From Dan Mabbutt,
Your Guide to Visual Basic.
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Feb 16 2008

Programmers have learned to rely on the "version 2.0" rule over the years. The rule states that you should generally depend on version 2.0 of any really new product because it will take that long to work the bugs out. Besides, version 1.0 might totally flop and you don't want to be left holding the bag. This is a great rule for VB.NET Express. It's actually based on version 3.5 of the .NET Framework. Released in November 2007, it completely replaces previous versions. (In fact, you have to "convert" earlier versions of VB.NET to run with Framework 3.5 now.) Visual Basic .NET 2008 Express Edition is well past version 1.0.

One "bug" that Microsoft has worked out with the .NET Framework and VB.NET Express is how to combine the opposite goals of moving "upscale" to the professional business development world and still stay affordable for students, beginning programmers, and even hobby programmers. Business success for Microsoft demands that they offer products with the performance, sophistication, and of course the huge prices in the corporate world. When I was a corporate software development manager in the old mainframe world, it was fairly easy to justify and purchase software for the mainframe in the price range of $100,000 or so (In current dollars.) But that one copy might be used by about a hundred programmers. These are the prices that Microsoft wants to charge their most affluent corporate customers. See, for example, Paul Kimmel's excellent analysis, of Visual Studio 2005: So Many Choices, So Much Marketing, So Little Time. Paul points out that a new copy of the most expensive edition of Visual Studio 2005 - Visual Studio Team Edition - will set you back nearly $11,000!!.

Whoh!! You and I certainly can't afford those prices. (I buy my own software too. I'm one of you!)

Microsoft knows that if they want to continue to be as successful as they have been, they must have a version of VB.NET for the rest of us because the people who can't even afford a compiler today will be making those high-dollar purchasing decisions tomorrow.

The result has been the "Express" editions. (This list gets out of date quickly. Consult the link I gave you earlier for the latest information.)

• SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
• Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition

and, of course ...

• Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition!

Visual Basic Express is Microsoft's free, downloadable version of Visual Basic designed to get us all hooked on the product.

As far as I'm concerned, it worked like a charm. I'm hooked.

Be aware, however, that you do have to register with Microsoft and obtain their Windows Live ID to do any of this stuff.

Why should I learn VB.NET Express?

If you want to learn programming, start with Visual Basic 2008 Express!

Visual Basic's clear structure and readable language syntax has made it the most successful programming environment ever, period. Until 2002, Visual Basic 6 was the flagship language and millions of programmers created world class systems using it. But the "really cool" C++ programmers still threw rocks at it because (they claimed) it wasn't "true" object oriented programming (OOP).

My response (at the time) was that "object oriented" wasn't a standard, it was a philosophy and VB6 was the best compromise between programming complexity (which C++ had plenty of) and the benefits of OOP. There were very few things that VB6 couldn't do, especially if you simply used a few Windows API calls in your code. In other words, VB6 was "OOP enough" to get the most work done in the least time. It was practical and it worked!

When .NET was introduced, everything changed. Even C++ programmers couldn't claim that .NET wasn't completely OOP by anyone's definition. OOP is so important to VB.NET that this tutorial covers it again in more detail in parts 5 and 6. (For the true purist, the only OOP feature C++ has that .NET doesn't have is called "multiple inheritance". Microsoft left it out because it creates more problems than it solves. It's a great example of how anything can go too far.)

Visual Basic Express has almost all of the tricks that the high priced products do. And you can download more free stuff including:

• Coding 4 Fun! (And other plug in code.)

Microsoft has traditionally included applications designed to show off the new features of their technology. (Who can forget NorthWind Traders? I thought they were a real store.) In the previous VB.NET 2005, Microsoft put them right there in the template menu along side the standard templates. This time, you have to download them after you install VB.NET 2008 Express.

As a general statement, Microsoft is moving away from the hard core, "Here's how to write the code to get it done." and moving toward, "Just plug this into your application and, 'presto chango', it works!"

A leading category of sample apps designed just for the Express editions is identified with the new marketing phrase, Coding 4 Fun. It even has its own acronym, C4F. C4F currently includes the C4F Developers Kit and the C4F Vista P2P Kit.

Some other examples that you can download today:

• Popfly

A set of online visual tools on their own web site designed just for people starting to learn programming. Technically, you don't have to download anything to use it, but there is a Popfly Space plug-in that lets you download and modify code.

• Facebook Dev Kit

A cooperative effort between Facebook and Microsoft that lets you write VB.NET code to customize your Facebook account.

The next page shows you how to install and get ready to use Visual Basic Express!