Visual Basic 2012 Programmer's Reference

SUMMARY

In a Windows Forms application, everything is contained in Form objects. Some of those Form classes may be dialog boxes or derived from the Form class, but ultimately everything is contained in a form.

In a WPF application, controls may be contained in Window objects or in Page objects. Window objects sit on the desktop much as Windows Forms do. Page objects must be hosted inside something else, usually a browser or a Frame control in a Window. The PageFunction class provides a modified version of a Page that makes it easier to pass values back and forth between coordinated Pages.

Chapters 7 through 12 give useful background on working with controls. They explain how to select and use both Windows Forms and WPF controls. They also explain the top-level user interface classes: Form for Windows Forms applications, and Window, Page, and PageFunction for WPF applications.

Although these are huge topics, there’s even more to building a Visual Basic application than just controls. You also need to understand the code behind the Form or Window that lets the program take the controls’ values, manipulate those values, and display a result in other controls. The next several chapters cover these topics in detail. Chapter 13, “Program and Module Structure,” starts the process by explaining the files that make up a Visual Basic project and the structure contained within code files.