Visual Basic

Visual Basic (VB) is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a

programmer uses a graphical user interface (GUI) to choose and modify
preselected sections of code written in the BASIC programming language.

Since Visual Basic is easy to learn and fast to write code with, it's sometimes
used to prototype an application that will later be written in a more difficult but
efficient language. Visual Basic is also widely used to write working programs.
Microsoft says that there are at least 3 million developers using Visual Basic.

Visual Basic is one of the most widely used programming languages in the world. The
major reason for its popularity is that it allows programmers to create Windows
applications quickly and easily.

The origins of Visual Basic are found in a programming language created in 1964 by John
Kemeny and Thomas Kurtz. BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)
was originally an interpreted language that was designed to simplify the programming
process and make programming more accessible to the world at large. Using that
philosophy, Microsoft integrated a BASIC interpreter into its operating system MS-DOS.
Despite its wide distribution and relative simplicity, BASIC was not able to compete with
faster, compiled languages such as C or C++. Thus, BASIC was commonly used for trivial
or educational purposes, whereas "real" applications were usually developed in other
languages.

In the late 1980s, Microsoft Windows and other graphical user interfaces
(GUIs) were still in their infancy. Most PCs were still using text-based operating
systems. As people began to realize the benefits of graphical operating
systems, Microsoft Windows gained popularity. Unfortunately, creating
Windows-based programs was exceedingly difficult. Extensive code had to be
written to define precisely what the interface would look like as well as how a
user would interact with it.
To overcome this problem, Microsoft revived BASIC in 1991 by introducing
Visual Basic 1.0. Using BASIC's heritage of simplicity and its general syntax ,
this new development tool gave programmers an easy way to create Windows
applications. In the years since, Microsoft has continued to improve Visual Basic
by releasing newer versions. These improvements include not only
enhancements to the development environment but also modernization of the
core BASIC language as well. These renovations include making BASIC object
oriented and fully event driven, and overcoming the limitations of being
interpreted, allowing programmers to generate a compiled executable
code .
Using Visual Basic
The process of creating a program in Visual Basic can be clearly described in
three stages: (1) Draw the interface on the screen by adding controls. (2)
Define important characteristics of the controls. (3) Write code to determine
how a control will react to user actions.
In the first step, the programmer creates the interface using an on-screen
drawing tool. Windows controls, such as buttons and input boxes, are added to
a workspace using an application similar to Paint (the standard Windows
drawing utility). Almost all of the standard Windows interface components are
available by default. More advanced controls, such as status bars, can also be
added. The arrows in Figure 1 show the results of adding two text labels and a
button to the workspace.

Every control has a set of characteristics that make it unique. For example, buttons have
properties such as name (how the program will refer to it) and caption (the text that will be
used to label it). In the second step, the programmer sets the initial values for the control in
order to customize the appearance and behavior of the controls. As seen in Figure 2 (see
page 210), the text on the button has been changed to "Click Me" by altering a property of
the button.

In addition to the properties, every type of control has different ways that the user can
interact with it. For example, buttons are clicked, or text is entered into an input box. These
are known as events. Whenever an event occurs, the program must respond appropriately.
The programmer is responsible for empowering the controls by providing a specific set of
instructions regarding how the system should respond to the events. This usually comes in
the form of doing some calculation and then updating the properties of other controls on the
screen to reflect the current state of the system. Figure 3 shows some actual code. In the
example, when the button is pressed, the program produces a label that keeps track of the
number of times the button is pressed.

this stage, the program must be run to evaluate that it is working properly.
Figure 4 shows a screen shot of the program after the button has been pressed
three times. While testing the program, the programmer has the ability to
examine the inner workings of the program and even change the program
while it is running. After the programmer is certain that the application
functions properly, Visual Basic compiles the code into a working executable
program that can be distributed to other users.

In addition to creating new programs and applications, Microsoft has also extended
portions of Visual Basic to existing applications. Large-scale, popular applications like
Microsoft Word, Excel, and Access contain a limited subset of Visual Basic capabilities
known as Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). Often used as a macro-language, VBA can
be used to control parts of existing applications. This is a very useful feature for automating
repetitive tasks or for customizing existing applications to meet a user's personal needs.
Another variation of Visual Basic offers an alternative to JavaScript. Visual Basic Scripting
Edition, or VBScript, can be embedded into HTML pages and distributed over the Internet.
VBScript can be very useful for making dynamic web pages or for validating user input
before it is submitted.

Both of these dialects of Visual Basic follow essentially the same syntax rules as the full-
programming edition. Although some variation exists, this allows programmers to extend
their existing skills without needing to learn something completely new.

Like its text ancestor, Visual Basic has greatly simplified the task of programming and
enjoys widespread distribution. Unfortunately, to some degree, it has also inherited the
stigma of being a second-rate programming language. This conception actually arises from
the trade-off between ease-of-use and control. Visual Basic attempts to shield programmers
from some of the details associated with what occurs at lower levels of the computer. This
restricts the programmer to generalized, high-level functions. Alternative languages, such
as C++ grants programmers more control over how processing occurs, and thus they can
optimize the code to the specific task at hand. If sub-second optimizations are critical to the
success of the program, Visual Basic may not be adequate. However, most applications to
be run by businesses will not benefit from such minute speed-ups and programmers will
find that the simplified development makes Visual Basic very appealing.