Content Summary : The goal of this book is to help you come up to speed with the Visual Basic .NET language even if youhave never programmed anything before. We will start slowly, and build on what we learn. So take adeep breath, let it out slowly, and tell yourself you can do this. No sweat! No kidding! Programming a computer is a lot like teaching a child to tie their shoes. Until you find the correct wayof giving the instructions, not much gets accomplished. Visual Basic .NET is a language in which youcan tell your computer how to do things. But like a child, the computer will only understand if youexplain things very clearly. If you have never programmed before, this sounds like an arduous task, andsometimes it is. However, Visual Basic .NET gives you a simple language to explain some very complexthings. Although it never hurts to have an understanding of what is happening at the lowest levels,Visual Basic .NET frees the programmer from having to deal with the mundane complexities of writingWindows programs. You are free to concentrate on solving problems. Visual Basic .NET helps you create solutions that run on the Microsoft Windows operating system.Chances are, if you are looking at this book, you have already felt the need or the desire to create suchprograms. Even if you have never written a computer program before, as you progress through the TryIt Outs in this book, you will become familiar with the various aspects of the Visual Basic .NETlanguage, as well as its foundation in Microsoft's .NET Framework. You will find that it is not nearly asdifficult as you have been imagining. Before you know it, you will be feeling quite comfortable creatinga variety of different types of programs with Visual Basic .NET. As the name implies, Visual Basic .NETcan be used to create applications for use over the Internet. However, as when learning any newtechnology, you have to walk before you can run, so we will start out focusing on Windows applications,before extending our boundaries.