Microsoft Visual Basic .Net 2003: Unleashed - Softcover

Dunn, Greg; Kalani, Amit; Thangarathinam, Thiru

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0672326779 ISBN 13: 9780672326776

Publisher: Sams, 2005

Synopsis

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 Unleashed is a premium reference guide and a must-have for anyone currently developing or beginning to develop .NET applications. A primer on the basic fundamentals of .NET programming is supplemented by plenty of practical application development covering virtually every aspect of .NET programming. It is a comprehensive, easy-to-use book designed to lay flat, making it an ideal desk reference. You will also receive access to an online reference tool that contains fully searchable content and code samples. Unleashed will give you the knowledge you crave to master Visual Basic .NET 2003.

About this title

About the Author

Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 UnleashedAbout the Authors

Heinrich Gantenbein is a solutions architect at Avanade specializing in .NET security, scalability, and multitier architectures. He is an expert in C#, VB .NET, Enterprise Services, and Java to .NET interoperability. Heinrich influences the future of .NET technologies through his participation in Microsoft's Preview Labs and has presented at many events, including Microsoft's Security Summit 2004, Comdex's Web Services Innovation Center, and user groups and webinars. With more than 20 years of experience in software engineering and engineering management, Heinrich combines architectural excellence and commitment to a productive development process. Before Avanade, he was a principal software architect at the .NET consulting company IDesign. Heinrich was named a BEA technical director in recognition of his work on interoperability.

Greg Dunn is the president of Instinctive Webware and Database, a software consulting and training business based in Pleasanton, California. He teaches object-oriented programming, SQL, Visual Basic, and mathematics for the University of Phoenix and has been writing database apps since the 1980s in dBase, Clipper, FoxPro, Access, and VB. He holds a Master's degree in operations research from the University of Texas at Austin.

Amit Kalani has authored or coauthored 10 programming books, including Que Certification's MCAD/MCSD Training Guides for the Microsoft Exams 70-315, 70-316, and 70-320. He is president of TechContent Corporation, where he provides contract programming, consulting, and training services. Amit lives in Michigan and can be reached at amit@techcontent.com.

Chris Payne has had a passion for computers and writing from a young age. He holds a Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering from Boston University, and he supported himself through college as an independent consultant and writer of technical articles focused on web development. He currently makes his home with his wife, Eva, in Orlando, Florida, where he works as a web developer and is continuing his career as an author of both technical and fictional material.

Thiru Thangarathinam works at Intel Corporation in Chandler, Arizona. He specializes in architecting, designing, and developing distributed enterprise-class applications using .NET-related technologies. He has coauthored a number of books in .NET-related technologies as well and has been a frequent contributor to leading technology-related online publications. He can be reached at thiru.thangarathinam@intel.com.

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Introduction

Introduction

Overview of Visual Basic (VB)

Before the arrival of VB, programming (especially user interface programming) involved tedious work to understand the minute internals of processor and operating systems. This refers not to the early days of computing in the 1960s, but to the late 1980s and 1990s. The tasks were achieved with primitive (by today's standards) languages such as C and Pascal or with overly complex languages such as C++. The libraries exposed details of the underlying operating system, such as message queues and WinProcs in Windows 3.1.

VB together with ActiveX controls changed this by introducing a simple environment to create user interfaces with little effort. The programming model was indeed so simple that it enabled many untrained programmers to enter the field and produced an explosion of useful (and some not-so-useful) programs for Windows. Many geeks argued that this development decreased the overall quality and maintainability. Although this is likely true, the huge increase in productivity outweighed the downside. However, this model of programming worked best for standalone programs and simple client/server systems.

Meanwhile, the geeks also wanted productivity increases to keep up with the demand for more complex programs, so Microsoft introduced Visual C++ and MFC, which was a great improvement. Unfortunately, this new environment was based on C++, a language so complex that even seasoned engineers produced bad mistakes. Sun invented a new, simpler language called Java, which eliminated many C++ pitfalls. Microsoft initially supported this language as a solution to the problem of complexity with COM and C++. However, the old rivalries between Sun and Microsoft soon surfaced again, and Microsoft's support of Java descended this temporary alliance into a legal mud fight. Whose fault that was has been argued endlessly, and the arguments undoubtedly will continue for a long time.

VB had moved on and made the initial concept even more powerful. However, the language provided a glass ceiling for the kind of programs that could be reasonably written.

Visual Basic .NET (and C#)

Microsoft had three systems: the simple but limited VB; the overly complex and powerful C++; and the reasonably complex Java, which was stopped by legal issues. The desire was to combine the power of C++ without its pitfalls, the language simplicity of Java, and the unbeatable simplicity of working in VB. At the same time, the concept of web-connected applications emerged (this was later known as web services). Thus was born the idea for Microsoft .NET.

In .NET, all languages are created equal. For example, VB .NET can do everything C# can. Both are fully object-oriented, support component-oriented development, and enable developing everything from simple Windows and web applications to complex multitier distributed systems. The power of .NET is achieved through the shared .NET Framework and its common language runtime, which allows for binary components that can be shared by all .NET-compliant languages.

Visual Basic .NET 2003 Unleashed

Despite the parity of language capabilities between C# and VB.NET, many geeks consider VB.NET programmers to be second-rate programmers. This is unfair to many because bad programming is not the exclusive domain of programmers who use a specific programming language.

The vision was to write a book that enables VB .NET (and VB6) programmers to take full advantage of the new capabilities for writing high-quality advanced software, while continuing the unprecedented productivity inherent in VB.

If you master the material in this book, your understanding of .NET and your command of its capabilities will exceed that of the vast majority of .NET programmers—including those whose language of choice is C#.

How This Book Is Organized

This book covers the entire breadth of .NET, from fundamentals to Enterprise Services. At the end of each chapter, a suggested reading list is included, to deepen your already considerable knowledge. This book has nine parts.

Part I: Fundamentals

You will learn the fundamentals of .NET Framework and its evolution. Additionally, you will learn about concepts of .NET Framework such as the common language runtime, the class library, object-oriented programming in .NET, and .NET Framework data types.

Part II: Windows Forms Applications

Windows Forms technology is the cornerstone for creating Windows applications in .NET. In this section, you will learn about Windows-based applications such as Windows Forms controls, drawing techniques, deployment techniques, printing and graphics, and advanced Windows Forms techniques.

Part III: Database Programming

After an introduction to the most important ADO.NET classes, you will be guided through a thorough dissection of code produced by the Data Form Wizard, illustrating important points not only about the design of data-aware applications, but also, more generally, of Windows Forms. You will then be introduced to working with SQL Server databases from within Visual Studio. Next, you will dive deep into data binding—radically redesigned in Visual Studio .NET—to discover its reborn power and flexibility. Finally, you will learn how to produce and consume XML representations of data and data schemas using the ADO.NET classes.

Part IV: Web Applications (ASP.NET)

ASP.NET provides a greatly enhanced paradigm for building web applications. You will learn the fundamentals of applications distributed over the Internet and also learn how to leverage the powerful .NET common language runtime and VB .NET to create everything from simple data-driven websites to complex applications that go deeper into server technologies than ever.

Part V: Advanced Programming

The .NET Framework enables you to develop robust and scalable applications. In this part of the book, you'll learn about advanced programming features such as versioning and the Global Assembly Cache, IO and persistence, events and delegates, multithreading, and reflection.

The .NET Framework also supports interoperability with the existing COM code. In this part, you will learn how to take advantage of the interoperability feature to migrate your existing applications to Visual Basic .NET.

Part VI: Securing Applications

You will learn how to use .NET Code Access Security (CAS) to prevent bad code from attacking good code, and to sandbox code from untrusted or partially trusted sources. Additionally, you will learn how to use role-based security to defend your application from unauthorized users.

Part VII: Remoting

You will learn how to write distributed components that behave almost the same as local components. This is only the first of three methods of writing distributed systems, and it is the weakest of the set.

Part VIII: Web Services

Web Services enables you to develop distributed applications that work across heterogeneous environments and over the Internet. In this part, you will learn how to create your own web services and how to make use of web services available from other vendors. You will also learn how to take advantage of the web service enhancements to customize and secure your web services.

Part IX: Enterprise Services

Enterprise Services are the most robust way to program distributed systems. You will learn how to program serviced components, correctly request services, deploy components, and administer deployed components. You will learn each service used for scalability, transactions, loosely coupled systems, concurrency protection, and security.

How to Use This Book

At the beginning of each chapter you will find a "What You Need" section that will outline the minimum requirements, in terms of hardware, software, and skills to obtain maximum benefit the chapter. Immediately following this section w...

About this edition

• Publisher: Sams
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0672326779
• ISBN 13: 9780672326776
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 1098
• Editor: Gantenbein Heinrich