A programming language and environment developed by Microsoft. Based on the BASIC language, Visual Basic was one of the first products to provide a graphical programming environment and a paint metaphor for developing user interfaces. Instead of worrying about syntax details, the Visual Basic programmer can add a substantial amount of code simply by dragging and droppingcontrols, such as buttons and dialog boxes, and then defining their appearance and behavior.
Although not a true object-oriented programming language in the strictest sense, Visual Basic nevertheless has an object-oriented philosophy. It is sometimes called an event-driven language because each object can react to different events such as a mouse click.
Since its launch in 1990, the Visual Basic approach has become the norm for programming languages. Now there are visual environments for many programming languages, including C, C++, Pascal, and Java. Visual Basic is sometimes called a Rapid Application Development (RAD) system because it enables programmers to quickly build prototype applications.
Microsoft Visual Basic Home Page Contains links to demos, product information, tips, and FAQs, events and training, links, and case studies.
Visual Basic Tips & Tricks site Offers a wealth of information for the Visual Basic programmer, including the latest news and information on Visual Basic. There are links to a download area, tip of the month, component information, and bug watch.
Visual Basic Explorer site This site is geared towards Visual Basic 'newbies'. It offers a collection of Visual Basic reference sites, tutorials, source code, programming samples, and questions and answers.
Visual Basic Web Magazine Provides new and experienced Visual Basic programmers access to tutorials, articles, source code, tips and tricks, vendor pages, newsgroups, and related sites.
