Abstract
This is an introductory treatment of Visual Basic programming, starting with an introduction to the Visual Basic environment, the Toolbox, and customizing windows. No prior programming experience is assumed. Early chapters cover "First Steps in Programming" and "Controlling Program Flow." Later chapters cover error trapping, arrays and records, menus, graphics, mouse support, and file management. Final chapters deal with advanced topics like recursion, using Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE) to interface with other programs, and use of Microsoft's Visual Basic Professional Toolkit. An appendix deals with conversion from QuickBasic to Visual Basic for those familiar with this leading DOS product for BASIC programming. There are frequent displays of screens and lists of short segments of example code, often on topics like converting English to pig-Latin or solving Tower of Hanoi puzzles. There are no extended examples, though an optional companion disk ($20 additional) does include business routines for net present value and similar financial functions. Although this is a generic text without social science applications, it still provides an excellent starting text for faculty and researchers interested in getting started with programming for a graphical user interface (GUI) environment using the Visual Basic language promoted by industry leader Microsoft for this purpose.
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