01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page i Visual Basic 2008 ® FOR DUMmIES ‰ 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page ii 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page iii Visual Basic 2008 ® FOR DUMmIES ‰ by Bill Sempf 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page iv Visual Basic®2008 For Dummies® Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc. 111 River Street Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774 www.wiley.com Copyright © 2008 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permit- ted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2008923124 ISBN: 978-0-470-18238-3 Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page vi 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/26/08 4:51 PM Page v About the Author I am Bill Sempf,and you’ll notice that I don’t write in third person. I have spent an inordinate amount of time in the last several years writing about, thinking about, and coding in VB.NET. I am a coauthor of Professional Visual Studio.NET, Effective Visual Studio.NET, Professional ASP.NET Web Services andProfessional VB.NET(among others), and a frequent contributor to the Microsoft Developer Network, Builder.com, Hardcore Web Services, Inside Web Development Journal, and Intranet Journal. I have recently been an invited speaker for DevEssentials, the International XML Web Services Expo, and the Association of Information Technology Professionals. As a graduate of Ohio State University with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration, Microsoft Certified Professional, Certified Internet Business Strategist, and Certified Internet Webmaster, I have developed over one hundred Web applications for startups and Fortune 500 companies alike. I began my career in 1985 by helping my father (also named Bill) manage Apple IIe systems for the local library. Since then, I have built applications for the likes of Lucent Technologies, Bank One, the State of Ohio, Nationwide Insurance, and Sears, Roebuck and Co. I specialized in data-driven Web applications of all types, both public and private. Currently, I am the Senior Technology Consultant at Products of Innovative New Technology in Grove City, Ohio, a Microsoft Certified Partner, working on a Learning Management System for OmniPath, inc. (www.omnipath.com). I can be reached at [email protected]. 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/26/08 4:51 PM Page vii Dedication This edition of the book was heavily influenced by the thousands of readers all over the world who took the time to e-mail with thoughts, questions, com- plaints, criticism, praise and ideas. To be honest, they are why I write. The majority of my good projects have come from people who read my books and call to collaborate. This book is dedicated to those readers. If you have taken the time to e-mail me or review the book or contact Wiley — good or bad — about this book series, thank you. Even if you are peeved because of a problem or error, you are helping make this a better product and that helps everyone. Despite what people often think, even with the best of editing and authoring, these books aren’t perfect — they are a community effort. Without that com- munity, the books wouldn’t be good or necessary. It’s a self-replicating cycle, and I love it. 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/21/08 7:28 PM Page viii 01_182383 ffirs.qxp 2/26/08 4:51 PM Page ix Author’s Acknowledgments I cannot begin to thank the amazing team at Wiley who led me ever so care- fully through the process of updating this book. Katie Feltman kept on me to revise the ideas I presented, and Mark Enochs saw to it that I stuck to sched- ule. The entire Wiley team, in fact, is the best an author could ever hope to have. I have gotten to know them well over the last several years, and I love them all. A project at Wendy’s International led me to ask the most detail-oriented person I have ever met — Mike Spivey — to review the technical details of this edition. Jeff Simmons reviewed the original code, and did a good job, but this book is all the better for multiple sets of eyes. My army of peer reviewers from the original edition was fantastic: Theresa Alexander, Jim Andrews, David Deloveh, Rex Mahel, Greg McNamara, Rob Morgan, Blake Sparkes, and Gary Spencer. Here’s a special note about my father, William E. Sempf, whose education background was of inestimable help in reviewing the early concepts for the book. Then, he let me use him as a guinea pig for Part I! What a trooper! Finally, a shout to the many Microsoft people who gave me a hand with spe- cific questions about VB, Visual Studio, and the framework in general: Jan Shanahan and Susann Ragsdale in the Author Support Group, and Brad McCabe, Daniel Roth, Jay Roxe, and Steve Lasker, among many others, on the development teams.
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