Visual Basic Development Environment

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Visual Basic Development Environment

• CMSC-160 Programming in Visual Basic
• Fall 2007
• Jason B. Shepherd

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In this presentation

• Get to know VBs integrated development
  environment (IDE)
• Learn a little VB
• Learn how to build and run programs/applications

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Where is VB on my laptop?

• Start menu
• All Programs
• Applications
• Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition

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Visual Basic Start Page
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Start a New Project
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New Project Dialog Box
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Initial Visual Basic Screen
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Dude, wheres my ____?

• If your toolbox, Solution Explorer, etc., somehow
  disappears (e.g., you accidentally close your
  toolbox), bring it back by finding it in the
  View menu.

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Toolbox
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Remember Program Development Cycle?

• Analyze whats the problem
• Design whats the solution (plain English
  algorithm)
• Choose the interface which controls
• Code algorithm ? code
• Test and Debug errors?
• Document

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Our first application Hello, World!

• The problem
• Show a window that says Hello, World!
• The solution
• Display a label in the center of a form
• Set the labels text to Hello, World!
• (Actually no coding involved!)
• Lets code, build, and run it!

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Our first application Hello, World!

• Create a new project (as shown previously)
• Drag Label from the Toolbox onto Form1 in the
  form designer
• This creates a control called Label1
• Make sure Label1 is selected
• In Properties, change the Text property from
  Label1 to Hello, World! and press Enter
• In Properties, change the Font property so that
  the text size is 26 point
• In the form designer, reposition Label1 so that
  it is centered
• File ? Save All
• Enter Hello World as the projects name
• Click the Run button (looks like a Play icon
  on a DVD player green triangle pointing to the
  right)

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Hello, World Kazakhi-style!

• Download this image to your desktop
• http//web.bvu.edu/faculty/shepherd/im/borat.gif
• Add a PictureBox to the form
• Click on the Tasks button on the PictureBox to
  display a drop down menu
• Click Choose Image on the Tasks drop down menu
  and choose the image you downloaded to your
  desktop
• Using the Tasks drop down menu again, choose
  AutoSize for Size Mode
• Resize the image and the form so it all fits
  nicely
• Change Label1 to read Jagshemash!
• Run it!

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Lets digress

• Naming controls
• How programmer refers to controls in code
• Set the Name property in the Properties dialog
• Name must begin with a letter, be less than 215
  characters long, and may include numbers and
  letters
• Use appropriate 3-letter naming prefix
• Use camel case

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Control Name Prefixes
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Renaming a Form

• Initial name is Form1
• The Solution Explorer window lists a file named
  Form1.vb.
• To rename the form, right click on the file name,
  choose rename, and change the name of this file
  to newName.vb
• newName should begin with prefix frm.

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Fonts

• Proportional width fonts take up less space for
  "I" than for "W" like Microsoft Sans Serif
• Fixed-width fonts take up the same amount of
  space for each character like Courier New
• Fixed-width fonts are good for tables.
• They make columns line up

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Positioning Controls
Proximity line
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Aligning Controls
Snap line
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Aligning Controls
Snap line