Beginning Visual Basic 2012

Chapter 13

Building Class Libraries

What You Will Learn in this Chapter

• Creating your own class libraries and retrieving information about existing libraries that are not part of the .NET Framework
• Learning to assign strong-name assemblies (compiled files) so all assemblies have a unique identity
• Registering assemblies in a repository called the Global Assembly Cache (GAC) to share them between applications on the same computer
• Rules for building class libraries
• Utilizing third-party class libraries
• Using the Object browser to view classes

Wrox.com Code Downloads for this Chapter

The wrox.com code downloads for this chapter are found at www.wrox.com/remtitle.cgi?isbn=1118311813 on the Download Code tab. The code is in the 311813 C13.zip download and individually named according to the names given throughout the chapter.

In this chapter, you'll look at building libraries of classes, a process that gathers many of the concepts covered in this book, so here's a quick review. So far, you've learned a lot about developing Windows applications by dragging controls onto forms, editing their properties, and adding code. When you edit a form in the Forms Designer, you are actually designing a new class that inherits from the System.Windows.Forms.Form class.

When you make changes to the form in the designer, the designer works out what code needs to be added to the class. You can view this code by clicking the Show All Files icon in the Solution Explorer and then opening the designer-generated ...