Course Outline: Visual Basic 6.0: Introduction to Programming
(4 Days) with Hands-On Labs
Learning Objectives
Describe the basic structure of a Visual Basic project and use the main features of the integrated development environment (IDE)
Use forms and controls to create a user interface with menus, status bars, dialog boxes, and advanced controls
Use code to create control structures as well as subroutines and functions
Test and debug an application
This course description should be used to determine whether the course is appropriate for you based on your current skill and technical training needs. Technical information is provided on the intended audience, course prerequisites, and covered topics. Course content, prices, and availability are subject to change without notice.
The Innovative Cyber-Classroom
Benefits Include:
Courseware is viewed onscreen instead of in a binder on the students desktop
Interactive components that can, and most likely will be used by the students for reference after the training is concluded
Cyber-Courseware can be used for the Intermediate to Advanced topics classes with no extra charges for additional courseware if the same student options to go to the next level Intermediate to Advanced topics class
Cyber-Course added features:
(7806) lines of code in 178 Example Programs (with Program Outputs)
(558) Illustrations/Figures
(412) Programming Tips
(78) Good Programming Practices
(155) Common Programming Errors
(14) Look-and-Feel Observations
(39) Performance Tips
(15) Portability Tips
(76) Software Engineering Observations
(40) Testing and Debugging Tips
Course Audience
This course teaches beginner level programmers the skills necessary to create Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 desktop applications and satisfies the Visual Basic prerequisites for the Intermediate/Advanced course.
Course Description
Teaching Approach - This NEW Cyber Course in conjunction with its companion book contains a rich collection of examples, exercises, and projects drawn from many fields to provide the student with a chance to solve interesting real-world problems. The course concentrates on the principles of good software engineering and stresses program clarity. We avoid arcane terminology and syntax specifications in favor of teaching by example. Each of our code examples has been carefully tested.
Live-Code Teaching Approach - The course is loaded with live-code examples. This is the focus of the way the course is taught with regard to programming, and the focus of the multimedia Cyber Classrooms as well. Virtually every new concept is presented in the context of a complete, working Visual Basic 6 program immediately followed by one or more windows showing the program’s output. We call this style of teaching and writing our live-code approach. We use the language to teach the language. Reading these programs is much like entering and running them on a computer.
Overview - This complete course in Visual Basic 6 comes straight from world class leading programming trainers. Combining world-class interactive multimedia and an extraordinarily practical, thorough companion book, there’s no better way to master real-world VB 6 development for performance and reliability.
Key Topics - The Visual Basic Multimedia Cyber Classroom CD-ROM for Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows 2000 delivers comprehensiveinteractive training on every VB concept you need to know. The Cyber-Course contains 8+ hours of audio, plus 300+ complete VB programs - 10,000 lines of fully tested code you can run with a single click. There are 4000+ hyperlinked index entries, plus hundreds of tips for building reliable, optimized code. You also get Visual Basic 6 companion book, a great new guide to VB6 programming and the VB6 development environment. Master control structures, procedures, functions, arrays, string processing and basic graphics. Discover VB6’s powerful tools for GUI development and debugging. Even learn COM/DCOM techniques for distributed Web and network development (the advanced sections!) Book and CD-ROM course work together perfectly - making you a Visual Basic expert faster than you ever imagined!
Added Bonus contained in the course - The Official Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Working Model Software - Everything you need to begin programming right away!
Additional Overview
The Cyber Classroom contains an introductory presentation in which we overview the Cyber Classroom features. The live-code Visual Basic 6 example programs in the textbook truly “come alive” in the Cyber Classroom. We have placed executables for all these example programs “under the hood” of the Cyber Classroom, so if you are viewing a program and want to execute it, you simply click the lightning bolt icon and the program executes. You immediately see - and hear for the audio-based multimedia programs - the program’s outputs. If you want to modify a program and see and hear the effects of your changes, simply click the floppy-disk icon that causes the source code to be “lifted off” the CD and “dropped into” one of your own directories so you can edit the program, recompile the program and try out your new version. Click the audio icon and it will talk about the program and “walk you through” the code. We provided line numbers in the source code listings to help you follow the audio discussions.
The Cyber Classroom contains a set of interactive, self-review questions that reinforce your understanding of the material. These questions are provided at the end of most sections. Also, solutions to many of the end-of-chapter exercises are provided.
The Cyber Classroom also provides many navigational aids including extensive hyperlinking. The Cyber Classroom remembers in a “history list” recent sections you have visited and allows you to move forward or backward in that history list. The thousands of index entries are hyperlinked to their text occurrences. Using the full-text-search feature, you can type a term and the Cyber Classroom will locate the occurrences of the term throughout the text. The Table of Contents entries are “hot,” so clicking a chapter name immediately takes you to that chapter. The Contents menu provides direct access to all the sections in the current chapter, every chapter, every appendix, the Bibliography and the Index. Many people like to browse through our programming tips - Common Programming Errors, Good Programming Practices, Look-and-Feel Observations, Performance Tips, Portability Tips, Software Engineering Observations and Testing-and-Debugging Tips. The tips are all accessible via icons at the bottom of each chapter page.
Course Objectives
At course completion the student will be able to perform the following tasks:
Describe the basic structure of a Visual Basic project and use the main features of the integrated development environment (IDE)
Use forms and controls to create a user interface with menus, status bars, dialog boxes, and advanced controls
Use code to create control structures as well as subroutines and functions
Test and debug an application
Prerequisites
Attendees should be have experience using a structured programming tool like; Pascal, Basic, ‘C’, or the like. Experience using a PC and Microsoft Windows is essential for this course.
TOPICS COVERED IN LECTURE & LAB
Computing Concepts
Introduction
Whatt Is a Computer?
Computer Organization
Evolution of Operating Systems
Personal Computing, Distributed Computing, and Client/Server Computing
Machine Languages, Assembly Languages, and High-level Languages
History of Visual Basic
Other High-level Languages
Structured Programming
What Is Visual Basic?
Integrated Development Environment
Introduction
Integrated Development Environment Overview
Project Window. Toolbox
Form Layout Window
Properties Window
Menu Bar and Tool Bar
A Simple Program: Displaying a Line of Text
Introduction to Visual Basic Programming
Introduction
Visual Programming and Event-Driven Programming
A Simple Program: Printing a Line of Text on the Form
Another Simple Program: Adding Integers
Memory Concepts
Arithmetic
Operator Precedence
Decision Making: Comparison Operators
Control Structures: Part I
Introduction
Algorithms
Pseudocode
Introduction to Control Structures
If/Then Selection Structure
If/Then/Else Selection Structure
While Repetition Structure
Do While Repetition Structure
Do Until Repetition Structure
Formulating Algorithms: Case Study 1 (Counter-Controlled Repetition)
Formulating Algorithms with Top-down, Stepwise Refinement: Case Study 2 (Sentinel-Controlled Repetition)
Formulating Algorithms with Top-down, Stepwise Refinement: Case Study 3 (Nested Control Structures)
Control Structures: Part II
Introduction
Essentials of Counter-Controlled Repetition
For Repetition Structure
Examples Using the For/Next Repetition Structure
Select Case Multiple-Selection Structure
Do/Loop While Repetition Structure
Do/Loop Until Repetition Structure
Exit Do and Exit For Statements
Data Type Boolean
Constant Variables
Logical Operators
Structured Programming Summary
Visual Basic Data Types
Sub Procedures and Function Procedures
Introduction
Form Modules
Sub Procedures
Function Procedures
Call-by-Value vs. Call-by-Reference
Exit Sub and Exit Function
Storage Classes
Scope Rules
Random Number Generation
Example: A Game of Chance
Recursion and the Factorial Function
Another Recursion Example: The Fibonacci Series
Recursion vs. Iteration
Optional Arguments
Named Arguments
Visual Basic Math Functions
Code Modules
Error Handling and Debugging
Introduction
When Error Handling Should Be Used
A Simple Error-Handling Example: Divide by Zero
Nested On Error Statements
Err Object. Resume Statement
Error Handlers and the Call Stack
Rethrowing Errors
Break Mode, the Immediate Window, and the Debug Object
First Steps in Bug Prevention
Debugging Strategies
Debugger
Debugger and Error Handlers
Strings, Dates and Times
Introduction
Fundamentals of Characters and Strings
String Data Type
String Concatenation with & and +
Comparing Character Strings
Operator Like
Manipulating the Individual Characters in a String: Mid$
Left$, Right$, and InStr
Searching for Substrings in Strings using InStr and InStrRev
LTrim$, RTrim$ and Trim$
String$ and Spaces$
Replacing Substrings in a String with Function Replace
Reversing Strings with Function StrReverse
Converting Strings to Uppercase and Lowercase
Conversion Functions
String Formatting
Date and Time Processing
Date and Time Formatting
String Arrays
Graphics
Introduction
Coordinate Systems
Drawing Methods
Drawing Properties
Line Control and Shape Control
Colors
Images
Printer Object
Basic Graphical User Interface Concepts.
Introduction
Controls
TextBox Control
MaskEdit Control
ComboBox Control
ListBox Control
Scrollbars
Slider Control
Menus
Pop-up Menus
Function MsgBox
Advanced Graphical User Interface Concepts
Introduction
Multiple Document Interface (MDI)
Multiple Forms
Template Forms
Rich TextBox Control
UpDown Control
ImageList Control
ImageCombo Control
FlatScrollBar Control (Professional and Enterprise Editions)
Native Code Compilation (Professional and Enterprise Editions)
Appendix A: Operator Precedence Chart.
Appendix B: ANSI Character Set.
Appendix C: Visual Basic Internet and World Wide Web Resources.
