outline

Purpose of the class

• Who is it for?

What we are learning

• Programming essentials
• Specific languages
• Emphasis on concepts
• Practical applications
     - educational
     - scientific
     - business settings

Why program?

• History
• Usefulness now
• Engineer analogy

Hardware information

• Disk
     - floppy 1.44 meg
     - you may want to have 3 available - one to turn in, two to work on

Computer requirements

• Visual Basic v6.0

Solving problems with STAIR

• S  tate the problem
• T  ools
• A  lgorithm
• I  mplementation
• R  efinement

History of programming

• Sumerian Algorithms
• Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn-Musa Al-Khowarizimi (algorithm is derived from the last name)
• Pascaline 1659
• Analytical Engine 1834
• Lady Ada

Birth of programming languages

• Eniac - cords and wires
• Grace Hopper and A0-first compiler
• (first bug - origin of debugging)

Higher level languages

• Fortran - first practical higher level language
• COBOL - business oriented
• PASCAL - teaching language
• BASIC - hobbyist's language
• QuickBASIC - BASIC comes of age
• OOP - object oriented programming (C, PASCAL)
• Next generation - Hypertalk, Visual BASIC

Windows-general characteristics

• GUI, graphically based
• Multiple ways to do things, User-driven
• Device Independence, Event oriented
• Mouse is critical, Multi-tasking

Programming differences-DOS

• Programmer in control, user interface up to programmer
• User has few options - computer 'train' the user
• Programmer must anticipate user's wishes
• Procedural program design, programmer directly responsible for all device control

Programming differences-WINDOWS

• User in control
• OOP - object oriented program design
• Standardized user interface
• Generally harder to program, easier to use

Visual Basic Guided Tour

• Parts of the VB Editor
• Menu bar, Tool bar, Tool box, Project window, Properties box
• Using menu bar to show, hide other components

Naming a form

• Click on the form to select it
• Click on the properties box or right-click on the form
• Click on the NAME property to select it (scroll through the list to locate)
• Highlight editing part of the properties box - change name to MyFirst
• Notice change in the properties box - caption of form has not changed

Changing the form's caption

• Use the same procedure to change the form's CAPTION property to {your name}'s First VB Program
• Examine other properties of the form, but do not change them randomly

Adding a picture box

• Show the toolbox if hidden
• Click on the Picture box icon (the cactus picture)
• Drag small area on the form - this is your picture box
• Change shape by using the '"handles"

Picture box

• Naming convention - pic, so name something like picBlue
• Change background color of the box
• Double-click on the BackColor property
• Choose a color for your box from the palette

Adding some code to Picture box

• Double-click on the picture box - this brings up the code window
• First, decide on the algorithm - then implement it

Some concepts

• Object oriented syntax
     - OBJECT.PROPERTY
     - sometimes FORM.OBJECT.PROPERTY
     - note the periods and lack of spaces

Variable = value

• Read "Variable gets value"
• NOT equality
• For our purposes, an object property is a variable

Saving the program

• VB has TWO different files for each program:
  Form has a .FRM extension
     - contains description of the form, objects and code
  Project has .VBP(Visual Basic Project) extension
     - essentially has a list of the forms in the program

Use the Disk icon to save

• This is the safest way to be sure everything is saved
• Look at the default name given and ALWAYS use the same extension
• If you are confused, use NO extension at all
• VB will guess better than you

Test the program

• Press the Play button on the toolbar - you will see your program running
• Click on the form outside the box, nothing should happen
• Click inside the box, the window should change colors
• Hit the stop button to return

Save the program

• Test and save the program
  
  HAVE FUN!