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Unit 1: The Integrated Development Environment

write non-GUI classes in Visual Basic. While previous Versions of Visual Basic had used VBX
controls, Visual Basic now used OLE controls (with files names ending in .ocx) instead. These
were later to be named Active X controls.

With version 5.0 release in February 1997, Microsoft released Visual Basic exclusively for
32-bit versions of Windows. Programmers who preferred to write 16-bit programs were able
to import programs written in Visual Basic 4.0 to Visual Basic 5.0 and Visual Basic 5.0
programs could easily be converted with Visual Basic 4.0. Visual Basic 5.0 also introduced the
ability to create custom user controls, as well as the ability to compile to native Windows
executable code, speeding up calculation-intensive code execution. A free, downloadable
Control Creation Edition was also released for creation of Active X controls.
Visual Basic 6.0 released in mid 1998 improved in a number of areas including the ability
to create web-based applications. VB6 has been the most successful version in the history of
Visual of Basic, it has entered Microsoft’s ‘non-supported phase’ as of March 2008. Although
the development environment is no longer supported, the runtime is supported on Windows
Vista, Windows Server 2008 and Windows 7.
Mainstream Support for Microsoft VB 6.0 ended on March 31,2005. Extended support ended
in March 2008. In response, the Visual Basic user community expressed its grave concern and
lobbied users to sign a petition to keep the product alive, Microsoft has so far refused to
change their position on the matter.
Questions

1. Differentiate between first and last version of Visual Basic.
2. Explain the concept of Active control.

1.5 Summary

• Visual basic to is a tool that allows you to develop window (Graphic user interface
application.

• Visual basic is an implement of microsoft event-driven programming language.
• The visual basic IDE has three distinct states: Design, Run and debug.
1.6 Keywords

Event-Driven: VB is event driven, means code remains idle until called upon to respond to some
event. VB is governed by an event.

Graphical user interface (GUI): In computing a graphical user interface (GUI, sometimes
pronounced gooey,) is a type of user interface that allows users to interact with electronic devices
with images rather than text commands.
Integrated Development Environment: An integrated development environment (IDE) (also known
as integrated design environment or integrated debugging environment) is a software application
that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development.

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