GDI+ Graphics in Visual Basic 2005 .NET

Consider this to be a "time out" in our march toward mastering GDI+!

I received an email from Geoff, an About Visual Basic reader who also writes programming tutorials in Scotland. He was upgrading a golden oldie that had been written originally in VB 3.0! The idea was to teach the concept of binary numbers by relating a 3-digit binary number to a traffic light. If a bit was turned on, the corresponding light in a red-yellow-green traffic signal would also be turned on.

The VB 3.0 version of this program used images dropped into a form component and it was pretty simple:

lights.Image = lightsred.Image ' VB 3.0 code

Encouraged by this series, Geoff wanted to draw shapes using GDI+ instead, but was having trouble making it work. I suggested some code that resulted in a form that looks like this:

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Rather than the VB 3.0 technique of using an image created in a graphics editor, I set the Brush object - L1, L2, or L3 - used to draw a filled circle to either white or the color of the traffic light signal. That made the actual code used to draw the signal look like this:

g.FillEllipse(L1, 39, 11, 30, 30)

As in previous programs, I figured out the position and size by adjusting the numbers until it looked good.

The circles - actually round "ellipse" shapes in GDI+ - are drawn when a Panel component is invalidated and a Paint event is triggered. The circles are then drawn on top of another image to create a traffic light.