Visual Basic Blog
A group blog from members of the VB team
Latest posts
"Live From Redmond: Orcas Overview" Webcast Rescheduled (Beth Massi)
Live Meeting had some technical issues for this morning's webcast with John Stallo. Sincerest apologies from the Visual Basic team. We’ve rescheduled the webcast for this Tuesday, April 24th. Please register here. Also don't forget to register for the other incredible webcasts from other members of the team. You can always find the latest information on all the webcasts on the Visual Basic Developer Center. -Beth Massi, Program Manager VS Core Community
Using XML as a resource in your code –one more series on gamewriting (Matt Gertz)
Using XML as a resource in your code –one more series on gamewriting (Matt Gertz) This is actually going to be part one of a two-part blog. In this post, I’m going to cover some basic usage of XML, as well as a few other interesting coding points such as debug-only code. In the second part, I’ll cover the creation and handling of on-the-fly controls. As has probably become apparent over my posts so far, I have a certain fondness for creating small computer games, and while I promise not to make every post about writing them, nevertheless this post does cover the creation of a different type of game th...
Live From Redmond Webcast Series (Beth Massi)
The Visual Basic team has put together a "Live from Redmond" webcast series aimed at the next version of Visual Basic and Visual Studio code named "Orcas". The live series starts April 18th and will continue to the end of May. Come join us for this exciting series direct from the Visual Basic team!! Here's the schedule (check the VB Developer Center for updates): UPDATE: The VB Team has added more webcasts for June! Hope to see you at the webcasts! For more webcasts past, present and future, please visit the VB Webcasts page.-Beth Massi, Program Manager VS Core Community
Simple Animation in Visual Basic (Matt Gertz)
Simple Animation in Visual Basic (Matt Gertz) The basics: You're almost certainly used to placing controls on a form; however, you probably have an expectation that they will stay in place once you put them there. That need not be the case, however. Controls have X & Y positions, and you can modify them at any time during the runtime. We can use this to create a simple animation in a windows application -- let's say, for example, an animal walking. First, I'll need a two or more images of the animal in different stages of walking. (In the attached windows application, I'v...
It’s Elementary: Using VB To Get Process Information (Matt Gertz)
I’ve had a wide variety of jobs over my career, beyond working at Microsoft. I’ve been a burger-flipper and an administrative assistant. I’ve worked with the DOE and NASA on robotics projects, and back in my NROTC days I spent a month at the helm & planes of a nuclear submarine. I spent a summer doing really tedious data entry, another summer writing an accounts receivable program for local businesses in my home town, and a couple of summers writing CAD/CAM models for IC chips. But I think one of the most interesting things I ever did, for one brief moment,&...
Partial Methods
About two weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend the product group dinner associated with the Global MVP Summit that was behind held here at Microsoft. Besides a free meal, this also gave me the excellent opportunity to meet with some of our MVPs and discuss their impressions with Visual Studio and all the cool new features we are introducing for Orcas. At the dinner, I had an opportunity to talk with a group of VB MVPS from Japan, who met with me and about 5 or 6 other members of the VB team. While we were talking, a couple of them asked me a few questions about partial methods. Unfortunately, I do not speak ...
Visual Basic "Soup-to-Nuts" Webcast Series
This webcast series is devoted to those who want to learn to really use Visual Basic and what it can do! Learn from Ron Cundiff, Developer Evangelist and featured Microsoft speaker. This is a 20+ part series that's underway. Check out the on demand recordings and sign up for the live webcasts here.-Beth Massi, Program Manager VS Core Community
Coding a Euchre Game, Part 9: Into the Wild Blue Yonder (Matt Gertz)
Coding a Euchre Game, Part 9: Into the Wild Blue Yonder So, here we are at the end of this series, which I hope you’ve found interesting. In this final post, I’m going to talk about deployment – getting your code shipped to another person. Oh, and the final code (including the deployment project) is included at the bottom of this post. It can be a lot of fun to code & play your own card game, but at some point, you’re going to want to share it with friends or sell it to customers. Visual Studio gives you two options for this: Click-Once deployment and Setup projects. I’ve o...
Coding a Euchre Game, Part 8: Remember Me, Show Me, Help Me (Matt Gertz)
Coding a Euchre Game, Part 8: Remember Me, Show Me, Help Me We’re getting close to wrapping up this series. In this post, I want to cover several “clean up” topics, and then in the following post, I’ll talk about deployment and will attach the entire codebase for your perusal. Settings You’ll note, from earlier posts, that there are a lot of options around variations in the Euchre rules, options for AI personalities, options for sound, and even options for the names of the players. Obviously, it would be really annoying if you had to specify those at the beginning of each session! The best...