Programming Microsoft Windows with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET

Programming Microsoft Windows with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET is a translation of my book Programming Microsoft Windows with C# from the C# programming language to Visual Basic .NET.

The book is a tutorial for programmers wishing to write applications for Windows using Visual Basic .NET and the Windows Forms class library. Windows Forms is part of the Microsoft .NET framework. Some knowledge of earlier versions of Visual Basic is required; some familiarity with object-oriented programming is helpful but not necessary.

ISBN: 0-7356-1799-6; Microsoft Press; July, 2002; 1344 pages.

Information

The table of contents, a sample chapter, and the index from the Microsoft Press web site.

Availability

This book is available from:

as well as many other real and virtual bookstores.

Using the Book

The example programs in this book were written for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, which sells for about $100.

Alternatively, you can purchase Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, which also includes .NET versions of C++, C#, and J#, as well as other features. Various versions of Visual Studio .NET cost about $1,000 and up; upgrades to previous versions of Visual Studio cost about $500 and up.

It's also possible to use the book without Visual Basic .NET or Visual Studio. You need to download the 131-megabyte Microsoft .NET Framework Software Development Kit. The .NET Framework SDK includes a command-line Visual Basic .NET compiler that you can use in conjunction with a text editor such as the Windows Notepad. Programming Microsoft Windows with Visual Basic .NET includes information and tips on compiling your Windows Forms programs on the command line. The only real problem is that many of the programs in Chapter 11 (and a few programs in some later chapters) include a hard-coded directory path that assumes a directory structure created by Visual Studio .NET; that path would have to be altered slightly.

Book Fixes

The book is missing a table of colors on the inside back cover. Download it here.

If you compile programs on the command line, programs that use Visual Basic function such as Chr and ChrW require the additional Imports statement:

Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic