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List of Names
Short Form
Full Form
-
Visual Basic
- See:
- Language type:
- Description:
Visual Basic is an advanced
structured dialect of Basic
developed by Microsoft, and intended for
application development.
The syntax of Visual Basic is similar to that
of other modern Basic dialects, but with
many additional features.
The
following primitive data types are
supported: integers, reals, strings,
booleans, currency, dates, and
object references. Variables may
be declared, but need not be. Type
checking can be performed, but is enforced
only for declared variables and parameters.
Composite data
types include arrays and
user-defined records. Control
structures include various conditional
and iteration constructs, and rudimentary
error handling mechanisms.
Memory management in Basic is automatic.
Visual Basic is nominally an interpreted
language, but newer implementations
include native code compilers. During
execution, Visual Basic programs are
normally supported by a run-time library.
Visual Basic is a commercial product.
A subset edition is available free,
the full development environment must
be purchased. Visual Basic runs on
Microsoft Windows platforms. Information
about the language and other resources
for developers are widely available
on the Internet and in print media.
- Origin:
- See Also:
- Remarks:
As a language, Visual Basic has evolved
enormously since its commercial introduction
in 1990. Version 5, 1997, supports
object oriented programming, a wide
variety of data types and type checking,
function pointers, and assertions.
The "Visual" in the name Visual Basic
does not really refer to the language, but
to the development environment. The VB
integrated development environment that
Microsoft distributes has extensive
facilities for on-screen design of
graphical user interfaces: dialog boxes,
window interfaces, menus, etc. It also
provides a rich but complicated interface
for code management and debugging.
GUI programs are easy to write in Visual
Basic, and the development environment
provides copious support for coding the
necessary event handling subroutines.
The popularity of Visual Basic is derived
partly from its extensibility. New
components, especially GUI elements,
can be added to the language
run-time system and transparently used
by application developers. There is a
large community of programmers who design
and distribute "Visual Basic Controls" (VBXs)
and "ActiveX Controls" for use in Visual
Basic.
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- Date:
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Descriptions in this dictionary are ©1997-99 Neal Ziring. Some
examples copyright of their respective authors. Some
technologies and languages are trademarked. Permission to
copy descriptions is granted as long as authorship credit is preserved.
Comments on this dictionary, corrections and suggestions, are all welcome.
Please use email, the address is ziring@home.com
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Dictionary and script maintained by Neal Ziring, last major modifications 3/18/98. Most recent
additions to dictionary and master list, 1/00.