21-08-2012, 03:28 PM
Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Projects for the Classroom
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Introduction to the Visual Basic .NET edition
The original version of this book was released in 1998 in both print and web
versions. The version of Visual Basic at that time was 5.0. No changes were
required for Visual Basic version 6.0 which followed. The projects in this book
continued to be used by teachers in classrooms around the world.
Visual Basic .NET, also called Visual Basic 7.0, is a major change in the way
Visual Basic programs are designed and programmed. The differences go far
beyond the significant changes to the Interactive Development Environment.
These changes suggested the need to update this book, especially the
Instructors Notes, to reflect the programming changes required by changes to the
Visual Basic .NET language.
All screen captures were created with Visual Studio .NET running on the
Windows XP operating system. The sample solutions, available through
editor[at]mainfunction.com, were written from the beginning using Visual Studio
.NET and were not upgrades from solutions written in earlier versions of Visual
Basic. This was done to insure that all solutions were pure .NET implementations
rather then carrying old paradigms into a new architecture.
Why we have done these books.
This book includes a set of Visual Basic .NET projects available through
Mainfunction.com. This book is designed to supplement and enhance existing
and developing curriculum at the secondary and post secondary level.
There is a growing need for trained programmers in the work force. Visual Basic
is one of the programming languages in highest demand. Some companies are
paying bonuses for trained Visual Basic programmers. More and more schools
recognize the need for Visual Basic training for School to Work programs and are
developing courses to fill that need. College preparatory schools are finding that
Visual Basic is an ideal first programming language for their students.
In any programming course, there is a need to projects that both develop
necessary skills and hold student interest. The projects in this book are designed
to supply additional projects for instructors to use.
TEACHING SUGGESTIONS:
Most introductory programming texts use temperature conversion as an early
project or example. Asking a student to write a simple input a number, convert
the value and display the result program is that it does not really use the power of
the computer. This project uses scroll bars as an input device to make the
example more visually interesting and to introduce a powerful user interface tool.
The student may set the initial value of the bar either in the property box at
design time or in the form load routine with an assignment statement. Unless the
student includes program code at form load, the label boxes will not display the
results of a conversion until the scroll bar is moved. This can be a useful
introduction to concepts of initialization in general.
Scroll bars must have their minimum and maximum values set to work properly
with this project. The minimum value is set at the top of the bar. The maximum is
at the bottom. This is the opposite of what one sees with a thermometer. Unlike
earlier versions of Visual Basic, Visual Basic .NET does not allow a programmer
to set the minimum value larger then the maximum value. This means that a user
will see lower temperatures at the top of the scrollbar and higher temperatures at
the bottom of the scrollbar unless the program changes the value of the scrollbar
before it displays the temperature it represents.