiveX" ), and even Internet applications (covered in Hour 24, "Online Visual Basic" )!

Controls are tools on the Toolbox window that you place on a form to interact with the user and control the program flow.

A program is a set of instructions that make the computer do something such as perform accounting. (The term program is often used synonymously with application.)

Visual Basic is itself a Windows application. You load and execute the VB system just as you do other Windows programs. You will use this running VB program to create other programs. VB is just a tool, albeit an extremely powerful tool, that programmers use to write, test, and run Windows applications.

A project is a collection of files you create that compose your Windows application.

Although programmers often use the terms program and application interchangeably (as will be done throughout this 24-hour course), the term application seems to fit the best when you're describing a Windows program because a Windows program typically consists of several files. These files work together in the form of a project. The project generates the final program, which the user loads and runs from Windows by double-clicking an icon or by choosing the application from the Windows Start menu.

An application is a collection of one or more files that compile into an executable program.

As with computer hardware, the role of programming tools has evolved over the past 45 years. A programming language today, such as Visual Basic, differs greatly from programming languages of just a few years ago. Before windowed environments, a programming language was a simple text-based tool used to write programs. Today you need much more than just a language; you need a graphical development tool that can work inside the Windows system and create applications that take advantage of all the graphical, multimedia, online, and multiprocessed activities that Windows offers. Visual Basic is such a tool. More than a language, Visual Basic lets you generate applications that interact with every aspect of today's Windows operating systems.

Wizards are question-and-answer dialog boxes that automate tasks. Throughout the book, you will use wizards to facilitate the development of Visual Basic applications.

A compiler is a system that converts the program you write into a computer-executable application.

If you've taken a look at Visual Basic in the past, you'll be amazed at today's Visual Basic system. VB now sports a true compiler that creates standalone runtime .exe files that execute more quickly than previous VB programs. VB also includes several wizards that offer step-by-step dialog box questions that guide you through the creation of applications. VB's development platform, a development environment called the Developer Studio, now supports the same features as the advanced Visual C++ and Visual J++ compilers. After you learn one of Microsoft's visual programming products, you will have the skills to use the other language products without a long learning curve ahead of you.

The Developer Studio is Visual Basic's development environment.

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