VB.NET Language in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

Beep Procedure

Class

Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction

Syntax

Beep

Description

Sounds a tone through the computer’s speaker

Example

Private Sub Main(  )

    iVoid = DoSomeLongFunction(  )
    Beep
    MsgBox "Finished!"
    
End Sub

Programming Tips and Gotchas

• We have found the Beep statement to be completely unreliable, and therefore we never use it in applications intended for distribution.

• If you do decide to use the Beep statement, please remember that its overuse will not endear you to your users!

• The frequency and duration of the tone depends on the computer’s hardware. Bear in mind that on some systems, a mouse click is louder than the beep!

• Since the successful operation of the Beep statement does not require the presence of any multimedia hardware (such as a sound card, for example), it can be used when a system is not configured to support sound. For example, if the following is defined in the declarations section of a code module:

  Declare Function waveOutGetNumDevs Lib "winmm.dll" (  ) As Long
  Declare Function PlaySound Lib "winmm.dll" _
          Alias "PlaySoundA" (ByVal lpszName As String, _
          ByVal hModule As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long) _
          As Long
  
  Public Const SND_APPLICATION = &H80
  Public Const SND_ASYNC = &H1
  Public Const SND_FILENAME = &H20000
  Public Const SND_NODEFAULT = &H2
  
  Public HasSound As Boolean
  
  Public Function IsSoundSupported(  ) As Boolean
     If (waveOutGetNumDevs > 0) Then _
        IsSoundSupported = True
  End Function

  then the following procedure takes advantage of any existing sound hardware to ...