Notes

Outline

New Language Features of Visual Basic® .NET?

Agenda Design goals for Visual Basic .NET Building the next generation of applications The Basic language and compiler

VB.NET Language Goals Modernize Simplify Reduce programming errors Full access to .NET Framework

The .NET Framework Visual Basic .NET apps are built on the Framework

Web Forms And ASP+ Simplified development of scalable Web applications Application services in ASP+ Authentication, Caching, State Services The best of Web Classes and ASP Web Forms separates UI and code Familiar development model Full, compiled Visual Basic language Target any browser on any platform

Win Forms A powerful framework for writing Windows applications Visual inheritance Secure and low TCO Integrates with Web Services RAD control creation Accessibility support built in In-place menu editor!

"Win Forms" Win Forms

RAD Web Services The third generation of code reuse VBXs, COM, now Web Services Creation is easy! “WebMethod” Subs and Functions Visual Studio automatically publishes to the Web Drag and drop consumption Discovery via Server Explorer, Web References As simple as calling a method

RAD For The Server Easily build scalable server components Visually compose business objects Manage enterprise wide programmer resources Scalable, transacted, cross-machine, and cross-platform messaging Efficient scheduling Configure and diagnose your production applications

"RAD For the Server" RAD For the Server

Data:  ADO+ Cross-platform, scalable, multi-tier data access Scalability, interoperability by default Datasets are Visually designed or imported Disconnected and move between tiers Persisted and remoted as XML Program directly against objects Full programmatic control over modifications

XML The universal self describing language XML enables application integration The tool produces and consumes XML Datasets, Object Persistence, Web Services Visual Basic .NET makes XML easy Visually define the schema (XSD) Automatic schema inference Access-like table editing of data IntelliSense™!

"Data Bound Web Forms" Data Bound Web Forms

The Basic Language The language you already know for building .NET applications Modernized Fully Object Oriented Structured exception handling Cross-language inheritance, interoperability Powerful Free threading, OO function pointers Simplified and Consistent “Option Strict”, one type of assignment

Inheritance Reuse by composition Reuse by inheritance Inheritance features: Single base class Method and property overriding Protected access type

Inheritance And Versioning Inheriting classes easily broken when base class changes By default methods are not overridable Overriding is explicit using “Overrides” keyword “Shadows” keyword used to hide inherited members Classes can be declared as NotInheritable

Encapsulation Shared members on classes Shared between all instances of a class Previously were defined outside class in a standard module Nested Type Support Classes and other types can be encapsulated within a class Structures Support Properties, Methods, and Events Support Interfaces

Structured Error Handling Eliminates need for GoTo Supports typed exceptions Try Construct Guarded code between Try and first Catch statement Catch Statements filters on type or general condition Finally block always executed Throw statement Generates typed exception

Simple And Consistent Eliminate parameterless default properties Only one form of assignment Always use parentheses around args Fix variable declaration syntax: Dim x, y As Integer Short-circuiting And and Or operators

Writing Robust Code Parameterized constructors Variables can be initialized where declared Circular References Garbage collector recovers instances in reference cycles Decimal type replaces Currency

Robust Type Checking Option for stricter type checking Disallow Implicit conversions that may fail at runtime Disallow late-bound calls Overloaded methods supported No unexpected implicit conversions Strings and numeric Date and Boolean Array declarations must specify rank

Full Support For .NET Frameworks First-class access to framework Seamless Language Interoperability File I/O names not reserved Importing Namespaces Allows unqualified access to types Placed at file or project level

Raw Power Delegates Object oriented function pointer Points to a specific method of a specific instance Event Extensions Implemented on top of delegates Dynamic hook-up of method as handler Many events can be routed to same method Free Threading SyncLock statement for synchronization

"Free Threading" Free Threading

Performance Reference assignment for arrays Instance size much smaller Faster Object manipulation Faster creation Faster assignment Supports direct data member access

Opening Visual Basic 6.0 Projects In Visual Basic .NET Project conversion wizard Copies your Visual Basic 6.0 project Migrates most technologies Some code needs to be rewritten “TODO” comments inserted into code Report generated

Summary A first class player … Modern, Simple, Consistent, and Robust Full access to the .NET platform Your skills and investments will move forward Visual Basic .NET is much bigger than simply a new “rev” of the language!