Visual Basic .NET
Paradigm	structured, imperative, object-oriented, declarative
Appeared in	2001 (last revised 2008)
Designed by	Microsoft Corporation
Typing discipline	dynamic, strong, both safe and unsafe[1], nominative
Major implementations	.NET Framework, Mono
Dialects	Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, .NET 2003, 2005, 2008

Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) is an object-oriented computer language that can be viewed as an evolution of Microsoft's Visual Basic (VB) implemented on the Microsoft .NET framework. Its introduction has been controversial, as significant changes were made that broke backward compatibility with older versions and caused a rift within the developer community. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1023x710, 68 KB) File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... A programming paradigm is a paradigmatic style of programming (compare with a methodology, which is a paradigmatic style of doing software engineering). ... Structured programming can be seen as a subset or subdiscipline of procedural programming, one of the major programming paradigms. ... In computer science, imperative programming, as opposed to declarative programming, is a programming paradigm that describes computation in terms of a program state and statements that change the program state. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects and their interactions to design applications and computer programs. ... Declarative programming is a term with two distinct meanings, both of which are in current use. ... This article is about the year. ... 2008 (MMVIII) is the current year, a leap year that started on Tuesday of the Anno Domini (or common era), in accordance with the Gregorian calendar. ... Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), (founded 1975), headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA, is the worlds largest software company (with over 50,000 employees in various countries, as of May 2004). ... In computer science, a type system defines how a programming language classifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulate those types and how they interact. ... In computer science, a type system defines how a programming language classifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulate those types and how they interact. ... In computer science, a type system defines how a programming language classifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulate those types and how they interact. ... In computer science, a type system defines how a programming language classifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulate those types and how they interact. ... In computer science, a type system defines how a programming language classifies values and expressions into types, how it can manipulate those types and how they interact. ... Look up Implementation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Microsoft . ... Mono is a project led by Novell (formerly by Ximian) to create an Ecma standard compliant . ... A dialect of a programming language is a (relatively small) variation or extension of the language that does not change its intrinsic nature. ... Microsoft Visual Studio is Microsofts flagship software development product for computer programmers. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses objects and their interactions to design applications and computer programs. ... Look up computer language & a Brief History of it in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... This article is about the Visual Basic language shipping with Microsoft Visual Studio 6. ... Microsoft . ... In technology, especially computing (irrespective of platform), a product is said to be backward compatible (or upward compatible) when it is able to take the place of an older product, by interoperating with other products that were designed for the older product. ...

Versions of Visual Basic .NET

As of November 2007, there are four versions of Visual Basic .NET that were implemented by The Visual Basic Team

Visual Basic .NET (VB 7)

The original Visual Basic .NET was released alongside Visual C# and ASP.NET in 2002. C# — widely touted as Microsoft's answer to Java — received the lion's share of media attention, while VB.NET (sometimes known as VB7) was not widely covered. As a result, few outside the Visual Basic community paid much attention to it.^{[citation needed]} The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... ASP.NET logo ASP.NET is a web application framework marketed by Microsoft that programmers can use to build dynamic web sites, web applications and XML web services. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... The Java platform is the name for a bundle of related programs, or platform, from Sun Microsystems which allow for developing and running programs written in the Java programming language. ...

Those who did try the first version found a powerful but very different language under the hood, with disadvantages in some areas, including a runtime that was ten times as large to package as the VB6 runtime and an increased memory footprint.^{[citation needed]}

Visual Basic .NET 2003 (VB 7.1)

Visual Basic .NET 2003 was released with version 1.1 of the .NET Framework. New features included support for the .NET Compact Framework and a better VB upgrade wizard. Improvements were also made to the performance and reliability of the .NET IDE (particularly the background compiler) and runtime. The Microsoft . ... A wizard is an interactive computer program acting as an interface to lead a user through a complex task using dialog steps. ...

In addition, Visual Basic .NET 2003 was also available in the Visual Studio .NET 2003 Academic Edition (VS03AE). VS03AE is distributed to a certain number of scholars from each country for free.

Visual Basic 2005 (VB 8.0)

Visual Basic 2005 is the name used to refer to the update to Visual Basic .NET, Microsoft having decided to drop the .NET portion of the title.

For this release, Microsoft added many features, including:

• Edit and Continue - probably the biggest "missing feature" from Visual Basic .NET, allowing the modification of code and immediate resumption of execution
• Design-time expression evaluation
• The My pseudo-namespace (overview, details), which provides:
  • easy access to certain areas of the .NET Framework that otherwise require significant code to access
  • dynamically-generated classes (notably My.Forms)
• Improvements to the VB-to-VB.NET converter ^[2]
• The Using keyword, simplifying the use of objects that require the Dispose pattern to free resources
• Just My Code, which hides boilerplate code written by the Visual Studio .NET IDE
• Data Source binding, easing database client/server development

The above functions (particularly My) are intended to reinforce Visual Basic .NET's focus as a rapid application development platform and further differentiate it from C#. A namespace is a context in which a group of one or more identifiers might exist. ... In software engineering, a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem in software design. ... This article is about computing. ... Rapid application development (RAD), is a software development process developed initially by James Martin in the 1980s. ... The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ...

Visual Basic 2005 introduced features meant to fill in the gaps between itself and other "more powerful" .NET languages, adding:

• .NET 2.0 languages features such as:
  • generics ^[3]
  • Partial classes, a method of defining some parts of a class in one file and then adding more definitions later; particularly useful for integrating user code with auto-generated code
  • Nullable Types
• XML comments that can be processed by tools like NDoc to produce "automatic" documentation
• Operator overloading ^[4]
• Support for unsigned integer data types commonly used in other languages

Generic programming is a style of computer programming where algorithms are written in an extended grammar and are made adaptable by specifying variable parts that are then somehow instantiated later by the compiler with respect to the base grammar. ... Partial Classes, or Partial Types, in object oriented computer programming languages, means the ability to split a class definition across several files, or several places within a single file. ... In most programming languages object references or pointers can be set to NULL, meaning that that the pointer points to nowhere or that no object is assigned. ... The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. ... NDoc is a code documentation generator for the Common Language Infrastructure. ... In computer programming, operator overloading (less commonly known as operator ad-hoc polymorphism) is a specific case of polymorphism in which some or all of operators like +, = or == have different implementations depending on the types of their arguments. ... In computer science, the term integer is used to refer to any data type which can represent some subset of the mathematical integers. ...

'IsNot' operator Patented

One other feature of Visual Basic 2005 is the conversion of 'If Not X Is Y' to 'If X IsNot Y' which gained notoriety ^[5] when it was found to be the subject of a Microsoft patent application ^{[6] [7]}.

Visual Basic 2005 Express

Visual Basic 2005 Express - Microsoft's free development application.

As part of the Visual Studio product range, Microsoft created a set of free development environments for hobbyists and novices, the Visual Studio 2005 Express series. One edition in the series is Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, which was succeeded by Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition in the 2008 edition of Visual Studio Express.^[8] Image File history File links Box-vbExpres2-05. ... Image File history File links Box-vbExpres2-05. ... Microsoft Corporation, (NASDAQ: MSFT, HKSE: 4338) is a multinational computer technology corporation with global annual revenue of US$44. ... Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of free integrated development environments developed by Microsoft that are lightweight versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 (codenamed Whidbey) product line. ...

The Express Editions are targeted specifically for people learning a language. They have a streamlined version of the user interface, and lack more advanced features of the standard versions. On the other hand, Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition does contain the Visual Basic 6.0 converter, so it is a way to evaluate feasibility of conversion from older versions of Visual Basic.

Visual Basic 2008 (VB 9.0)

Visual Basic 9.0 was released together with the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 on November 19, 2007. Microsoft . ... is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. ...

For this release, Microsoft added many features, including:

• A true ternary operator If (boolean, value, value) to replace the IIF function.
• Anonymous types
• Support for LINQ
• Lambda expressions
• XML Literals
• Type Inference

Anonymous types are a feature of the C# 3. ... LINQ is a word-based card game from Endless Games, introduced at the American International Toy Fair in 2005. ... In mathematical logic and computer science, lambda calculus, also λ-calculus, is a formal system designed to investigate function definition, function application, and recursion. ... Type inference is a feature present in some strongly statically typed programming languages. ...

Visual Basic 'VBx' (VB 10.0)

Visual Basic 10, also known as VBx, will offer support for the Dynamic Language Runtime. VB 10 is planned to be part of Silverlight 2.0.^{[citation needed]} The Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) from Microsoft is a ongoing effort to bring a set of services that run on top of the CLR and provides language services for several different dynamic languages. ... Microsoft Silverlight is a web browser plugin that provides support for rich internet applications such as animation, vector graphics and audio-video playback. ...

Relation to older versions of Visual Basic (VB6 and previous)

Whether Visual Basic .NET should be considered as just another version of Visual Basic or a completely different language is a topic of debate. This is not obvious, as once the methods that have been moved around and that can be automatically converted are accounted for, the basic syntax of the language has not seen many "breaking" changes, just additions to support new features like structured exception handling and short-circuited expressions. Two important data type changes occurred with the move to VB.NET. Compared to VB6, the Integer data type has been doubled in length from 16 bits to 32 bits, and the Long data type has been doubled in length from 32 bits to 64 bits. This is true for all versions of VB.NET. A 16-bit integer in all versions of VB.NET is now known as a Short. Similarly, the Windows Forms GUI editor is very similar in style and function to the Visual Basic form editor. For other uses, see Syntax (disambiguation). ... Exception handling is a programming language construct or computer hardware mechanism designed to handle the occurrence of some condition that changes the normal flow of execution. ... In programming languages a data type defines a set of values and the allowable operations on those values[1]. For example, in the Java programming language, the int type represents the set of 32-bit integers ranging in value from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, and... In programming languages a data type defines a set of values and the allowable operations on those values[1]. For example, in the Java programming language, the int type represents the set of 32-bit integers ranging in value from -2,147,483,648 to 2,147,483,647, and... This API is a part of . ... GUI can refer to the following: GUI is short for graphical user interface, a term used to describe a type of interface in computing. ...

The things that have changed significantly are the semantics — from those of an object-based programming language running on a deterministic, reference-counted engine based on COM to a fully object-oriented language backed by the .NET Framework, which consists of a combination of the Common Language Runtime (a virtual machine using generational garbage collection and a just-in-time compilation engine) and a far larger class library. The increased breadth of the latter is also a problem that VB developers have to deal with when coming to the language, although this is somewhat addressed by the My feature in Visual Studio 2005. The term deterministic may refer to: the more general notion of determinism from philosophy, see determinism a type of algorithm as discussed in computer science, see deterministic algorithm scientific determinism as used by Karl Popper and Stephen Hawking deterministic system in mathematics deterministic system in philosophy deterministic finite state machine... In computer science, reference counting is a technique of storing the number of references, pointers, or handles to a resource such as an object or block of memory. ... Component Object Model (COM) is a platform for software componentry introduced by Microsoft in 1993. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ... Microsoft . ... The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the virtual machine component of Microsofts . ... In computer science, a virtual machine is software that creates a virtualized environment between the computer platform and its operating system, so that the end user can operate software on an abstract machine. ... In computer science, garbage collection (GC) is a form of automatic memory management. ... For other uses, see Just In Time. ... Illustration of an application which may use libvorbisfile. ...

The changes have altered many underlying assumptions about the "right" thing to do with respect to performance and maintainability. Some functions and libraries no longer exist; others are available, but not as efficient as the "native" .NET alternatives. Even if they compile, most converted VB6 applications will require some level of refactoring to take full advantage of the new language. Documentation is available to cover changes in the syntax, debugging applications, deployment and terminology.^[9] Refactoring is the process of rewriting a computer program or other material to improve its structure or readability, while explicitly keeping its meaning or behavior. ...

Comparative samples

The following simple example demonstrates similarity in syntax between VB and VB.NET. Both examples pop up a message box saying "Hello, World" with an OK button.

Classic VB example:

 Private Sub Command1_Click() MsgBox "Hello, World" End Sub 

A VB.NET example:

 Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles Button1.Click MessageBox.Show("Hello, World") 'MsgBox("Hello, World") can be used as well End Sub 

• Note that all procedure calls must be made with parentheses in VB.NET, whereas in VB6 there were different conventions for functions (parentheses required) and subs (no parentheses allowed, unless called using the keyword Call).
• Also note that the names Command1 and Button1 are not obligatory. However, these are default names for a command button in VB6 and VB.NET respectively.
• There is a function called MsgBox in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace which can be used similarly to the corresponding function in VB6. There is a controversy about which function to use as a best practice (not only restricted to showing message boxes but also regarding other features of the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace). Some programmers prefer to do things "the .NET way", since the Framework classes have more features and are less language-specific. Others argue that using language-specific features makes code more readable (for example, using int (C#) or Integer (VB.NET) instead of System.Int32).

The following example demonstrates a difference between VB6 and VB.NET. Both examples unload the active window.

Classic VB Example:

 Private Sub cmdClose_Click() Unload Me End Sub 

A VB.NET example:

 Private Sub btnClose_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles btnClose.Click Me.Close() End Sub 

Note the 'cmd' prefix being replaced with the 'btn' prefix, conforming to the new convention previously mentioned.

Visual Basic 6 did not provide common operator shortcuts. The following are equivalent:

VB6 Example:

 Private Sub Timer1_Timer() Me.Height = Me.Height - 1 End Sub 

VB.NET example:

 Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _ Handles Timer1.Tick Me.Height = Me.Height - 1 End Sub 

Criticism

Many long-time Visual Basic programmers have complained ^[10] about Visual Basic .NET because initial versions dropped a large number of language constructs and user interface features ^[11] that were available in VB6 (which is now no longer sold), and changed the semantics of those that remained; for example, in VB.NET parameters are (by default) passed by value, not by reference. Detractors refer pejoratively to VB.NET as Visual Fred or DOTNOT.^[12] On March 8, 2005, a petition ^[13] was set up in response to Microsoft's refusal to extend its mainstream support^[14] for VB6 at the end of that month. is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...

VB.NET's supporters state that the new language is in most respects more powerful than the original, incorporating modern object oriented programming paradigms in a more natural, coherent and complete manner than was possible with earlier versions. Opponents tend not to disagree with this, instead taking the position that although VB6 has flaws in its object model, the cost in terms of redevelopment effort is too high for any benefits that might be gained by converting to VB.NET. Independent developers producing software for Internet distribution have also taken issue with the size of the runtime.^{[citation needed]}

It is simpler to decompile languages that target Common Intermediate Language, including VB.NET, compared to languages that compile to machine code. Tools like .NET Reflector can provide a close approximation to the original code due to the large amount of metadata provided in CIL. A decompiler is the name given to a computer program that performs the reverse operation to that of a compiler. ... Common Intermediate Language (CIL, pronounced either sill or kill) (formerly called Microsoft Intermediate Language or MSIL) is the lowest-level human-readable programming language in the Common Language Infrastructure and in the . ... Machine code or machine language is a system of instructions and data directly executed by a computers central processing unit. ... A software utility for Microsoft . ... Metadata is data about data. ...

Microsoft supplies an automated VB6-to-VB.NET converter with Visual Studio .NET, which has improved over time, but it cannot convert all code, and almost all non-trivial programs will need some manual effort to compile. Most will need a significant level of code refactoring to work optimally. Visual Basic programs that are mainly algorithmic in nature can be migrated with few difficulties; those that rely heavily on such features as database support, graphics, unmanaged operations or on implementation details are more troublesome. A code refactoring is any change to a computer program which improves its readability or simplifies its structure without changing its results. ...

However in 2005 ArtinSoft, the company that developed the VB6-to-VB.NET converter for Microsoft that comes with Visual Studio .NET, developed a migration tool called the ArtinSoft Visual Basic Upgrade Companion. This tool expands upon the migration wizard included in Visual Studio .NET by providing some automated code refactoring, such as type inference for late-bound variables—producing explicitly typed variables—and conversion to structured error handling, among many other tweaks that improve code quality.

Using artificial intelligence algorithms, it is possible for this new tool to recognize certain code patterns that can be reorganized into more structured versions, potentially yielding a higher quality .NET code. For example, the tool is able to automatically recognize commonly used patterns of “On Error GoTo”, analyze them, and convert them to code blocks that use “Try ... Catch” instead of the legacy error handling model—in many cases with no human intervention.

In addition, the required runtime libraries for VB6 programs are provided with Windows 98 SE and above, while VB.NET programs require the installation of the significantly larger .NET Framework. The framework is included with Windows Vista, Windows XP Media Center Edition, Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and Windows Server 2003. For other supported operating systems such as Windows 2000 or Windows XP (Home or Professional Editions), it must be separately installed. In computer science, runtime or run time describes the operation of a computer program, the duration of its execution, from beginning to termination (compare compile time). ... Windows 98SE Desktop Windows 98 (codename Memphis) is a graphical operating system released on June 25, 1998 by the Microsoft Corporation. ... Microsoft . ... Windows Vista (pronounced ) is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, laptops, Tablet PCs, and media centers. ... A typical Windows XP MCE 2005 Menu Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) is a version of Windows XP designed to serve as a home-entertainment hub. ... A typical Windows XP desktop. ... Windows Server 2003 (also referred to as Win2K3) is a server operating system produced by Microsoft. ... Windows 2000 (also referred to as Win2K) is a preemptive, interruptible, graphical and business-oriented operating system designed to work with either uniprocessor or symmetric multi-processor computers. ... Windows XP is a line of operating systems developed by Microsoft for use on personal computers, including home and business desktops, notebook computers, and media centers. ...

Microsoft's response to developer dissatisfaction has focused around making it easier to move new development and shift existing codebases from VB6 to VB.NET. Their latest offering is the VBRun website, which offers code samples and articles for:

• completing common tasks in VB6, like creating a print preview
• integrating VB6 and VB.NET solutions (dubbed VB Fusion)

Cross-platform and open-source development

The creation of open-source tools for VB.NET development have been slow compared to C#, although the Mono development platform provides an implementation of VB.NET-specific libraries and is working on a compiler, as well as the Windows Forms GUI library.^{[citation needed]} The title given to this article is incorrect due to technical limitations. ... Mono is a project led by Novell (formerly by Ximian) to create an Ecma standard compliant . ... A diagram of the operation of a typical multi-language, multi-target compiler. ... This API is a part of . ...

SharpDevelop provides an open-source alternative IDE. SharpDevelop is a free and open source IDE for the C#, Visual Basic . ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ...

Hello world example

The following is a very simple VB.NET program, a version of the classic "Hello world" example: A hello world program is a computer program that prints out Hello, world! on a display device. ...

 Public Class ExampleClass Public Shared Sub Main() System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!") End Sub End Class 

The effect is to write the text Hello, world! to the output console. Each line serves a specific purpose, as follows:

 Public Class ExampleClass 

This is a class definition. It is public, meaning objects in other projects can freely use this class. All the information between this and the following End Class describes this class.

 Public Shared Sub Main() 

This is the entry point where the program begins execution. It could be called from other code using the syntax ExampleClass.Main(). (The Public Shared portion is a subject for a slightly more advanced discussion.)

 System.Console.WriteLine("Hello, world!") 

This line performs the actual task of writing the output. Console is a system object, representing a command-line console where a program can input and output text. The program calls the Console method WriteLine, which causes the string passed to it to be displayed on the console.

Notes

See also

• CLR, and Platform
  • Common Language Runtime
  • Mono, an open source implementation of .NET
• Environments and tools
  • Microsoft Visual Studio, IDE for .Net languages
• Microsoft Visual Studio Express
• Comparison of programming languages
  • Visual Basic 6 to .NET Function Equivalents
  • Comparison of C# and Visual Basic .Net
  • Comparison of C# and Java (Relevant since many of the comparisons are really comparisons of the platform, and not the actual language.)

The Common Language Runtime (CLR) is the virtual machine component of Microsofts . ... Mono is a project led by Novell (formerly by Ximian) to create an Ecma standard compliant . ... Microsoft Visual Studio is Microsofts flagship software development product for computer programmers. ... Microsoft Visual Studio Express is a set of free integrated development environments developed by Microsoft that are lightweight versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 (codenamed Orcas) product line. ... Programming languages are used for controlling the behavior of a machine (often a computer). ... // The information provided here is intended to help Visual Basic 6 developers who are making the switch to Visual Basic . ... The original . ... This is a comparison of the C# programming language with the Java programming language. ...

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of

Visual Basic .NET

• Microsoft's VB.NET website
• Visual Basic Team
• Startvbdotnet
• Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition website
• VBRun website - legacy VB6 resources from Microsoft

Image File history File links Wikibooks-logo-en. ... Wikibooks logo Wikibooks, previously called Wikimedia Free Textbook Project and Wikimedia-Textbooks, is a wiki for the creation of books. ...

Tutorials

• VB @ The Movies(Free video tutorials from Microsoft)
• Free Video Tutorials from MSDN
• Free vb.net help , tutorial and source code