Table of ContentsVisual Basic .NET The Complete Reference...................................................................................................1

Foreword..............................................................................................................................................................3 Acknowledgments...................................................................................................................................6

Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................8 Chapter 1...............................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 2...............................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 3...............................................................................................................................................10 Chapter 4...............................................................................................................................................11 Chapter 5...............................................................................................................................................11 Chapter 6...............................................................................................................................................12 Chapter 7...............................................................................................................................................12 Chapter 8...............................................................................................................................................12 Chapter 9...............................................................................................................................................12 Chapter 10.............................................................................................................................................13 Chapter 11.............................................................................................................................................13 Chapter 12.............................................................................................................................................13 Chapter 13.............................................................................................................................................13 Chapter 14.............................................................................................................................................14 Chapter 15.............................................................................................................................................14 Chapter 16.............................................................................................................................................14 Chapter 17.............................................................................................................................................15 Conventions..........................................................................................................................................15

Part I: Introduction to Visual Basic .NET.....................................................................................................16Chapter List............................................................................................................................................16

Chapter 1: Software Development and Visual Basic .NET..........................................................................17 Overview...............................................................................................................................................17 Visual Basic and the Difficulty of Developing Software.....................................................................17

Reducing Complexity and Time−to−Market with Reuse..............................................................18 Software Development and Software Engineering...............................................................................18 The Classic Programming Models........................................................................................................19 Structured Programming.......................................................................................................................20

Bug−Reduced Code........................................................................................................................21 Divide and Conquer........................................................................................................................21 Reuse..............................................................................................................................................21 Teaming..........................................................................................................................................22 Structural Nada?.............................................................................................................................22 Object−Based Programming..........................................................................................................22

Object−Oriented Software Development..............................................................................................22 Real−World Reflections.......................................................................................................................24 What Makes a Pure Object−Oriented Language..................................................................................25

Just Classes.....................................................................................................................................25 Classes for Modularity, Cohesion, and Coupling...........................................................................26 Classes for Abstraction...................................................................................................................27 Classes for Encapsulation...............................................................................................................27 Classes for Hiding Information......................................................................................................27 Classes for Classification...............................................................................................................28

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Table of Contents Chapter 1: Software Development and Visual Basic .NET

Class that Beget Classes: Inheritance.............................................................................................29 Classes for Objects: Instantiation...................................................................................................29 Classes for Association, Aggregation, and Composition...............................................................29 Classes for Events..........................................................................................................................30 Classes for Message Passing..........................................................................................................30 Classes for Polymorphism..............................................................................................................30 Classes for Interfaces......................................................................................................................31

Frameworks...........................................................................................................................................31 Patterns..................................................................................................................................................32 Observations.........................................................................................................................................33

Chapter 2: Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Framework............................................................................34 Overview...............................................................................................................................................34 Getting to Know the Framework's Runtime.........................................................................................35

The Common Type System............................................................................................................35 The Common Language Specification...........................................................................................36

The Common Language Runtime.........................................................................................................38 Microsoft Intermediate Language..................................................................................................40 Metadata.........................................................................................................................................41 Executable Code.............................................................................................................................42 Managed Execution........................................................................................................................42 Side−by−Side Execution................................................................................................................44 Application Domains......................................................................................................................44 Automatic Memory Management..................................................................................................45 Just−in−Time Deployment.............................................................................................................46

Understanding Assemblies....................................................................................................................47 Locating Assemblies, Anytime......................................................................................................48 What's in an Assembly...................................................................................................................49 The Roles of the Assembly............................................................................................................53 Attributes, Reflection, and Assemblies..........................................................................................55 Strong Names.................................................................................................................................55

The .NET Security Model.....................................................................................................................56 Observations.........................................................................................................................................58

Part II: Visual Basic .NET Fundamentals.....................................................................................................60Chapter List............................................................................................................................................60

Chapter 3: The Visual Basic .NET Development Environment..................................................................61 Overview...............................................................................................................................................61 Working with the Visual Studio IDE....................................................................................................61

Navigating the IDE.........................................................................................................................62 Starting from the Start Page...........................................................................................................69

Creating a Visual Basic .NET Solution................................................................................................72 Loading the Vb7cr Solution...........................................................................................................73 Creating a New Project...................................................................................................................73 Solution Directory Structure..........................................................................................................76 File Extensions...............................................................................................................................76 Working with the Base−Class Library...........................................................................................77 A Minimal Visual Basic .NET Application...................................................................................80

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Table of Contents Chapter 3: The Visual Basic .NET Development Environment

Observations.........................................................................................................................................82

Chapter 4: The Elements of Visual Basic .NET............................................................................................83 Overview...............................................................................................................................................83 Visual Basic .NET: The Foundation.....................................................................................................83

Lexical Elements............................................................................................................................83 Preprocessing Directives................................................................................................................84 General Concepts...........................................................................................................................84 Option, Imports, and Namespaces Directives................................................................................84 Types..............................................................................................................................................85 Type Members................................................................................................................................85 Statements and Statement Blocks...................................................................................................86 Expressions.....................................................................................................................................86 Operators........................................................................................................................................87

Visual Basic .NET Mini Style Guide....................................................................................................88 Naming and Notation.....................................................................................................................88 Hungarian Notation........................................................................................................................89 Word Choice...................................................................................................................................90

Getting Started......................................................................................................................................90 Character and Lines........................................................................................................................91 Statements and Blocks....................................................................................................................95 Nothing for Nothing or Something for Nothing.............................................................................96

Classes, Types, and Objects: What's the Difference?...........................................................................97 Classes: The View from Above............................................................................................................98

The Class Declaration Space..........................................................................................................99 The Directive Space.....................................................................................................................102 The Implementation Space...........................................................................................................109 Elemental Value Types................................................................................................................110

Working with Numbers.......................................................................................................................112 Integer Types................................................................................................................................112 Visual Basic 6 to Visual Basic .NET...........................................................................................113

Point Types.........................................................................................................................................113 Characters...........................................................................................................................................114 Booleans..............................................................................................................................................114 Literal Notation...................................................................................................................................115 Type Conversion.................................................................................................................................118 Working with Variables and Constants..............................................................................................120

Variable and Constant Declaration Shorthand.............................................................................124 Default Initialization.....................................................................................................................125 Keeping Data Private....................................................................................................................126 Scope............................................................................................................................................128 Variable and Constant Lifetimes..................................................................................................129

Observations.......................................................................................................................................131

Chapter 5: Visual Basic .NET Operators....................................................................................................133 Overview.............................................................................................................................................133 What an Operator Does.......................................................................................................................133 Numbering Systems Reviewed...........................................................................................................134

Positional Notation.......................................................................................................................135

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Table of Contents Chapter 5: Visual Basic .NET Operators

Converting from One System to Another.....................................................................................136 Operator Precedence...........................................................................................................................138

Changing Precedence Order with Parenthesis..............................................................................139 Unary Operators..................................................................................................................................140 Arithmetic Operators..........................................................................................................................141 Assignment Operators.........................................................................................................................141 Comparison Operators........................................................................................................................143 Concatenation Operator......................................................................................................................144 Logical Operators................................................................................................................................144

Logical And, Or, and Xor.............................................................................................................145 Short−Circuit Logical Operators..................................................................................................146

Bitwise Operators................................................................................................................................147Flag Sets........................................................................................................................................148Shifting Bits...................................................................................................................................150

Specialized Operators.........................................................................................................................154 Is...................................................................................................................................................155 Like...............................................................................................................................................155

Operator Overloading.........................................................................................................................156 Exceptions Referenced in this Chapter...............................................................................................158 Observations.......................................................................................................................................158

Chapter 6: Software Design, Conditional Structures, and Control Flow.................................................159 Overview.............................................................................................................................................159 Control Structures...............................................................................................................................160 Control Flow.......................................................................................................................................160 Fully Sketched Code...........................................................................................................................162

Step−Form Notation.....................................................................................................................162 Pseudocode...................................................................................................................................162 Nassi−Schneiderman Charts........................................................................................................162 Flowcharts....................................................................................................................................163 Design Pitfalls..............................................................................................................................164

Conditional Statements.......................................................................................................................165 If...................................................................................................................................................165 Else...............................................................................................................................................168 Else If...........................................................................................................................................168 Tips for Else and Else If...............................................................................................................169 Select Case...................................................................................................................................171 GoTo.............................................................................................................................................173 OnError.........................................................................................................................................174

Loops..................................................................................................................................................174 DoLoop.........................................................................................................................................174 For. . . Next...................................................................................................................................175 For Each . . . Next.........................................................................................................................176 While............................................................................................................................................177

One or the Other Conditional Functions.............................................................................................177 Choose..........................................................................................................................................177 IIF.................................................................................................................................................178 Switch...........................................................................................................................................178

Pausing, Resuming, and Exiting Iteration..........................................................................................179

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Table of Contents Chapter 6: Software Design, Conditional Structures, and Control Flow

Exit Idiosyncrasies.......................................................................................................................180 Observations.......................................................................................................................................181

Chapter 7: Methods.......................................................................................................................................182 Overview.............................................................................................................................................182 What Is a Method................................................................................................................................182

Types of Methods.........................................................................................................................184 Synchronous vs. Asynchronous Method Calls.............................................................................184

Method Data........................................................................................................................................185 Method Data: Global vs. Local....................................................................................................187 Local Declarations........................................................................................................................188 Passing Arguments to Parameters................................................................................................190 Calling Methods...........................................................................................................................194 Function or Sub Methods.............................................................................................................196

Method Access Characteristics...........................................................................................................198Public Methods..............................................................................................................................199Protected Methods.........................................................................................................................200Friend.............................................................................................................................................200Protected Friend............................................................................................................................200Private Methods.............................................................................................................................201 Controlling Polymorphism Characteristics of Methods...............................................................201

Mining the Framework's Methods......................................................................................................205 The Methods of System.Math.............................................................................................................206

Programming with the Math Class...............................................................................................208 Math−Related Exceptions............................................................................................................210

Properties............................................................................................................................................211 Properties vs. Fields.....................................................................................................................213 Properties vs. Methods.................................................................................................................214

Introduction to Exception Handling....................................................................................................214 The Exception Handler.................................................................................................................216 Try Catch Blocks.........................................................................................................................217

Design and Construction of Methods.................................................................................................218 Class and Method Cohesion.........................................................................................................220 Method Coupling..........................................................................................................................222 The Length of a Method...............................................................................................................222

Recursive Design of Methods.............................................................................................................223 The Base Case..............................................................................................................................224 The Stopping Condition...............................................................................................................225 The Impact of Recursion..............................................................................................................226

Understanding Method Performance..................................................................................................227 Observations.......................................................................................................................................231

Part III: Classes and Objects........................................................................................................................232Chapter List..........................................................................................................................................232

Chapter 8: Types, Structures, and Enumerations......................................................................................233 Overview.............................................................................................................................................233 The Value−Type Model......................................................................................................................233

How Value Types Work...............................................................................................................235

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Table of Contents Chapter 8: Types, Structures, and Enumerations

Boxing..........................................................................................................................................236 Why are Value Types Objects?....................................................................................................238 Structs and Enums Ahoy: Creating New Value Types................................................................239

Structures............................................................................................................................................240 Structure Behavior........................................................................................................................246

Enumerations......................................................................................................................................248 Working with System.Enum........................................................................................................250 Flags.............................................................................................................................................253 Final Words on Enums.................................................................................................................255

The Object−Reference Model.............................................................................................................256Null Reference...............................................................................................................................261What the Reference Refers To......................................................................................................262 The Object−Reference Model and Equality, Comparison, and Assignment...............................262

Observations.......................................................................................................................................263

Chapter 9: Classes..........................................................................................................................................265 Overview.............................................................................................................................................265 Getting the Semantics Correct............................................................................................................266

Of Classes and Types...................................................................................................................267 Semantics and Notation................................................................................................................267

Modeling.............................................................................................................................................267 Software Modeling.......................................................................................................................268 Viewpoints....................................................................................................................................269 Unified Modeling Language........................................................................................................271 UML Diagrams.............................................................................................................................272 UML Notation for Class Diagrams..............................................................................................273 UML Notation for Class Relationships........................................................................................274

Modularity..........................................................................................................................................274 Modularity Metrics: Coupling and Cohesion...............................................................................275

The Classes Are the System................................................................................................................275 Class Characteristics...........................................................................................................................278 In the Beginning Abstract Classes.....................................................................................................279

Factoring Out Commonality.........................................................................................................280 The Members of Abstract Classes................................................................................................281

Inheritance...........................................................................................................................................282 Inheritance and Polymorphism.....................................................................................................284 Inheritance and Coupling.............................................................................................................284 Multiple Inheritance.....................................................................................................................285 Order and Control with Inheritance..............................................................................................286 Reduction of Complexity.............................................................................................................287 Maintenance.................................................................................................................................288 Code Reuse...................................................................................................................................288

Implementing a Space Ship's Fuel Injector Software.........................................................................289 Instance Fields..............................................................................................................................290 Instance Constructors...................................................................................................................292 Properties......................................................................................................................................293 Methods........................................................................................................................................295 Publishing the ShuttleInjector Class.............................................................................................297 Activating the ShuttleInjector Class.............................................................................................298

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Table of Contents Chapter 9: Classes

The Inherited Members of Object.......................................................................................................300 Testing for Reference Equality with Equals.................................................................................300 ToString........................................................................................................................................301 Cloning.........................................................................................................................................302 GetHashCode................................................................................................................................303 GetType........................................................................................................................................303 ReferenceEquals...........................................................................................................................304 Finalize.........................................................................................................................................304

Aggregation and Composition: Reuse by Containment.....................................................................304 More Aggregation at Work: A Form for Testing................................................................................308 Ending Inheritance with Sealed Classes.............................................................................................310 Improved Performance with Shared Classes and Modules.................................................................311 Observations.......................................................................................................................................312

Chapter 10: Interfaces...................................................................................................................................313 Overview.............................................................................................................................................313 Abstraction and Interfaces in Object−Oriented Software Design......................................................313 Getting Passionate (or Radical) about Interfaces................................................................................315

Interfaces and Inheritance............................................................................................................316 Realizing the Benefits of Interfaces.............................................................................................318

Implicit Interfaces...............................................................................................................................318 Explicit Interfaces...............................................................................................................................320

Abstract Class or Explicit Interface..............................................................................................321 An Introduction to Interface Design and Implementation..................................................................322

Accessing and Using the Implementation....................................................................................324 Compound Interfaces...................................................................................................................325

Designing and Defining Interfaces.....................................................................................................327 Interfaces, Once Published, Must Not Change.............................................................................327 Interface Invariance......................................................................................................................327 Constructing the Interface............................................................................................................328 Getting Started with the Interface Definition...............................................................................329

Implementing Interfaces.....................................................................................................................331 Interface Implementation Semantics............................................................................................331 Implementing ICloneable.............................................................................................................332 Implementing IComparable..........................................................................................................333

Exceptions Covered in this Chapter....................................................................................................334 Observations.......................................................................................................................................334

Chapter 11: Exceptions: Handling and Classes..........................................................................................336 Overview.............................................................................................................................................336 Why Do We Need Exception Handling?............................................................................................337 Structured Exception Handling 101....................................................................................................337 Exception−Handling Models..............................................................................................................340

The Resumption Model................................................................................................................340 The Termination Model................................................................................................................340

Recovering from Exceptions...............................................................................................................341 Exception Statements..........................................................................................................................343

Try................................................................................................................................................343 Catch.............................................................................................................................................344

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Table of Contents Chapter 11: Exceptions: Handling and Classes

Finally...........................................................................................................................................348 When Filters.................................................................................................................................349 Nesting Try Blocks.......................................................................................................................351 Throw...........................................................................................................................................352

Exception−Handling Tips...................................................................................................................357 Creating Your Own Exception Classes...............................................................................................358

The .NET Exception Hierarchy....................................................................................................358 Choosing a Base Class from which to Inherit..............................................................................359

Observations.......................................................................................................................................362

Chapter 12: Collections, Arrays, and Other Data Structures...................................................................363 Overview.............................................................................................................................................363 NET's Array and Collections Namespace...........................................................................................364

Specialized Collections................................................................................................................366 ICollection....................................................................................................................................366 IEnumerator and IEnumerable.....................................................................................................367 IList..............................................................................................................................................367

Stacks..................................................................................................................................................367 How to Program Against a Stack.................................................................................................371

Queues.................................................................................................................................................372 How to Program Against a Queue................................................................................................374

Arrays..................................................................................................................................................376 The Array Class..................................................................................................................................377 Declaring and Initializing Arrays........................................................................................................378 Declaring Multidimensional Arrays...................................................................................................381 Jagged Arrays......................................................................................................................................381 Programming Against Arrays.............................................................................................................382

The UBound Statement................................................................................................................383 Redeclaring Arrays.......................................................................................................................384 The Erase Statement.....................................................................................................................386 The IsArray Function...................................................................................................................386

Array Exceptions................................................................................................................................386 Passing Arrays to Methods.................................................................................................................388 Receiving Arrays from Methods.........................................................................................................389 Searching and Sorting Arrays.............................................................................................................389

The BinarySearch Method............................................................................................................390 The Basics of Sorting Arrays.......................................................................................................392

Bubble Sort.........................................................................................................................................393 Partition and Merge.............................................................................................................................397 Quicksort.............................................................................................................................................401 Sorting Strings and Other Objects......................................................................................................406 Populating Arrays...............................................................................................................................407 Arrays for Objects...............................................................................................................................407 Hash Tables.........................................................................................................................................413 Observations.......................................................................................................................................417

Chapter 13: Advanced Design Concepts: Patterns, Roles, and Relationships.........................................419 Overview.............................................................................................................................................419 Designs on Classes..............................................................................................................................419

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Table of Contents Chapter 13: Advanced Design Concepts: Patterns, Roles, and Relationships

Singleton.......................................................................................................................................420 Bridge...........................................................................................................................................423 Strategy.........................................................................................................................................427 State..............................................................................................................................................429

Linked Lists and Trees........................................................................................................................433 Understanding the Linked List.....................................................................................................434 Designing a Base−Container Class for Lists (and Trees)............................................................436 Implementing the Node................................................................................................................437 Implementing the Container.........................................................................................................439 Implementing the Iterator.............................................................................................................456

Observations.......................................................................................................................................458

Chapter 14: Advanced Interface Patterns: Adapters, Delegates, and Events..........................................459 Overview.............................................................................................................................................459 Adapters and Wrappers.......................................................................................................................461 Interface Adaptation in ActionCOM− .NET Interop..........................................................................462 The Adapter Pattern in .NET..............................................................................................................465 The Adapter Pattern Event Model......................................................................................................470 Delegation: Please Help Me!..............................................................................................................471 Delegates.............................................................................................................................................475

Understanding Delegates..............................................................................................................477 Declaring the Delegate.................................................................................................................477 Early Bound Delegate Declares...................................................................................................478 Late Bound Delegate Declares.....................................................................................................479

Sorting Data with Delegates...............................................................................................................481 Multicast Delegates.............................................................................................................................484 The .NET Framework Event Model: Delegates and Events...............................................................485 Getting Ready to Wire−up: The Event Model in a Nutshell..............................................................489 Delegate Events vs. Adapter Events...................................................................................................490 Delegates vs. Function Pointers..........................................................................................................492 Observations.......................................................................................................................................493

Chapter 15: Data Processing and I/O..........................................................................................................494 Overview.............................................................................................................................................494 Data Processing...................................................................................................................................494 Working with Strings..........................................................................................................................495 Members of the String Class...............................................................................................................496

Clone............................................................................................................................................496 Compare.......................................................................................................................................497 CompareTo...................................................................................................................................497 Concat...........................................................................................................................................498 Copy.............................................................................................................................................498 CopyTo.........................................................................................................................................499 EndsWith, StartsWith...................................................................................................................499 Equals...........................................................................................................................................500 Format..........................................................................................................................................500 IndexOf, LastIndexOf..................................................................................................................501 Insert.............................................................................................................................................501 Intern, IsInterned..........................................................................................................................501

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Table of Contents Chapter 15: Data Processing and I/O

Join, Split......................................................................................................................................502 PadLeft, PadRight........................................................................................................................503 Remove.........................................................................................................................................503 Replace.........................................................................................................................................503 SubString......................................................................................................................................503 ToCharArray................................................................................................................................504 ToLower, ToUpper.......................................................................................................................504 Trim, TrimEnd, TrimStart............................................................................................................504

Classic Visual Basic String Functions................................................................................................504 String Formatting................................................................................................................................505

NumberFormatInfo.......................................................................................................................506 DateTimeFormatInfo....................................................................................................................508 Custom Formatters.......................................................................................................................510

Building Strings with StringBuilder...................................................................................................512 Capacity........................................................................................................................................513 Append.........................................................................................................................................513 AppendFormat..............................................................................................................................514 Insert.............................................................................................................................................514 Remove.........................................................................................................................................514 Replace.........................................................................................................................................515

Regular Expressions............................................................................................................................515 The .NET Framework Regex Metalanguage................................................................................517

File, Stream, and Text IO Operations.................................................................................................519 Files and Directories...........................................................................................................................520

The File Class...............................................................................................................................521 Path...............................................................................................................................................521 File Enumerations.........................................................................................................................524 Basic File Class Operations..........................................................................................................527 Directory.......................................................................................................................................529 The FileInfo Class........................................................................................................................530 DirectoryInfo................................................................................................................................531 Using the Classic File System Object..........................................................................................532 FileSystemWatcher......................................................................................................................534

Streams................................................................................................................................................537 FileStream....................................................................................................................................538 SeekOrigin Enumeration..............................................................................................................542 BufferedStream............................................................................................................................543 NetworkStream.............................................................................................................................544 CryptoStream................................................................................................................................544 MemoryStream.............................................................................................................................544

Readers and Writers............................................................................................................................545 Text Encoding..............................................................................................................................545 StringReader/StringWriter............................................................................................................546 StreamReader/StreamWriter........................................................................................................548 BinaryReader/BinaryWriter.........................................................................................................550

XML I/O.............................................................................................................................................550 Reading XML Files......................................................................................................................550 Writing XML Files with XMLTextWriter...................................................................................554

Serialization with XML......................................................................................................................557

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Table of Contents Chapter 15: Data Processing and I/O

Activating Serialization at Run Time...........................................................................................560 Observations.......................................................................................................................................561

Part IV: Writing Software with VB .NET...................................................................................................562Chapter List..........................................................................................................................................562

Chapter 16: Interfacing with the End User.................................................................................................563 Overview.............................................................................................................................................563 Windows Forms..................................................................................................................................565

A Form Is an Object.....................................................................................................................566 The System.Windows.Forms Namespace....................................................................................566 Automatically Generated Code....................................................................................................568

Introduction to Threading...................................................................................................................569 The User Interface and Thread Design.........................................................................................570 The .NET Framework's Thread Model........................................................................................571 Getting Started with Basic Threading..........................................................................................571

MDI Applications...............................................................................................................................573 Creating the MDI Parent..............................................................................................................573 Creating the MDI Children...........................................................................................................575 The Active Child..........................................................................................................................576 Arranging the Forms....................................................................................................................577 Delegating Application Startup and Shutdown............................................................................577 Keeping a Form on Top................................................................................................................578 Form Transparency.......................................................................................................................578 Modality.......................................................................................................................................579 Changing Borders.........................................................................................................................580 Changing the Size of Forms.........................................................................................................581 Screen Location............................................................................................................................581

Components and Controls...................................................................................................................583 Adding Components and Controls to Forms................................................................................583 Layout and Grouping....................................................................................................................584 Positioning Controls.....................................................................................................................588 Setting a Single Property for Multiple Controls...........................................................................589 Complex Property Pages..............................................................................................................589 Using The Property Grid..............................................................................................................590

Menus and Toolbars............................................................................................................................590 Adding Menus and Menu Items Programmatically.....................................................................590 Context−Changing Menus............................................................................................................591 Enhancing Menus.........................................................................................................................593 The Menu Class............................................................................................................................594

Responding to User Input...................................................................................................................594 Binding Events Dynamically........................................................................................................595 Hot Spots......................................................................................................................................595 Mouse and Keyboard Events........................................................................................................596 Keyboard Events..........................................................................................................................597 Using a Timer to Fire Events.......................................................................................................597

Collecting User Input..........................................................................................................................597 Buttons..........................................................................................................................................597 Edit Text Boxes............................................................................................................................598

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Table of Contents Chapter 16: Interfacing with the End User

Check Boxes.................................................................................................................................600 Radio Buttons...............................................................................................................................601 Combo Boxes...............................................................................................................................601 DomainUpDown..........................................................................................................................601 NumericUpDown.........................................................................................................................601 Date and Time Picker...................................................................................................................601 Calendar........................................................................................................................................602 A Palette.......................................................................................................................................602 List Boxes.....................................................................................................................................602 CheckedListBox...........................................................................................................................602 ListView.......................................................................................................................................603 Trackbars (Sliders).......................................................................................................................603 Toolbars........................................................................................................................................603 TreeView......................................................................................................................................603

Presentation and Informational Controls............................................................................................603 Labeling........................................................................................................................................604 LinkLabel.....................................................................................................................................604 Status Bar.....................................................................................................................................605 Icons.............................................................................................................................................605 PictureBox....................................................................................................................................605 ImageList......................................................................................................................................605 Progress Bars................................................................................................................................605 Grids.............................................................................................................................................606 ToolTip.........................................................................................................................................606 The ErrorProvider Control...........................................................................................................606 Help Provider...............................................................................................................................607 Printing Support...........................................................................................................................607

Drag and Drop.....................................................................................................................................607 Dragging Data..............................................................................................................................607 Dropping Data..............................................................................................................................608

Using the Clipboard............................................................................................................................609 Observation.........................................................................................................................................609

Chapter 17: Getting Ready to Release.........................................................................................................610 Overview.............................................................................................................................................610 Thinking in Debug Terms...................................................................................................................611 The System.Diagnostics Namespace..................................................................................................611 Enabling Debugging...........................................................................................................................615 Run−time Configuration Files............................................................................................................616

Machine Configuration File.........................................................................................................617 Application Configuration File....................................................................................................617 Security Configuration File..........................................................................................................618 Working with Configuration Files...............................................................................................618

Working with the Debug Class...........................................................................................................618 The Debug Write Methods...........................................................................................................619 Assertion.......................................................................................................................................619 Fail................................................................................................................................................622

Tracing and the Trace Class................................................................................................................623 Instrumentation.............................................................................................................................623

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Table of Contents Chapter 17: Getting Ready to Release

Understanding the Phases of Code Tracing.................................................................................624 Listening to Your Code................................................................................................................624 Developer−Defined Listeners......................................................................................................627 Trace Switches.............................................................................................................................627

Debugging with Visual Studio .NET..................................................................................................629 What Species Is Your Bug...........................................................................................................629 Debugging Aids............................................................................................................................630 Breakpoints...................................................................................................................................631 Getting Started..............................................................................................................................632

The Visual Basic .NET Compiler.......................................................................................................635 Using a Response File for Compilation.......................................................................................637 Managing a Class Library from the Command Line....................................................................638 Conditional Compilation Directives.............................................................................................639

Observations.......................................................................................................................................640

List of Figures..................................................................................................................................................641 Chapter 1: Software Development and Visual Basic .NET................................................................641 Chapter 2: Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Framework...................................................................641 Chapter 3: The Visual Basic .NET Development Environment.........................................................641 Chapter 4: The Elements of Visual Basic .NET.................................................................................641 Chapter 6: Software Design, Conditional Structures, and Control Flow............................................641 Chapter 7: Methods.............................................................................................................................642 Chapter 8: Types, Structures, and Enumerations................................................................................642 Chapter 9: Classes...............................................................................................................................642 Chapter 10: Interfaces.........................................................................................................................642 Chapter 12: Collections, Arrays, and Other Data Structures..............................................................642 Chapter 13: Advanced Design Concepts: Patterns, Roles, and Relationships....................................643 Chapter 14: Advanced Interface Patterns: Adapters, Delegates, and Events.....................................643 Chapter 16: Interfacing with the End User.........................................................................................644 Chapter 17: Getting Ready to Release................................................................................................644

List of Tables...................................................................................................................................................645 Chapter 2: Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Framework...................................................................645 Chapter 3: The Visual Basic .NET Development Environment.........................................................645 Chapter 4: The Elements of Visual Basic .NET.................................................................................645 Chapter 5: Visual Basic .NET Operators............................................................................................645 Chapter 6: Software Design, Conditional Structures, and Control Flow............................................646 Chapter 7: Methods.............................................................................................................................646 Chapter 8: Types, Structures, and Enumerations................................................................................646 Chapter 9: Classes...............................................................................................................................646 Chapter 10: Interfaces.........................................................................................................................646 Chapter 11: Exceptions: Handling and Classes..................................................................................646 Chapter 12: Collections, Arrays, and Other Data Structures..............................................................647 Chapter 15: Data Processing and I/O..................................................................................................647 Chapter 16: Interfacing with the End User.........................................................................................648 Chapter 17: Getting Ready to Release................................................................................................648

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Table of ContentsList of Sidebars................................................................................................................................................649

Chapter 5: Visual Basic .NET Operators............................................................................................649 Chapter 7: Methods.............................................................................................................................649

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Visual Basic .NET The Complete ReferenceJeffrey R. Shapiro

About the Author

Jeffrey R. Shapiro is a software architect and IT specialist who has written several books on softwaredevelopment and technology, including SQL Server 2000: The Complete Reference.

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