Learning VB.NET Through Text Game Development
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This series of articles will teach Visual Basic through the development of a text-based game. Its intended audience is someone familiar with programming (object-oriented programming at that) but not familiar with the .NET Framework, so that type of person will benefit most from reading. With this little disclaimer aside, however, anyone is free to follow along.
Visual Basic (or Visual Basic .NET, or VB.NET, to be clear that it targets the .NET Framework) is one of several languages that can be used for .NET Framework development. It combines a BASIC-style syntax with the power and functionality of .NET, and it serves as a great alternative to the other major .NET language, C#, especially for people more familiar and comfortable with its syntax, perhaps as a result of coming from Visual Basic 6.0.
The .NET Framework
We'll start with the .NET Framework. (If you're impatient and want to hear about the project, though, feel free to skip ahead a few paragraphs first). What exactly is .NET? To be brief, it's an environment or framework that allows for the development and execution of Windows-based applications. .NET provides a large Framework Class Library allowing developers to accomplish many tasks without reinventing the wheel. In addition, the .NET Framework allows Web development through ASP.NET.
There are a few very interesting alternatives to the .NET Framework for other environments, such as Mono, sponsored by Novell. Check it out if you want to deploy your applications across multiple platforms.
The .NET Framework is also the target of numerous programming languages. The two biggest languages are C# and Visual Basic, and with the new Dynamic Language Runtime, implementations of Python and Ruby are available (IronPython and IronRuby). This allows for the accommodation of a wide range of developers.
Another significant feature is the ability to mix multiple languages within a single project without any extra effort. A library can be written in C# and then used in Visual Basic, for example. Of course, with this article, we'll be using Visual Basic, but the code could easily be ported to, for instance, C#, and the same effect could be achieved with no fundamental structural changes.
A few IDEs exist for .NET development, but the most popular by far is Visual Studio. The current version is Visual Studio 2008. There are several editions of Visual Studio, but you'll want to look into the Express Editions. The Express Editions are free, yet still very usable and very powerful. You'll want Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition:
http://microsoft.com/express/vb
Note that there are other Express Editions for different languages (Visual C# 2008 Express Edition, for example), and there is a Visual Web Developer 2008 Express Edition for Web development.
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