VISUAL BASIC

Chapter 1  Introducing Computers, the Internet and Visual Basic.NET

A Computer is composed of two components:    Hardware and software.
Hardware is the physical components, things that you can see, feel, hear.  Software include programs which operate the computer.

Hardware consists of

1.    Input:     The common means are keyboard, mouse and scanners.
2.    Processing.    The Central Process Unit (C.P.U.) converts input (Data) into output (Information)
3.    Output.     Soft Output is the screen, while hard output is is paper.

For more information on Input/output:     Input/Output
For more information on Processors:     Processors
There are two types of Software
1.   Operating Software
2.    Application  Software

Languages

The only language the computer understands is the Machine Language.  It is primitive language which is simple for the
computer but difficult and tedious for the people who communicate with the computer.  It is strictly a binary language and uses 0's and 1's for all entries.

The next level was the  Assembly Language

High level languages use regular english words.  The first high level level language was FORTRAN which stands for FORmula TRANslator.  Other languages such as COBOL (COmmon Business Oriented Language), Pascal , BASIC (Beginners All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code)  soon followed.  These were procedural languages where the verb (action) and not the noun (object) was important.  The last such language was C.  But by 1990, Object-oriented languages where nouns were more important were taking root.  Languages such as C++ (now replaced by C#), Java, Visual Basic, and Small Talk are object oriented languages.The three main characteristics of object-oriented languages are:


Encapsulation where certain information is hidden and only accessible by its own methods

Inheritance where properties are inherited

Polymorphism where different objects can be obtained by same commands but with different signatures.