Visual Basic (VB)
Microsoft Visual Basic (VB for short) offers a simple and powerful way to create Windows programs (not Web-based programs) with attractive graphical user interfaces and some impressive features.
Advantages
- Ease of use: Visual Basic’s syntax is easy to learn and flexible. Programming in VB is fairly quick.
- Rapid interface development: VB lets programmers draw interfaces directly on the screen, adding buttons, text, and the like where they are to appear in the final program. This feature makes VB the development language of choice for most “Windows shops” (companies that use Windows for all their IT).
Disadvantages
- Size and speed limitations: Large VB programs can sometimes be hard to maintain and enhance. VB code can also be slower than code in languages optimized for speed, such as C++.
Choosing VB
Visual Basic is most appropriate for programming applications that should run on individuals’ Windows machines, that have Windows-like user interfaces.
Often it’s effective to create a program’s graphical interfaces in VB, and its inner workings in another program. Microsoft’s .NET framework makes this strategy possible.
