Syllabus for courses 1493 and 1494, Introduction to Visual Basic and Intermediate Visual Basic
by Brent P. Newhall (BrentN@geocities.com)
http://bounce.to/visual-basic

Getting Started (Skill 1)

• What is Visual Basic?
• Getting used to the Visual Basic environment
• What can I do with the VB environment?
• Running your application
• Saving your project

Simple Controls (Skill 3)

• Command buttons
• Text boxes
• Labels
• Option buttons
• Check boxes
• Frames
• Properties of controls (e.g. (Name), Caption, Text, and Font)
• Program: Telephone Order Form
• Note: Read the instructions!

A Quick Aside

• The history of BASIC
• What Visual Basic can and can't do

Programming (Skills 4 and 6)

• What is code, and why do we need it?
• Getting to the code
• Some examples of code
• Case-sensitivity
• Variables
• Arrays
• Program: Trip into the Future
• Note: Change control names before coding!

More Controls (Skill 3, Skill 9)

• List boxes, Combo boxes
• Picture boxes
• Timers
• Scroll bars
• Random Numbers
• Message Boxes
• Program: The World's Ugliest Demo

Menus and Toolbars (Skill 5)

• Menu Editor
• Program: Greeter

Good Program Design

• Why should I care how well-designed my program is?
• The dangers of spaghetti code
• Fast algorithms
• Readability
• Top-down versus bottom-up

Designing a Program

• The project specification
• Designing the interface
• Designing the code with pseudocode
• Writing the code

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Multiple Forms

• Managing multiple forms
• Using multiple forms in a program

Databases (Skill 7)

• Visual Basic and Access
• Creating a database
• Accessing your database
• Program: Country

File Processing (Skill 7)

• Sequential-access files
• Random-access files
• Program: Time and Attendance

Graphics

• Points
• Lines, boxes
• Circles, ellipses
• Paint
• Program: Painter

Printing (Skill 8)

• Printing a form with PrintForm
• Using the LPRINT command (Printer.NewPage, .EndDoc, .KillDoc)
• Printing your program's properties and code

Selected Text and the Clipboard

• Selected text
• Moving selected text to and from the clipboard
• Program: Cut, Copy, Paste

Object-Oriented Programming (Skill 13)

• What is object-oriented programming?
• What is an object?
• Classes
• How to write object-oriented programs
• Program: Calendar

Advanced Compiling (Skill 12)

• Why should I care?
• Common compiling options
• Uncommon compiling options
• The Setup Wizard

ActiveX (Skill 14)

• ActiveX Documents
• ActiveX Controls
• ActiveX DLLs

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