New to Development

If you are completely new to development, this page provides the learning materials necessary for you to begin developing with Visual Basic. You’ll find the resources that will help you get your first applications built quickly no matter what your background is. Using Visual Basic within Visual Studio, you can rapidly develop Windows-based applications, Web-based or ASP.NET applications, Mobile applications, or Office solutions. No matter what type of application you need to build, you can leverage your knowledge of Visual Basic to effectively develop solutions to your business problems.

If you are an experienced Visual Basic 6.0 developer, you might want to also check out the Coexisting with Visual Basic 6.0 or the Migration topics for additional information.

Learning the Basics

Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 is the fastest and easiest way to create programs for Microsoft Windows, the web, mobile devices, and Microsoft Office applications.

Even if you are new to programming, with Visual Basic you have a complete set of tools to simplify development. So what is Visual Basic? "Visual" refers to the method used to create what the user sees—the graphical user interface, or GUI. "Basic" refers to the BASIC (Beginners All-Purpose Symbolic Instruction Code) programming language, a language used by more programmers than any other language in the history of computing. You can create useful programs by learning just a few of its features.

Microsoft Learning has put together two free skills assessments to help you evaluate what areas you need to focus on and provide additional learning resources. You are encouraged to take Microsoft Windows-based Client Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 and Web-Based Client Development with Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Visual Basic 2005.

Programming Concepts

What exactly is a programming language? We have provided some quick tutorials to give you some background on what a language is and how it stores different types of information.

• The Basics: How Programming Works
• Representing Words, Numbers, and Values with Variables
• Words and Text: Using String Variables to Organize Words
• Arrays: Variables That Represent More Than One Value
• Arithmetic: Creating Expressions With Variables And Operators
• Comparisons: Using Expressions to Compare Values
• Making Your Computer Do Something: Writing Your First Procedure
• Making Your Program Repeat Actions: Looping With the For...Next Loop
• Making Your Program Choose Between Two Possibilities: The If...Then Statement
• What To Do When Something Goes Wrong: Handling Errors

While a knowledge of object-oriented development is not required to work with Visual Basic, this short overview, Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming, will introduce you to some of the basic concepts and will help you better understand and work with Visual Basic.

.NET Framework

To start learning about developing applications for Visual Basic, it is important to first get a tour and an understanding of the .NET Framework that provides underlying platform, libraries, and run time services. While you don't need to be an expert in the .NET Framework to be a successful Visual Basic developer, and tools such as Visual Studio assist you and make you highly productive, it is good to have an understanding of the foundation you will be building on later.

• .NET Framework Conceptual Overview
• Microsoft .NET Framework Primer for Visual Basic Developers
• Lesson 7: Getting to Know the .NET Framework - Absolute Beginner's Video Series to Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions

Development Environments

While you could write your entire Visual Basic application in Notepad, this is hardly practical. Modern tools, called an Integrated Development Environment or IDE, make developers more productive and allow them to write better code in less time. Visual Studio is the IDE of choice for developing applications for the .NET Framework. Visual Basic is a development language that is used to write code inside of Visual Studio. It does not matter if you are writing code in Visual Basic, C#, or any other language in Visual Studio, many of the features, such as debugging, work the same across all languages. Before we start learning about the Visual Basic language we will be using, let's take a few minutes to learn more about Visual Studio.

• Visual Studio 2005 Integrated Development Environment
• Visual Basic "How Do I" Videos demonstrate many Visual Basic programming techniques
• View numerous short clips about using Visual Studio at VB@The Movies

In addition, Microsoft also offers a low-cost development environment called Visual Basic Express that is designed for hobbyists, students, and novices. For more product information or to download Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition, you can visit the Express product pages. To learn about using Express, you can spend a bit of time with the following resources:

• Lesson 1: Getting Started with Visual Studio 2005 Express Edition - Absolute Beginner's Video Series to Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions

For a complete list of the differences between the various version of Visual Studio and Visual Studio Express view the Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Studio 2005 Edition Comparison.

Learning More

Now that you have an understanding of the underlying platform, the .NET Framework, and the development environment, Visual Studio, it's time to start writing some Visual Basic code.

For a complete, step-by-step guide to building your first application and other programming tasks, it is highly suggested that you work through the 16-part Absolute Beginner's Video Series to Visual Studio 2005 Express Editions. While this video series is shown in the Express IDE, every concept that is presented here will apply to those developers using the Professional versions of Visual Studio.

For more information on software development with Visual Basic you can view the Supplemental Readings for the Absolute Beginner's series.

In addition, the Visual Basic help contains a good step-by-step guide titled Creating Your First Visual Basic Program that will teach you to build a simple application for viewing Web pages.

The remainder of the learning topic will focus on resources to assist you in learning the various types of applications and solutions that you can develop with Visual Studio. Feel free to learn more about the solution types that interest you.

Developing Windows Forms Applications

Developing Web-based or ASP.NET Applications

Developing for Mobile Devices

Developing Office Solutions