Chapter 17 is the last chapter of the three chapter set in our text, Microsoft Visual Basic Step by Step, about using forms in VB.NET. In this chapter, the book introduces a general concept that we've been using all along - inheritance - with the familiar example of inheriting forms. In the lesson for Chapter 15, the first of the three chapter set, I made the point that in VB.NET, "forms are like any other software object." That's the whole idea in this chapter. First, we create and inherit from a form object. Then we create and inherit a class object - that is to say, the more general term that can include any software object (including forms since they're also classes).
The discussion in the book walks you through the process of creating not only a class, but also methods and properties for that class. You'll discover that OOP (Object Oriented Programming) can be so easy in VB.NET that you'll wonder what all the fuss is about. In this way, VB.NET continues the tradition of Visual Basic in making programmers productive in things that C++ programmers still sweat bullets to accomplish!