TABLE OF CONTENTS -- INTRODUCTION -- 1 AN INTRODUCTION TO VISUAL BASIC 2008 EXPRESS -- Project Preview: The Joke Machine -- A Few Opening Words -- A Quick Overview of Visual Basic -- GUI Development -- Rapid Application Development -- Object-Oriented Programming -- Introducing Visual Basic 2008 Express -- What Can Visual Basic 2008 Express Do? -- What Can't Visual Basic 2008 Express Do? -- What's New in Visual Basic 2008 Express -- Support for Microsoft SQL Server Compact 3.5 -- Multi-Targeting -- More IntelliSense -- Support for New WPF and WCF -- New Language Features -- Improved ClickOnce Deployment -- Integrated Power Pack Controls -- Other Visual Studio 2008 Express Programming Languages -- Visual C# 2008 Express -- Visual C++ 2008 Express -- The Microsoft .NET Framework -- Before .NET -- .NET Components -- .NET 2.0 -- Back to the Joke Machine -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 2 NAVIGATING THE VISUAL BASIC 2008 EXPRESS DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT -- Project Preview: The Click Race Game -- Getting Comfortable Moving Around the Visual Basic 2008 Express IDE -- Navigating the IDE Menu -- Working with Toolbars -- Form Designer Basics -- Understanding the Code Editor -- What's in the Toolbox? -- Working with Solution Explorer -- Understanding How to Use the Properties Window -- The Component Tray -- Other Windows -- IDE Components Specific to WPF Applications -- Back to the Click Race Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 3 CREATING AN APPLICATION INTERFACE -- Project Preview: The Speed Typing Game -- Putting Together a Graphical User Interface -- GUI Design for Windows Forms Applications -- Specifying a Windows Starting Position -- Specifying Windows Border Style -- Dynamically Altering Title Bar Messages -- Setting Up Control Tab Order and Focus -- Adding a Status Bar to Your Application -- Posting a Notify Icon in the System Tray.

Adding a Splash Screen to Your Application -- Leveraging the Convenience of Built-in Dialogs -- Windows Forms Versus WPF Applications -- GUI Design for WPF Applications -- Creating Console Applications Using Text-Based Interfaces -- ClickOnce Application Deployment -- Back to the Speed Typing Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 4 WORKING WITH MENUS AND TOOLBARS -- Project Preview: The Lottery Assistant Game -- Designing a Menu System -- Adding Menus, Menu Items, and Submenus -- Associating Code Statements with Menus and Menu Items -- Enhancing Windows Menus -- Enabling and Disabling Menus and Menu Items -- Hiding and Displaying Menus and Menu Items -- Context Menus -- Adding Convenience with Toolbars -- Adding Graphics to Your Toolbars -- Associating Program Statements with Toolbar Buttons -- Back to the Lottery Assistant Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 5 STORING AND RETRIEVING DATA IN MEMORY -- Project Preview: The Story of Mighty Molly -- Enhancing Your Code with Comments -- Storing and Retrieving Data -- Alternative Ways of Storing Data -- Data Types -- Working with Constants -- Declaring Your Own Constants -- Using Visual Basic Built-in Constants -- Working with Variables -- Defining Variables -- Assigning Data to Variables -- Rules for Naming Variables -- Recognizing Variables as Objects -- Variable Conversion -- Functions and Methods for Manipulating Strings -- Working with Arrays -- Defining Arrays -- Loading Array Elements -- Retrieving Array Elements -- Resizing Arrays -- Erasing Arrays -- Working with Structures -- Reserved Words -- Back to the Story of Mighty Molly -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 6 APPLYING CONDITIONAL LOGIC -- Project Preview: The Guess a Number Game -- Applying Conditional Logic -- The If...Then Statement -- If…Then Statement Syntax -- The Single Line If…Then Statement -- Multiline If…Then Statements.

The If…Then…Else Statement -- The If…Then…ElseIf Statement -- Nesting Conditional Logic -- The Select Case Statement -- Comparison Operators -- Back to the Guess a Number Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 7 PROCESSING LOTS OF DATA WITH LOOPS -- Project Preview: The Dice Poker Game -- Iterative Processing -- Do Loops -- For...Next -- For…Each…Next -- While -- Endless Loops -- Breaking Out of Loops -- Exit For -- Exit Do -- Back to the Dice Poker Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 8 ENHANCING CODE STRUCTURE AND ORGANIZATION -- Project Preview: The Hangman Game -- Creating Procedures -- Sub and Function Procedures -- Handling Events -- Sub Procedures -- Function Procedures -- Passing Arguments -- Passing Optional Arguments -- Leveraging the Power of Visual Basic's Built-in Functions and .NET Objects -- Date-Related Objects -- String Manipulation Functions -- Lambda Expressions -- Back to the Hangman Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 9 GETTING COMFORTABLE WITH OBJECT-ORIENTED PROGRAMMING -- Project Preview: The Rock, Paper, Scissors Game -- Object-Oriented Programming -- OOP Terms -- Abstraction -- Encapsulation -- Inheritance -- Polymorphism -- Classes and Objects -- Creating a New Class -- Understanding Data Members -- Defining Class Properties -- Adding Class Methods -- Inheriting from Another Class -- Back to the Rock, Paper, Scissors Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 10 INTEGRATING GRAPHICS AND AUDIO -- Project Preview: The VB Doodle Game -- Integrating Graphics into Your Visual Basic Applications -- Working with Graphic Images -- Drawing Vector Graphics -- Drawing Text -- Drawing Using Power Pack Controls -- Adding Sounds to Your Applications -- RAD Development with the My Namespace -- Back to the VB Doodle Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- 11 DEBUGGING VISUAL BASIC APPLICATIONS.

Project Preview: The Tic-Tac-Toe Game -- Dealing with Errors -- Syntax Errors -- Logical Errors -- Run-Time Errors -- Establishing Breakpoints -- Setting Up Breakpoints -- Stepping through Code Execution -- Edit and Continue -- Developing Exception Handlers -- A Run-time Exception Demonstration -- Structured Exception Handlers -- Back to the Tic-Tac-Toe Game -- Designing the Game -- Summary -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y.