| Welcome to Visual Basic .NET and the world of Windows, Internet and World-Wide-Web programming with Visual Studio and the .NET platform! This book, the first in our new Simply series, was a joy to create. Our goal was to write a book that focuses on core concepts and features of Visual Basic .NET while keeping the discussion of this highly technical subject as simple as possible. To achieve these goals, we implemented an innovative teaching methodology. We present the core concepts of leading-edge computing technologies using the tutorial-based, APPLICATION -DRIVEN approach, combined with the DEITEL signature LIVE-CO/DE approach of teaching programming using complete, working, real-world applications. We merged the notion of a lab manual with that of a conventional textbook, creating a book that is best used by students sitting at computers and building each example application as they read the tutorials. As students work through the tutorials, they learn about Visual Basic .NET and its fundamental features, such as visual programming concepts, graphical-user-interface (GUI) components, multimedia (audio, images, animation and video), file processing, database processing and Internet and World-Wide-Web-based client/server networking. At the end of most sections, we provide self-review questions with answers so that students receive immediate feedback on their understanding of the material. Hundreds of additional self-review questions with answers are available on this book's Companion Web Site. Features in Simply Visual Basic. NET This book is loaded with pedagogic features, including: APPLICATION-DRIVEN Tutorial Approach. Each tutorial uses a contemporary, real-world application to teach programming concepts. The examples and exercises are up-to-the-minute with Internet/Web-related examples and with popular applications, such as ATMs, game playing, graphics, multimedia and even a 3-tier Web-based bookstore. Most examples have a business focus. At the beginning of each tutorial, students "test-drive" the completed application so they can see how it works. Then they build the application by following our step-by-step instructions. The book concentrates on the principles of good software engineering and stresses program clarity. LIVE-CODE Approach. This book is loaded with LIVE-CODE examples. Each tutorial ends with the complete, working program code and the students can run the application that they just created. We call this method of teaching and writing the LIVE-CoDE Approach. We feel that this approach is more effective than presenting only snippets of code out of the context of a complete program. Real-World Technologies. This text incorporates today's technologies to develop useful applications. For example, we use the Unified Modeling Language (UML) to replace flowcharts an older standard. The UML has become the preferred graphical modeling language for designing object-oriented applications. In Simply Visual Basic.NET, we use UML to show the flow of control for several applications, so students gain practice reading the type of diagrams that are used in industry. Visual Programming and Graphical User Interface (GUI). From the first tutorial, we immerse students in visual programming techniques and modifying Visual Basic .NET GUIs. Students who learn these techniques can create graphical programs more quickly and easily. The early tutorials provide students with a foundation for designing GUIs concepts that they will apply throughout the book as we teach core programming concepts. Many tutorials contain GUI Design Tips that are summarized at the end of the tutorials for easy reference. Additionally, Appendix C compiles all the GUI Design Tips to help students as they prepare for exams. Full-Color Presentation. This book is in full color so that students can see sample outputs as they would appear on a monitor. Also, we syntax color the Visual Basic .NET code, similar to the way Visual Studio .NET colors the code in its editor window. This way, students can match what they see in the book with what they see on their own screens. Our syntax-coloring conventions are as follows: comments appear in green keywords appear in dark blue literal values appear in light blue text, class, method and variable names appear in black errors appear in red Graphics and Multimedia. Graphics make applications fun to create and use. In our introduction to graphics, Tutorial 26, we discuss Graphical Device Interface (GDI+) the Windows service that provides the graphical features used by .NET to teach students to personalize a bank check. In Tutorial 27, we use a fun technology called Microsoft Agent to add interactive, animated characters to a phone book application. With Microsoft Agent, your applications can speak to users and even respond to their voice commands! Databases. Databases are crucial to businesses today, and we use real-world applications to teach the fundamentals of database programming. Tutorials 25 and 30 familiarize students with databases, presented in the context of two applications an ATM and a Web-based bookstore. Case Study. This book concludes with a sequence of four tutorials in which the student builds a Web-based, bookstore application. Tutorial 28 familiarizes readers with Microsoft's Internet Information Services (which enables Web publishing), mufti-tier architecture and simple Web transactions. Tutorials 29-31 use ASP.NET and ADO .NET to build an application that retrieves information from a database and displays the information in a Web page. Object-Oriented Programming. Object-oriented programming is the most widely employed technique for developing robust, reusable software, and Visual Basic .NET offers advanced object-oriented programming features. This book introduces students to defining classes and using objects, laying a solid foundation for future programming courses. Visual Studio .NET Debugger. Debuggers are programs that help programmers find and correct logic errors in program code. Visual Studio .NET contains a powerful debugging tool that allows programmers to analyze their programs line-by-line as the programs execute. Throughout the book, we teach the Visual Studio .NET Debugger; we explain how to use its key features, and offer many debugging exercises. To the Instructor Focus of the Book Our goal was clear: Produce a Visual Basic .NET textbook for introductory-level courses in computer programming aimed at students with little or no programming experience. This book teaches computer programming principles and the Visual Basic .NET language, including data types, control structures, object-oriented programming, Visual Basic .NET classes, GUI concepts, event-driven programming and more. After mastering the material in this book, students will be able to program in Visual Basic.NET and to employ many key capabilities of the .NET platform. Lab Setup To install some of the required software for this book, students and instructors will need Administrator-level access to the computer. For university computer labs where students do not have Administrator-level access, instructors and system administrators must ensure that the proper software is installed on the lab computers. In Tutorial 27, certain Microsoft Agent software components must be installed to execute and develop the Phone Book application. If students are not allowed to install software on lab computers, the Microsoft Agent components discussed in Tutorial 27 must be installed in advance. To configure and execute some of the examples and exercises, such as the Bookstore case study in Tutorials 28-31, students will need to have Administrator-level access. In addition, the examples in the book require that students have Debugger or Administrator access to the computer, which is typically required to develop applications in Visual Studio .NET. A Note Regarding Terminology Used in the Book In Tutorial 13, we discuss methods as Sub procedures (sometimes called subroutines) and Function procedures (sometimes called functions). We use this terminology .for two reasons. First, the keywords Sub and Function are used in procedure definitions, so this naming is logical for students. Second, Visual Basic professionals have used this terminology for years and will continue to do so in the future. We also use the term "function" at certain points in this text to refer to Visual Basic 6 Function procedures that remain in Visual Basic.NET (such as Val and Pmt). When we introduce object-oriented programming concepts in Tutorial 19, we discuss the difference between procedures and methods and indicate that the procedures defined throughout the text are, in fact, methods. We hope our use of terminology helps you present the material in a simple and understandable manner. Exception Handling: Bonus Tutorial Available Online Exception Handling is one of the most important topics in Visual Basic .NET for building mission-critical and business-critical applications. Programmers need to know how to recognize the exceptions (errors) that could occur in software components and handle those exceptions effectively, allowing programs to deal with problems and continue executing instead of "crashing." This tutorial overviews the proper use of exception handling, including the termination model of exception handling, throwing and catching exceptions and the library class Exception. To download this tutorial, please go to www.deitel.com . Objectives Each tutorial begins with objectives that inform students of what to expect and give them an opportunity, after reading the tutorial, to determine whether they have met the intended goals. Outline The tutorial outline enables students to approach the material in top-down fashion. Along with the tutorial objectives, the outline helps students anticipate future topics and set a comfortable and effective learning pace. Example Programs (with Program Outputs) We present Visual Basic .NET features in the context of complete, working Visual Basic .NET programs. We call this our LIVE-CODE approach. All examples are available on ... |
