COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES

PREPARED BY: P. FERNANDEZ, A.K. RACELIS

Computer Programming
2
VISUAL STUDIO IDE
Visual Studio IDE
Visual Studio is a powerful and customizable programming
environment that contains all the tools you need to build
programs quickly and efficiently.
It offers a set of tools that help you write and modify the code
for your programs, and also detect and correct errors in your
programs.
Integrated Development Environment
1. Menu Bar
2. Standard Toolbar
3. ToolBox
4. Forms Designer
5. Output Window
6. Solution Explorer
7. Properties Window
Visual Studio IDE
Visual Basic.NET IDE is built out of a collection of different
windows.
Some windows are used for writing code, some for designing
interfaces, and others for getting a general overview of files or
classes in your application.
Visual Studio organizes your work in projects and solutions. A
solution can contain more than one project, such as a DLL and
an executable that references that DLL.
Getting to know the IDE - Visual Basic .NET
This lesson describes some of the most important Visual Studio
features.
Please notice that the Visual Studio IDE is extremely customizable which
means that you can move, hide, or modify the menus, toolbars, and
windows.
You can create your own toolbars and then dock, undock, or
rearrange them. Finally you can change the behavior of the built-in text
editors and much more.
However as beginner you should probably not customize the IDE's basic
menus and toolbars too much because it will only cause confusion later.
The New Project dialog
Use the Project Types tree view on the
left to select the project category that
you want.
After that select a specific project type
on the right (as you see we have
selected the Windows Forms
Application project type).
Finally set the location (default is My
Documents), enter a name for the new
project and click OK to create the
project.
The Toolbox window
The Toolbox window displays tools that you could use
with the currently active document.
These tools are available when you are editing an item
that can contain objects such as controls and
components.
The Properties window
The Properties window allows you to view and
modify the properties of the form and of the
controls that it contains.
The small icons below the dropdown determine
what items are displayed in the window and how
they are arranged.
For example if you click the leftmost button, the
window lists properties grouped by category and if
you click the second icon that holds the letters A and Z,
the window lists the control's
properties alphabetically.
The Solution Explorer
The Solution Explorer lets you manage the files
associated with the current solution.
For example, you could select LoginForm.vb in the
Solution Explorer and then click the View Code button
(the third icon from the right at the top of the Solution
Explorer) to open the form's code editor.
You can also right-click an object in the Solution
Explorer to get a list of appropriate commands for that
object.
This window makes it easier to find a command by
right-clicking an object related to whatever you want
to do than it is to wander through the menus.
The Error List window
The Error List window shows errors and warnings in the current project.
For example, if the code contains invalid character, this list will say so. It's extremly
useful as it clearly tells you the type of the error(s) showing a full description, file
name, line and everything else that helps you easily find and fix the error.
If you don't see the Error List it is
probably hidden. You can display it
by selecting the appropriate item in
the View menu.
The Output window
The Output window displays compilation results and output printed by the
application.
Usually an application interacts with the user
through its forms and dialog boxes, but it can
display information here, usually to help
you debug the code.
The Output window also shows informational
messages generated by the IDE.
For example, when you compile an
application, the IDE sends messages here to
tell you what it is doing and whether it
succeeded.
The Windows Forms Designer
The Windows Forms Designer allows
you to design forms for typical
Windows applications.
It lets you add, size, and move controls
on a form using your mouse.
Together with the Properties window,
it lets you view and modify control
properties, and create event handlers
to interact with the controls.
The Visual Basic Code Editor
You use the Visual Basic Code Editor to write
a code that responds to control events.
The most obvious feature of the code editor
is that it lets you type code, but the code
editor is far more than a simple text
editor such as Notepad.
It provides many features to make writing
correct Visual Basic code much easier.
For example you can create an event
handler within the code editor. The upper
left part of the code editor displays a drop-
down listing all the controls.