What is Visual Basic?

Microsoft's Visual Basic is an object-oriented programming language. It is a type-safe programming language that is intended to be simple to learn. It derives from the acronym BASIC, which stands for "Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code."

The original version was designed for students outside science or mathematics to use computers. Using Visual Basic, you may quickly and easily develop type-safe .NET applications.

History of Visual Basic

Microsoft Visual Basic is a third generation event-driven programming language known for its Component Object Style (COM) programming model.

Microsoft designed Visual Basic to be easy to learn and use. Visual Basic provides rapid application development (RAD) for graphical user interface (GUI) applications, database access through Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects or ActiveX Data Objects, and the creation of ActiveX controls and objects.

Software developer uses Microsoft Visual Basic to rapidly develop graphical user interface (GUI) and database access apps.

With the advent of the first microcomputers in the mid-1970s, several important languages emerged. The most notable of these was Microsoft BASIC in 1975. At this point, BASIC was available in almost every system and soon became the standard.

Microsoft BASIC emerging as an important language in 1975 becoming the standard available in almost every system.

A true programming language for home computer systems, these tools are usually distributed with a BASIC interpreter already installed on the device's operating system or ROM cartridge.

BASIC became obsolete in the early 1990s as new machines with much higher capabilities became available and alternative programming languages such as Pascal and C were used. Microsoft released Visual Basic in 1991 with improved versions of BASIC and Visual Form Builder.

Visual Basic vs VB.NET

Visual Basic, or VB, efficiently addressed the demands of small enterprises since computers had grown fast enough that many business-related activities could be done faster as long as enormous quantities of data were not involved.

Many small company owners discovered that they could develop their own modest yet effective applications to satisfy their own unique demands.

Visual Basic was superseded by VB.NET, a new programming language. It is intended to work with Microsoft's .NET programming system, just as its predecessors did with COM. It also has better object-oriented programming capability than its predecessors.

Visual Basic uses the VB-Runtime environment. VB.NET uses the Common Language Runtime (CLR). It has better features and design implementation as compared to VB-Runtime.

Visual Basic's legacy lives on through the Windows Forms component of Microsoft's development environment, Visual Studio. It supports drag-and-drop form creation in C#, VB.NET, and other .NET languages.

Today, Visual Basic programmers prefer VB.NET, which can be used interchangeably with C# to develop standalone or web-enabled applications.

What is Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET) Programming used for?

Visual Basic .NET allows you to develop completely object-oriented applications, comparable to those built in other languages such as C++, Java, or C#.

Programmers building software developed in VB.NET to communicate with other apps written in Visual C++ and Visual C#.

Programs developed in VB.NET can also communicate with those written in Visual C++ and Visual C#.

Everything in Visual Basic .NET is treated as an object. With its language improvements and tight integration with the .NET Framework, VB.NET is a completely updated language that will most certainly become the main programming tool for developing a wide range of .NET applications.

Visual Basic .NET can be used to develop a broad number of applications and components, such as the following:

Accessing application object models using COM automation
.NET classes and namespaces
Standard Windows applications
Web (ASP.NET) applications
Web controls and web control libraries
Web services
Windows console mode applications
Windows controls and Windows control libraries
Windows services

Features of VB.NET

Visual Basic .NET comes loaded with numerous features that have made it a popular programming language amongst programmers worldwide. These features include the following:

A standard library.
Attributes can be used to offer additional information about items declared in an application.
Automatic code formatting, an XML designer, and an enhanced object browser are all included.
Boolean criteria for decision making are supported.
Events management.
External objects are referenced to in order to be used in a Visual Basic .NET application.
Garbage collection is automated.
It is a programming language that is object-oriented. It considers everything to be an object.
Simple multithreading allows your programs to handle several tasks at the same time.
VB.NET, unlike other programming languages such as C++ and Java, is not case sensitive.

Microsoft technologies used with Visual Basic .NET:

.NET Framework
Visual Studio
ASP.NET
Universal Windows Platform (UWP)
SQL
Language-Integrated Query (LINQ)
XML
Windows Forms
WPF
Worker Service
ASP.NET Core Web API

Future of Visual Basic

Visual Basic is an excellent programming language and a productive working environment. Visual Basic's future will contain both .NET Framework and .NET Core, with an emphasis on stability and compatibility across the .NET Core and .NET Framework versions of Visual Basic.

Microsoft will support Visual Basic in the .NET 5 framework and is increasing the programming language's supported application types to assist VB developers in migrating their work to the open-source, cross-platform .NET Core.

The increase of supported project types will assist VB developers in migrating their current applications to .NET Core/ .NET 5 and taking advantage of cross-platform capabilities and features like improved performance, side-by-side deployment, and new API enhancements.

Outsource VB.NET Programming to the Philippines

If you're looking for experienced VB.NET Developers in the Philippines, go no further than Cambria. Outsourcing your Visual Basic requirements to our development team in the Philippines will be as simple to deal with as any American company due to its American culture and background.

You will continue to enjoy the same high-quality programming that we have always provided, but at a far lower cost than in the US.

Cambria is a 38-year-old software development company located in California. We have an office in Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines, where we mostly operate. We have created web and desktop applications and mobile solutions for our clients using programming languages such as VB.NET.

Our professional developers will provide you with best-in-class Microsoft and Visual Basic technology to assist you in building your custom software and mobile applications. Contact us to speak with one of our experienced VB.NET developers about your project specifications.