VB.NET is an object oriented programming language. This means it stores data in the form of objects. This article will cover just the very basics of VB.NET. Assuming a basic concept of the IDE and how to create controls.
What .NET is
.NET is a library of different functions that runs in a CLR (Common Language Runtime). This means that any of the .NET languages that exist such as VB.NET, C#.NET, C++.NET, F#.NET, ASP.NET and so on can all access the same libraries.
The library of code has been compiled so that any of the aforementioned languages can access and utilise the commands within it. By learning Visual Basic or C# in this form, developing software or websites (with ASP.NET) can be achieved. This tutorial will focus solely on software development, but there will be an ASP.NET tutorial to come.
Objects and Controls
As with many object-oriented languages, the Object
is the base class in .NET. Everything that is defined with a type (covered in the next article) is
derived from the Object class (more on classes later too).
A Control is a type of Object, but it can be placed on the form designer. For instance, a button is a control which has many different properties and methods behind it. The section of this tutorial named "Building a graphical interface" goes in to detail about this.
