No Really, What is Visual Basic Programming?

Say what??

If you have done any reasonable amount of research on this subject you may be on the verge of driving your fist through your screen if you see one more paragraph talking about graphical user interface, integrated development environment, or rapid application development.  Perhaps it would be beneficial to diffuse assumptions about the reader’s knowledge before mentioning that Visual Basic is an IDE for a COM that enables RAD of GUI applications.  What?  Exactly.   Simply providing the words that these letters represent hardly resolves the issue, it only serves to further the confusion that the reader began his or her search with.   In a lot of ways the experience in the paragraphs to follow aims to provide a starting point.  Rather than attempting to provide enlightenment, the author is creating a starting point.  So hopefully instead of being thrown into a bunch of technical jargon, one may a have a footing whereby the jargon won’t knock the reader on their rump.

Where to Begin?:

The first thing we need to clear up is all this talk about how Visual Basic is a language.  People understand that language refers to communication, but who or what is being talked to?  The conversation takes place between events i.e. event detection and event handling.  An example would be a mouse being clicked or a button being pressed, which would be the event being detected.   When a corresponding event takes place or has been handled, communication has taken place, thus a language has been spoken.  Visual Basic programming is a process whereby the programmer brings about these results through that language.   With that settled, the next step is to take a closer look at the actual way this comes about.  Simple… this language is produced by enabling the rapid application development of graphical user interface.    What? Exactly.

Breaking it Down:

Rapid application development is simply a fancy way of referring to the capacity to speed up the development of applications through various methods.  The purpose is to accelerate software systems development.   What you end up with is a capacity to develop at a faster rate and with a higher quality.  This was ground breaking in its time (1970s) due to how it significantly reduced the pre-planning side of programming, allowing for rapid prototyping.   As for the graphical user interface side of things, this is simply a description of the process whereby users are permitted to interact with electronics through the use of images vs. text commands.  An example of this would interaction is found in computers, cell phones, etc.

Just Smile and Nod:

So the next time someone says that Visual Basic Programming is event driven programming language that enables the rapid application development of graphical user interface, just smile and nod.  She is simply referring to Microsoft’s solution for programmers to enhance electronics faster without compromising quality.   While this is certainly an unashamed attempt at purposely over simplifying what Visual Basic Programming is, hopefully it is a breath of fresh air needing a foundation for breaking ground on this great mystery. There is a perfect solution for those students who cannot cope with their Visual Basic Programming assignments in university: https://assignmentcore.com/visual-basic-homework/ where you can hire experts online.