Acknowledgments

ONEOF THE BEST PARTS of writing a book is when the author gets to thank those who
have helped him or her, for rarely (and certainly not in this case) is a book solely
the product of the names featured so prominently on the cover. First and foremost, I
have to thank my friends and colleagues at Apress, but especially Grace Wong,
whose efforts to get this book out under quite stressful conditions was nothing
short of amazing! I would also like to thank Steve Wilent, Tracy Brown Collins,
Susan Glinert Stevens, Valerie Haynes Perry for all their efforts on my behalf.
Next, Ken Getz did an amazingly thorough job of reviewing this book under terribly
tight constraints. He caught dozens of obscurities and helped me avoid dozens of
false steps (any errors that remain are solely my responsibility!). Karen Watterson
and Tim Walton made comments that were very useful as well. Rob Macdonald,
Carsten Thomsen, and Bill Vaughn all helped me to understand how ADO .NET
relates to classic ADO. Thanks also go to my friend Dan Appleman—suffice it to say
that not only have I learned an immense amount about every version of Visual
Basic from him, but his general guidance on so many things have helped me over
many difficult spots during these stressful times. While my friend Jonathan Morrison
had to step away from this project before it could be completed, his insights into
VB were very helpful as I worked to finish this book.
Finally, thanks to all my family and friends who put up with my strange ways
and my occasionally short temper for lo so many months.
Gary Cornell
Berkeley, CA
September 2001
About This Book
THIS BOOK IS ACOMPREHENSIVE, hands-on guide to the Visual Basic .NET programming
language addressed to readers with some programming background. No background
in Visual Basic is required, however.
While I show you the syntax of VB .NET, this book is not designed to teach you
syntax. I have taken this approach because trying to force VB .NET into the framework
of older versions of VB is ultimately self-defeating—you cannot take advantage of
its power if you continue to think within an older paradigm.
First off, I have tried to give you a complete treatment of object-oriented
programming in the context of the VB .NET language. I feel pretty strongly that
without a firm foundation here, it is impossible to take full advantage of the power
that VB .NET can bring to you.
Also, I have tried to cover at the least the fundamentals of every technique that a
professional VB .NET developer will need to master. This includes topics like multithreading,
which are too often skimped on in most books. This does not mean that
I cover all the possible (or even the majority of) applications of VB .NET to the .NET
platform; that would take a book two or three times the size of this one. This is a book
about the techniques you need to master, not the applications themselves. (I have
tried to make most of the examples realistic, avoiding toy code as much as possible.)
Finally, since most people reading this book will have programmed with some
version of Visual Basic before, I have also tried to be as clear about the differences
between VB .NET and earlier versions of VB as I could. However, I want to stress
that this book does not assume any knowledge of earlier versions of VB, just some
programming experience.
How This Book Is Organized
Chapter 1, “Introduction,” explains what is so different about VB .NET. Experienced
VB programmers will benefit from reading this chapter.
Chapter 2, “The VB .NET IDE: Visual Studio .NET,” introduces you to the Visual
Studio .NET Integrated Development Environment (IDE).
Chapter 3, “Expressions, Operators, and Control Flow,” covers what I like to call
the “vocabulary” of VB .NET. This is the basic syntax for code including variables,
loops, and operators.
Chapter 4, “Classes and Objects (with a Very Short Introduction to Object-Oriented
Programming),” is the first of the core object-oriented programming chapters. It
shows you how to construct objects and use them.
Chapter 5, “Inheritance and Interfaces,” covers the other key parts of object-oriented
programming in VB .NET: inheritance and interfaces. This chapter also contains an
introduction to the useful .NET collection classes which allow you to efficiently
manage data inside a program.
Chapter 6, “Event Handling and Delegates,” takes up events and the new .NET
notion of a delegate. Event-driven programming is still the key to good user interface
design, and .NET depends on it just as much as Windows did.
Chapter 7, “Error Handling the VB .NET Way: Living with Exceptions,” covers
exceptions, the modern way of dealing with errors that lets you banish the archaic
On Error GoTo syntax that has plagued VB since its start.
Chapter 8, “Windows Forms, Drawing, and Printing,,” takes up building Windows
user interfaces, graphics and printing. Although the browser is obviously becoming
more important as a delivery platform, traditional Windows-based clients aren’t going
away, and this chapter gives you a firm foundation to build them under .NET.
Chapter 9, “Input/Output,” presents I/O, with a complete treatment of streams,
which are at the root of .NET’s way of handling I/O.
Chapter 10, “Multithreading,” is a concise treatment of the fundamentals of multithreading.
Multithreading is an amazingly powerful technique of programming
that is nonetheless fraught with peril. I hope this chapter does not just teach you
enough “to be dangerous,” but rather, enough so that you can use this powerful
technique safely and effectively in your programs.
Chapter 11, “A Brief Introduction to Database Access with VB .NET,” and Chapter 12,
“A Brief Overview of ASP .NET,” are very brief introductions to two of the most
important applications of .NET: ASP .NET and ADO .NET. Please note these chapters
are designed to give you just a taste, and you will have to look at more detailed
books to learn how to use ASP .NET or ADO .NET in production-level code.
Chapter 13, “.NET Assemblies, Deployment, and COM Interop,” is a brief introduction
to what goes on under the hood in .NET that includes a look the idea of
assemblies and COM Interop. While I have tried to give you a flavor of these
important topics, you will also need to consult a more advanced book to learn
more about the topics.
Contacting Me
I would love to hear about your experiences with this book, suggestions for
improvements, and any errata you may find. (The current list of errata may be found
at the Apress Web site at www.apress.com). You can contact me at gary@thecornells.com.
Gary Cornell
Berkeley, CA