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35-412: The VBX specification was created so that developers could extend Visual Basic . Since at the time Visual Basic was an interpreted language with limited speed, VBXs, which were most often written in C or C++, provided the ability to create very powerful and efficient user interface sub-components which could be assembled into applications using Visual Basic as the glue. Visual Basic 4.0 added support for

70-447: A common language for interaction, maintaining consistency throughout the whole information system. Graphical user interface builders facilitate the authoring of GUIs in a WYSIWYG manner employing a user interface markup language . They automatically generate all the source code for a widget from general descriptions provided by the developer, usually through direct manipulation . Around 1920, widget entered American English, as

105-410: A computer user interacts with through direct manipulation to read or edit information about an application. User interface libraries such as Windows Presentation Foundation , Qt , GTK , and Cocoa , contain a collection of controls and the logic to render these. Each widget facilitates a specific type of user-computer interaction, and appears as a visible part of the application's GUI as defined by

140-469: A generic term for any useful device, particularly a product manufactured for sale; a gadget . In 1988, the term widget is attested in the context of Project Athena and the X Window System . In An Overview of the X Toolkit by Joel McCormack and Paul Asente, it says: The toolkit provides a library of user-interface components ("widgets") like text labels, scroll bars, command buttons, and menus; enables programmers to write new widgets; and provides

175-558: A layer to the execution environment. VB applications require the Microsoft VB runtime MSVBVM##.DLL, where ## is a version number, either 50 or 60. MSVBVM60.dll comes standard with Windows in all editions from Windows 98 to Windows 11 although some editions of Windows 7 do not include it. For Windows 95 however the application installation process requires the DLL needed by the program. VB 5 and 6 can compile code to either native or P-Code but

210-526: A programmable form system for Windows 3.0 , under the code name Ruby (no relation to the later Ruby programming language ). Tripod did not include a programming language at all. Microsoft decided to combine Ruby with the Basic language to create Visual Basic. The Ruby interface generator provided the "visual" part of Visual Basic, and this was combined with the "EB" Embedded BASIC engine designed for Microsoft's abandoned "Omega" database system. Ruby also provided

245-770: A programmer can develop a simple program without writing much code. Programs built with earlier versions suffered performance problems, but faster computers and native code compilation made this less of an issue. Since a VB program is compiled as a native code executable instead of interpreted as old BASIC variants, it runs relatively fast and requires relatively little storage space. But, from version 5 on , it requires relatively large library files to be loaded at runtime; about 1 MB. Core runtime libraries are included by default in Windows 2000 and later, but extended runtime components require extra installation consideration. Earlier versions of Microsoft Windows (95/98/NT), require

280-489: A widget typically differs depending on whether it is enabled or disabled; when disabled, a widget may be drawn in a lighter color (" grayed out ") or be obscured visually in some way. See the adjacent image for an example. The benefit of disabling unavailable controls rather than hiding them entirely is that users are shown that the control exists but is currently unavailable (with the implication that changing some other control may make it available), instead of possibly leaving

315-515: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Visual Basic (classic) Visual Basic (VB) before .NET , sometimes referred to as Classic Visual Basic , is a third-generation programming language , based on BASIC , and an integrated development environment (IDE), from Microsoft for Windows known for supporting rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, event-driven programming and both consumption and development of components via

350-528: Is automatically called that executes the code that the programmer attached to the handler. For a DLL, the VB code generally provides no user interface, and instead provides COM objects to other programs. This allows for capabilities such as server-side processing or an add-in module. Via the COM technology, unused memory is recovered for reuse using reference counting ; recovering when the count reaches zero. VB reduces

385-472: Is best covered in the last MSDN release before Visual Studio.NET 2002. Later releases of MSDN focused on .NET development and had significant parts of the Visual Basic 6.0 programming documentation removed as the language evolved, and support for older code ended. Although vendor support for Visual Basic 6 has ended, and the product has never been supported on the latest versions of Windows, key parts of

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420-406: Is defined as a class by object-oriented programming ( OOP ). Therefore, many widgets are derived from class inheritance. In the context of an application, a widget may be enabled or disabled at a given point in time. An enabled widget has the capacity to respond to events, such as keystrokes or mouse actions. A widget that cannot respond to such events is considered disabled. The appearance of

455-484: Is not case-sensitive – though the IDE transforms keywords into a standard case and variable names to match the case used elsewhere in the project. Of note, string comparison is case sensitive by default. The VB compiler is shared with other Visual Studio suite languages, C and C++. Nevertheless, by default the restrictions in the IDE do not allow creation of some targets (Windows model DLLs) and threading models, but over

490-534: The Component Object Model (COM) technology. VB was first released in 1991. The final release was version 6 (VB6) in 1998. On April 8, 2008, Microsoft stopped supporting the VB6 IDE, relegating it to legacy . The Microsoft VB team still maintains compatibility for VB6 applications through its "It Just Works" program on supported Windows operating systems. Microsoft significantly changed VB for

525-588: The Palo Alto Research Center Inc. research for the Xerox Alto User Interface. Various implementations of these generic widgets are often packaged together in widget toolkits , which programmers use to build graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Most operating systems include a set of ready-to-tailor widgets that a programmer can incorporate in an application, specifying how it is to behave. Each type of widget generally

560-410: The .NET technology and rebranded it Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), and then later rebranded it back to Visual Basic . Therefore, Visual Basic can refer to a classic version, a .NET version or both. This article is about the versions before .NET. Just as BASIC was originally intended to be easy to learn, Microsoft intended the same for VB. Development of a VB application is exclusively supported via

595-434: The IDE is organized as a project which can be configured to output as a program ( EXE ), a dynamic-link library (DLL) or an ActiveX control library (OCX) which is a specialized a DLL. Controls provide the graphical functionality of a GUI application, and programmers attach code to event handlers to perform actions. For example, a drop-down control displays a list of items. When the user selects an item, an event handler

630-511: The Microsoft development team envisioned them as visual "control" components like a toggle switch or button. Enterprising third party software component developers saw opportunities to use the VBX specification for non-visual components, such as components for creating ZIP files , manipulating low-level system settings and communicating with TCP/IP . This computer-programming -related article

665-630: The VB integrated development environment (IDE) – an application in the Visual Studio suite of tools of that era. Unlike modern versions of Visual Studio that support many languages including VB (.NET), the VB IDE supports just VB. In 2014, some software developers still preferred Visual Basic 6.0 over its successor, Visual Basic .NET . Visual Basic 6.0 was selected as the most dreaded programming language by respondents of Stack Overflow 's annual developer survey in 2016, 2017, and 2018. As

700-474: The ability to load dynamic link libraries containing additional controls (then called "gizmos"), which later became the VBX interface. Microsoft developed many derivatives of VB (classic), including: Versions before 5 compiled the code to P-Code – which is interpreted at runtime. The benefits of P-Code include portability and smaller binary file sizes, but it usually slows execution, since an interpreter adds

735-414: The count when a variable goes out of scope or when assigned to Nothing . This design prevents memory leaks that plague some, older languages such as C & C++. It differs significantly from the more modern approach of garbage collection . VB provides a large library of utility objects, and it provides basic support for object-oriented programming . Unlike many other programming languages, VB code

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770-493: The data processed by the application and the available interactions on this data. GUI widgets are graphical elements used to build the human-machine-interface of a program. GUI widgets are implemented like software components . Widget toolkits and software frameworks, like e.g. GTK+ or Qt , contain them in software libraries so that programmers can use them to build GUIs for their programs. A family of common reusable widgets has evolved for holding general information based on

805-412: The environment still work on newer platforms. It is possible to get a subset of the development environment working on 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11. Owing to its persistent remaining popularity, third-party attempts to further support it, such as Rubberduck, exist. The following code snippet displays a message box saying "Hello, World!" as

840-439: The environment, providing a dynamic application. For example, code can be inserted into the form resize event handler to reposition a control so that it remains centered on the form, expands to fill up the form, etc. By inserting code into the event handler for a keypress in a text box, the program can automatically translate the case of the text being entered, or even prevent certain characters from being inserted. Development in

875-531: The glue to assemble widgets into a complete user interface. The same year, in the manual X Toolkit Widgets - C Language X Interface by Ralph R. Swick and Terry Weissman, it says: In the X Toolkit, a widget is the combination of an X window or sub window and its associated input and output semantics. Finally, still in the same year, Ralph R. Swick and Mark S. Ackerman explain where the term widget came from: We chose this term since all other common terms were overloaded with inappropriate connotations. We offer

910-484: The newer OLE Controls or OCX s (which became ActiveX controls), implicitly deprecating VBX controls. OCXs are based on the Component Object Model . Each version of Visual Basic has come with many controls. By incorporating VBX controls into Visual Basic, Microsoft spawned the first commercially viable market for reusable software components . Third parties have created a large market of custom controls for resale. VBX components were called "custom controls" because

945-506: The observation to the skeptical, however, that the principal realization of a widget is its associated X window and the common initial letter is not un-useful. Any widget displays an information arrangement changeable by the user, such as a window or a text box . The defining characteristic of a widget is to provide a single interaction point for the direct manipulation of a given kind of data. In other words, widgets are basic visual building blocks which, combined in an application, hold all

980-803: The runtime is still required for built-in functions and forms management. Criticisms of VB (prior to VB.NET) include: All versions of the Visual Basic IDE, from 1.0 to 6.0, are no longer supported by Microsoft. The associated runtime environments are also unsupported, except for the Visual Basic 6 core runtime environment, which Microsoft officially supports for the lifetime of Windows 10 and Windows 11 . Third party components that shipped with Visual Studio 6.0 are not included in this support statement. Some legacy Visual Basic components may still work on newer platforms, despite being unsupported by Microsoft and other vendors. Documentation for Visual Basic 6.0, its application programming interface and tools

1015-462: The runtime libraries to be distributed with the executable. Forms are created using drag-and-drop techniques. A tool is used to place controls (e.g., text boxes, buttons, etc.) on the form (window). Controls have attributes and event handlers associated with them. Default values are provided when the control is created, but may be changed by the programmer. Many attribute values can be modified during run time based on user actions or changes in

1050-488: The theme and rendered by the rendering engine. The theme makes all widgets adhere to a unified aesthetic design and creates a sense of overall cohesion. Some widgets support interaction with the user, for example labels, buttons , and check boxes . Others act as containers that group the widgets added to them, for example windows , panels , and tabs. Structuring a user interface with widget toolkits allows developers to reuse code for similar tasks, and provides users with

1085-412: The user uncertain about where to find the control at all. On pop-up dialogues, buttons might appear greyed out shortly after appearance to prevent accidental clicking or inadvertent double-tapping. Widgets are sometimes qualified as virtual to distinguish them from their physical counterparts, e.g. virtual buttons that can be clicked with a pointer , vs. physical buttons that can be pressed with

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1120-444: The window loads: This snippet makes a counter that moves up 1 every second (a label and a timer control need to be added to the form for this to work) until the form is closed or an integer overflow occurs: GUI widget A graphical widget (also graphical control element or control ) in a graphical user interface is an element of interaction , such as a button or a scroll bar . Controls are software components that

1155-414: The years, developers have bypassed these restrictions. Visual Basic has notable features and characteristics that are in some cases different than other BASIC variants or from other common languages: BYTE reported in 1989 that, based on its experience with Macintosh software development, Microsoft "wants to provide a development environment that mimics the delivery environment". BASIC's string handling

1190-462: Was preferable to C, the company's Greg Lobdell said, when developing the mostly transaction-processing applications Microsoft expected object-oriented programming tools to create. Visual Basic 1.0 was introduced in 1991. The drag and drop design for creating the user interface is derived from a prototype form generator developed by Alan Cooper and his company called Tripod . Microsoft contracted with Cooper and his associates to develop Tripod into

1225-418: Was the intention of older BASIC variants, VB was intended to have a low learning curve . Further, the IDE was intended to promote productivity; even for complex GUI applications. Programming involves visually arranging components or controls on a form , specifying attributes and actions for those components, and writing code that directs behavior. Since components have default attributes and actions,

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