VB 6.0 Programming

Introduction to VB 6.0
It is an object based programming language. It does support some of the object oriented programming features but not all.

It is designed so as to be easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC. It provides an integrated development environment (IDE) that enables rapid application development (RAD) through the graphical user interface (GUI).

The Visual Basic provides components that enable programmers to easily put together an application. The introduction of Visual Basic as a programming language greatly reduced the heavy learning requirements of other development platforms especially as for windows programming.

This programming language was designed to be easily learned and used by beginner programmers. Its IDE allows programmers to create both simple GUI applications and also complex applications. Programming in Visual Basic is a combination of arranging components / controls (objects) on a form, specifying the attributes and actions of these controls and also writing additional lines of code to the program in order to add functionality.

When controls are added into the application, they contain default attributes (properties) and actions that are predefined for each type of object added. With these, a programmer can come up with a simple application without having to write many lines of code.

The Visual Basic Graphical User Interface is created by the programmer using drag and drop techniques. A control is simply clicked on and then drawn onto a form then it becomes visible, the objects properties(attributes) and event handlers are automatically are enabled ready to be used or manipulated by the programmer by adding a small amount of code.

VB only supports abstraction.

A fully object oriented programming language supports the following characteristics; encapsulation, abstraction, polymorphism and inheritance.

Encapsulation: This is binding together of code into a single unit. This is implemented in classes / objects.

Abstraction: Hiding of complex details from users. For example, the code that is behind the creation of an object is hidden from the user.

Inheritance: This is the ability of a child object (sub-class) to acquire the properties / characteristics of the parent object (main class).

Polymorphism: