IDE
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TAGS: Programming, TECH, VB
The IDE (Integrated Development Environment) of Visual Basic has three states (which, BTW, appear in VB's title bar):
- Design mode
- Run mode
- Debug mode
The IDE is composed of the following elements:
- Menu Bar. Includes standard pull down menus (File, Edit, View, Window, and Help), plus menus specific to Visual Basic (Project, Format, Debug, Run, Query, Diagram, Tools, and Add-Ins).
- Toolbars. Bars with icons leading to commonly used commands. Customize the Toolbar by right-clicking on it. Toolbars are either hidden, docked, or floating.
- Toolbox. Windows with icons of controls that can be used on forms. The toolboxes provides a set of tools that you use at design time to place controls on a form. Toolboxes can be customized with additional Tabs as accessed by its Context Menu
- Project Explorer Window. An explorer window that lists modules in the current project.
- Properties Window. A list of the property settings for the selected object.
- Object Browser. An explorer window that lists libraries and objects (along with their methods, properties, and events) available to the project.
- Form Designer. A window to view and modify forms. Each form has its own Form Designer.
- Code Editor Window. A window to view and edit code.
- Form Layout Window. A window that allows you to graphically position the form as it would appear on the screen.
- Immediate, Locals, and Watch Windows. Windows used in debugging.
- Context Menus. Displayed when right-clicked on different items. These are menus of shortcuts to frequently performed actions.
- Miscellaneous. Additional IDE features can be accessed with the Add-In Pull down Menu. A common add-in is Microsoft Visual SourceSafe, which is used for enterprise team development.
Context applicable help is available with F1 on the keyboard. (This assumes the MSDN Library is properly installed.)
2007-09-20 19:58:51Z