Absolute Beginner's Guide to Programming, Third Edition

A Quick Windows Program Analysis

Developing effective Visual Basic programs requires an understanding of the way Windows programs work. You may recall from Chapter 4, “Programming Languages: Modern Day,” that all Windows programs are event driven. That is, your Windows program must respond to events that can happen during the program's execution. At any time, the user may move the mouse, click the mouse, double-click the mouse, right-click the mouse, type on the keyboard, resize the program window, close the program, or start a completely different program and leave yours running in the background.

Before windowed environments became so popular, the program dictated what the user was to do next. It might ask a question and then not allow the ...