An important part of Visual Studio .NET is the ability to create Windows applications that run locally on users’ machines. Visual Studio .NET allows you to create the application and user interface using Windows Forms.
A Visual Studio Windows application is built around the .NET Framework, a rich set of classes that allows you to program sophisticated applications. You can create, Windows applications using any .NET programming language (Visual Basic, C#” Managed Extension for C++, and many others) and .NET debugging facilities.
Windows applications created with .NET classes afford you other benefits. You can access operating-system services and take advantage of other· benefits provided by your user’s computing environment. You can access data from database using ADO.NET. The GDI+ allows.’ you to do advanced drawing and painting within your windows forms.
Visual Studio .NET provides you an environment to create Windows applications .The advantage of using Visual Studio .NET is that it provides tools that make application development much faster, easier, and more reliable. These tools include:
• Visual designers for Windows Forms with drag-and-drop controls.
• Code-aware editors that include statement completion, syntax checking, and other
IntelliSense features.
• Integrated compilation and debugging.
• Project management facilities for creating and managing application files, including deployment locally, over an intranet or over the ·Internet.
If you have used Visual Studio before, these features will seem familiar; they are similar to features available in previous versions of Visual· Basic and Visual C++. Visual Studio .NET expands on these features to provide a superior environment for developing Windows applications.
WINDOWS APPLICATIONS DEVELOPMENT
Windows application development with Visual Studio can take many shapes. You can create Windows Forms and Windows service applications that leverage the power of the .NET Framework, or you can use ‘Visual C++ to create Win32 applications.
Windows Forms
A form is a bit of screen real estate, usually rectangular, that you can .use to present information to the user ad to accept input .from the user. Forms can be standard windows, multiple. document interface (MDI) windows, dialog boxes, or display surfaces for graphical routines. The easiest way to define the user interface for a form is to place controls on its surface. Forms are objects that expose properties which define their appearance, methods which define their behavior, and events which define their interaction with the user. By setting the properties of the form and writing code to respond to its events, you customize the object to meet the requirements of your application.
Windows Service Applications
Using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET or the Microsoft .NET Framework SDK, you can easily create services by creating an application that is installed as a service. This type of application is called a Windows service. With framework features, you can create services, install them, and start, stop, and otherwise control their behavior.
Win32 Projects
You can use the Project Wizard to create Win32 project types, including console applications, executable Windows applications, dynamic-link libraries, and static libraries.
Dinesh Thakur holds an B.C.A, MCDBA, MCSD certifications. Dinesh authors the hugely popular