Visual Basic Blog

A group blog from members of the VB team

VB Universal Windows App Part 4: using SharpDX for sound effects

This is Part 4 of the "VB Universal Windows App" series: So far we've built a solid app, sharing as much code and XAML as possible by placing it in our PCL. For today's post we'll continue the process, adding game-quality sound effects to our app. SharpDX is the best way to do this. Please bear with me. This is a long ...

VB Universal Windows App Part 1: Getting Started

This is Part 1 of the "VB Universal Windows App" series:   Recently in April 2014, Microsoft announced Universal Windows Apps. I thought I'd take an old Silverlight paddle game and turn it into a VB Universal Windows App. Here's how the finished game looks, on devices and in the stores:   What is a Universal ...

Visual Studio “14” CTP Now Available

As announced today by Soma, we've just released the first CTP (Community Technology Preview) of the next version of Visual Studio. This is doubly-exciting as this is the first public release of a version of Visual Studio powered by "Roslyn" by default. At BUILD we released the "Roslyn" End User Preview which extends Visual Studio 2013 by ...

Edit and Continue survey results

Thanks everybody for all the great feedback! We've received hundreds of replies since last week with detailed information and concrete examples for us to review. We are closing the survey today and have started to process the tons of data you have provided. The overwhelming majority of you have told us that Edit and ...

Help make Edit and Continue better!

UPDATE 2014-05-20: We've received enough responses and the survey is now closed. Thanks everyone! Hey VB developers! Do you get tired of seeing this box (I know I do)? (image) Tell us about it! The Visual Studio team would like your anonymous feedback on improving Edit and Continue (E&C) when developing .NET applications. This survey...

*New* video series on Windows Store App development using Visual Basic on Microsoft Virtual Academy

Hey VB hackers, Microsoft Virtual Academy recently published a six-part series all about building modern apps for the Windows Store using your favorite language and staring Visual Basic MVP Bill Burrows and yours truly :) (image) Microsoft Virtual Academy is a free service available to anyone to sharpen their skills and learn the latest and ...

QuickVB Goes Open Source!

Yesterday we published a copy of a fun “Roslyn”-powered retro editor for Visual Basic called QuickVB in honor of the 50th birthday of BASIC. We thought this was a neat application to showcase our love of BASIC but since then we’ve realized that it’s also a great example of how to put the power of the .NET Compiler ...