Welcome to Visual Basic 6

Introduction
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Visual Basic is an enjoyable language due to its visual environment. Much of building a Windows program in Visual Basic requires dragging and dropping graphic objects onto the screen from a toolbox which houses those objects. Your Windows program appears before your eyes as you add the objects. Visual Basic is one of the first programming languages to incorporate a true WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) environment. The program that you build looks like the program your users see when they run the program from Windows.
QBasic is a language supplied with PCs for years, but QBasic offers only a slow, text-based MS-DOS programming environment. Despite its archaic text-based mode, the QBasic language provides a wonderful introduction to Visual Basic because Visual Basic’s programming language is an extension of QBasic. Some people want to program but have never programmed in any other language before, so not only is Visual Basic brand new but so is the nature of programming.
Visual Basic is much more than just a programming language. The programming language forms the background of all that takes place in a running Visual Basic program. Nevertheless, the language is a secondary
consideration to the user interface. A Windows program offers a high degree of user interaction using the graphical elements that form the objects on the window the user sees. If the user interface is not correct, users will not like the program. The programmer will get more support phone calls. The users will be hesitant to upgrade to future program enhancements.
The application of VB is as :
• Building a useful user interface
• Using the Application Wizard to generate a program shell instantly
• Writing Visual Basic code in clear constructs to make the code run smoothly
• Understanding the most common tools used in the Visual Basic environment
• Mastering the art of getting the errors out of a Visual Basic program
• Incorporated database technology into your Visual Basic programs
• Embedding Internet access in the heart of your programs to put your users online to the Web
• Providing external ActiveX controls so that Visual Basic can use tools from other languages and Windows applications
• Using Visual Basic’s ability to create brand new ActiveX controls so that you can increase Visual Basic’s programmability and the tools that your users interact with by making your own interface objects
• Accessing the online help engine in Visual Basic so that the programs that you write are accessible to your users and offer the help services that your users require
• Creating graphics to add pizzazz to the screens that you design
• Using common dialog boxes so that your users can access the typical features they expect in a Windows application
• Putting toolbars and coolbars in your programs so that your users have one-button access to the common commands and tasks they require
• Mastering the art of programming the Windows API routines so that you can implement Windows features not normally found inside Visual Basic
• Improving the enjoyment of the programs that you write by adding multimedia sound and graphics to your Windows programs