Theo Todman's Web Page - Paper Abstracts

Introduction

1. Part 1: How to Create Simple programs (Introduction ...)
   • Even if you're not a programmer, you’ve almost certainly heard of Visual Studio. Microsoft's flagship integrated development environment (IDE) includes everything required to create, test and deploy applications of all types and sizes, in a wide range of programming languages. It can even create cross-platform code to run on other operating systems. No wonder it consistently ranks as one of the world's most used development environments. Visual Studio isn't only for professionals, though. Casual hobbyists and beginners looking to take their first steps in coding can also benefit from Visual Studio features such as smart code-completion, error-checking and debugging features. It's great for helping less experienced coders produce working projects with a minimum of fuss.
   • Best of all, most people can use this premium development tool completely free of charge. The Visual Studio Community edition is free to use for individual projects, academic purposes, open-source development and even small business projects with up to five users: only larger organisations working with dedicated development teams will need to invest in Professional or Enterprise licences.
   • The current version of Visual Studio is Visual Studio 2022 for Windows. It will run on all major editions of Windows 10 or 11, including 64-bit ARM editions, and there's also a version for macOS: you can download them both from Microsoft Visual Studio Downloads. (Remember to choose the free Community edition.)
   • VS2022 is primarily designed for writing, compiling and distributing programs in either C# or Visual Basic. However, it also comes with a plethora of optional tools and extensions for languages that use third-party compilers or interpreters, such as Java, JavaScript, Python and Ruby. If you're working in these external languages, you don't necessarily need the full VS package: the cut-down Visual Studio Code editor may suit your requirements perfectly well (see "Python coding in VS Code", P47).
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2. Part 2: Creating graphic interfaces (Introduction ...)
   • Two months ago (see issue 349. p44) we introduced the free edition of Microsoft Visual Studio and walked you through setting up your first program in Visual Basic. What we didn't touch on is the aspect of Microsoft's IDE that makes it “visual" and sets it apart from many other development environments - namely, the ability to create rich graphical interfaces for your programs.
   • In fact, that undersells just how powerful the package is. Visual Studio isn't just about adding buttons and menus to your code: it allows you to design the GUI first, and then slot in event-driven code to make each element work - a wonderfully intuitive and efficient workflow. To showcase just how easy it can be, this month we'll walk through the process of creating a sample graphical application in VB that loads in a text file, sort its lines alphabetically and saves the sorted lines under a new name. And to drive it, we'll build a rich Windows-native interface using standard buttons, text fields and file requesters.
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