Professional Visual Basic® 2008

Introduction

In 2002, Visual Basic took the biggest leap in innovation since it was released, with the introduction of Visual Basic .NET (as it was renamed). After more than a decade, Visual Basic was overdue for a major overhaul. Nevertheless, .NET goes beyond an overhaul. It changes almost every aspect of software development. From integrating Internet functionality to creating object-oriented frameworks, Visual Basic .NET challenged traditional VB developers to learn dramatic new concepts and techniques.

2008 brought forth an even more enhanced Visual Basic language. New features have been added that cement this language's position as a true object-oriented language and provide better access to underlying data. Visual Basic 2008 is still going to be a challenge for traditional VB6 developers to learn, but it's an easy road for those with any familiarity with previous versions, and this book is here to help you on your way.

This .NET Framework 3.5 version of this book provides details about not only the latest version of Visual Basic — version 2008 — but also the new framework that gives Visual Basic developers the capability to build new application types using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and applications and libraries based upon the Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), the Windows Workflow Foundation (WF), and Windows CardSpace. It also covers one of the more important features: LINQ.

These additions are what constitute the .NET Framework 3.5, as this version of the ...