Starting VB

I now assume that you have got Visual Basic 6 installed on your system. Its not a difficult job installing one. It's just like any other Windows software. The Visual Basic environment is mostly located in C:\programfiles\Microsoft Visual Studio\Vb98. You may start the VB environment by click the icon in the Start menu.

Click on 'Start'
Programs
Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0
Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

Visual Basic loads and you see a window that asks you about the type of program you want to develop. We start with the Standard Exe option.

Creating a program in Visual Basic is simple

1. Designing the interface. This is done interactively without the need to program. Screen objects (or controls) are selected from the toolbox, placed and sized using the mouse.
   
2. Setting the properties of the screen objects to change such things as colors and labels.
   
3. Writing program code to specify what will happen as users interact with the screen objects. This step is often described as providing the 'functionality'.

The last step is the most important of all three. You don't need the reason, do you? The first two steps are just the skeletal frame of your application. You need the actual code to run the program. What's the use of a program that just pops up and looks great, but does nothing.

Let us leave this programming aspect aside for the time being. We will familiarize our self to the Visual Basic environment first. I assume that you have spent quite some time working in the Windows environment. The name Windows originated because on your screen, the application loads up as a window. You must be knowing that certain application such as a Browser open up just one window in its entirety. But the Visual Basic environment is different. The screen shows several windows, arranged haphazardly and if you are working on a low resolution (640x480), then its very difficult to work. 800x600 should be the minimum screen resolution for comfortable working. 1024x768 is advisable if your monitor and display card supports it.

In Visual Basic, you work with several open windows most of the time. There are several windows, sometimes called window panes open, and you will often need information from each of the windows. Therefore, you should get familiarized with the screen and its components right at the onset. Learn all you can about the Visual Basic environment now so that you can concentrate on the language and controls later.

In the next article, we will see the different aspects of the VB programming