A Biene Majas Guide To The VB.NET Express IDE

[D3m0ni4k 12]

Welcome to A Biene Majas Guide To The VB.NET Express IDE. This following tutorials will show you tips, tricks, and things you may not have known about Microsoft's VB.NET IDE.

 

Credits: TeNsIOn

 

Index

I. What Is Programming?

II. Where Do We Download VB.NET Express?

III. How Do We Make a Program?

IV. The Anatomy of VB.NET Express

V. How Do We Add Controls?

VI. Tips and Tricks

VII. Where to next?

 

 

I. What Is Programming

 

The simple answer: Programming is a way of creating your own programs for computers. We program using a programming language. The main programming languages are (listed in order of popularity) Java, C++, C, Html, PHP, VB6, VB.NET, and Pascal. There are far more programming languages, but these ones are most widely used. Because VB.NET is the simplest programming language that is still powerful, we are going to learn about Visual Basic.NET ( I will refer to it as VB.NET)

The complex answer:

Quote:

A vocabulary and set of grammatical rules for instructing a computer to perform specific tasks. The term programming language usually refers to high-level languages, such as BASIC, C, C++, COBOL, FORTRAN, Ada, and Pascal. Each language has a unique set of keywords (words that it understands) and a special syntax for organizing program instructions.

 

(http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/prog..._language.html)

 

 

II. Where Do We Download VB.NET Express?

 

Right HERE

That is just the VB.NET Express downloader, not the actual data. It will take some time to fully download and install VB.NET Express.

 

 

III. How Do We Make a Program?

 

Making the program is the easy part! Making the program do what you want is the hard part.

 

1. Run VB.NET Express

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...22952838004.jpg

2. Click New Project

http://nsa16.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23212925030.jpg

3. Select Windows Forms Application to make a normal program Name it anything you want.

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23317388629.jpg

4. There we have it! You made your application! Back in the old days of C++, before VB.NET was even born, it was much more to create a program. You had to write the window's code by hand.

 

 

IV. The Anatomy of VB.NET Express

 

 

>> The ToolBox <<

http://nsa16.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23413731044.jpg

 

The ToolBox contains all the controls we will use. We will discuss this later.

 

>> The Designer Window <<

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23541771721.jpg

 

This is where we "design" our program's windows. We add controls, place controls, and size controls and the window itself.

 

>> The Properties Window <<

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23632290226.jpg

 

Here we can edit our form and controls. We can change the text, define the size, and more.

 

>> The Solution Explorer <<

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23721852011.jpg

 

This is where we look at our files. We can rename our forms, add references, delete forms, and edit special settings.

 

>> The Error List <<

http://nsa16.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...23805758400.jpg

 

One the most important windows! Without this we couldn't prevent errors at runtime. Double click on the error to follow it to the code, and right click on it to get support on the error.

 

>> The Toolbar <<

http://nsa17.casimages.com/img/2010/07/27/...12385214275.jpg

 

1 - Create a new project

2 - Open an existing Project

3 - Add a new item

4 - Save the file you are currently editing

5 - Save all the files in the project

6 - Cut

7 - Copy

8 - Paste

9 - Find a string and/or replace a string

10 - Comments out the selected lines

11 - Uncomments out the selected lines

12 - Undo

13 - Redo

14 - Navigates back (useless)

15 - Navigates forward (useless)

16 - Debug, or run, the project

17 - Pause debugging

18 - Stops debugging, or exits the project

19 - Basically runs each line at a time - Don't use if you don't know what you are doing

20 - Skips a line of code - Don't use if you don't know what you are doing

21 - Goes to the end of the file, skipping all lines of code - Don't use if you don't know what you are doing

22 - Displays the Solution Explorer

23 - Displays the Properties Window

24 - Displays the Object Browser

25 - Displays the Toolbox

26 - Displays the Error List

27 - Displays the Intermediate Window

 

 

 

V. How Do We Add Controls?

 

In the controls window, simply double click on a control you wish to add. Alternatively, click the control once, and drag your mouse in the Designer Window to size it. Believe it or not there are MANY more controls that are not listed in the toolbox. How do we get those? Right click in the controls window, and select Choose Items...

 

 

 

VI. Tips and Tricks

 

I will add tips & tricks continuously, so don't freak out because there aren't any right now.

 

 

 

VII. Where to Now?

 

Explorer every pixel of the VB.NET IDE! Click everything, pretend like you are BETA testing it. You will have soon mastered the IDE. Now it's time to get down the the nitty gritty programming ^^

 

Here's my The Beginner's Guide to VB .NET tut that is perfect for a starter like you.

 

 

Hoped you learned something!

 

-d3m0ni4k

[paTTax 5]

This is the C Section not the VB Section!

 

#Moved