Visual Basic has been described as a visual interface design package to which the programmer attaches snippets of code. Although this definition has been contested by some, no one would contest that Visual Basic's interface design component--and therefore its forms and controls--are central to Visual Basic. To create a professional application, you need extensive knowledge of Visual Basic controls and their numerous properties, events, and methods. Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is the book that documents Visual Basic controls thoroughly.Visual Basic Controls in a Nutshell is divided into two sections. The first contains a detailed summary of Visual Basic Professional Edition's intrinsic and custom controls. Each chapter provides the following information about a control:
- A general description of the control, including its usage and purpose
- Control tasks--that is, the tasks that are typically executed when creating or managing a control
- The most important properties that define the behavior and appearance of the control
- The major events fired by a control and to which code can be assigned
- In cases where their timing may be important, the order in which related multiple events are fired
- The most important methods that are available for managing a control or accessing its functionality
- The ways in which the control unexpectedly interacts with changes in its state or in that of the Visual Basic environment. Typically, these undocumented or little documented side effects give developers enormous difficulty.
- Whether a property is available at design-time and/or run-time
- The data type returned by a property or method