This book is for anyone who wants to write good Visual Basic 2008 code – even if you have never programmed before.

Writing good code can be a challenge, there are so many options, especially in a language like Visual Basic. If you want to really get the best from a programming language you need to know which features work best in which situations and understand their strengths and weaknesses. It is this understanding that makes the difference between coding and coding well.

Beginning VB 2008 has been written to teach you how to use the Visual Basic programming language to solve problems. From the earliest chapters, and from the first introductory concepts, you'll be looking at real-world programming challenges and learning how Visual Basic can be used to overcome them. As you progress through the book the problems become more involved and interesting while the solutions become correspondingly more complex and powerful as Visual Basic features interact to achieve the results that you want.

By the time you've finished reading this book and worked through the sample exercises, you'll be a confident and very competent Visual Basic programmer. You will still have many explorations of the .NET Framework API to look forward to in your future career, but you will have a firm foundation to build from and you will know exactly where to go to find the things that you need to progress confidently in your projects.

Christian Gross is dedicated to helping his readers understand every detail of Beginning VB 2008 and so you can contact him via SKYPE (christianhgross) if you have bought this book and have a question about something Christian discusses. If Christian is available when you contact him, he will even try to answer you right away!
What you’ll learn

* Become skilled in the Visual Basic 2008 programming language.
* Learn everything you need to begin building your own applications in a solid, well–considered way: this book will teach you .NET coding from the ground up.
* Use the Visual Studio IDE to create, debug, and deploy your applications.
* Understand the mysteries of database access and the many ways that it can be accomplished from VB.
* Delve deeply into the huge range of supporting technologies that the .NET Framework offers: LINQ, ASP.NET AJAX, ADO.NET 3.0, WPF, WCF, and Windows Workflow are all introduced and explained in a straightforward and easy-to-follow way.

Who is this book for?

This book is for anyone who’s just starting out to learn about Visual Basic 2008. It doesn’t assume any prior knowledge of object–oriented programming, of the .NET Framework, or of coding in general. It simply assumes that you’re an intelligent person who wants to learn and starts the journey from there.