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Introduction
Microsoft Windows 8 is a powerful and visually compelling operating system designed to dramatically enhance consumer productivity and offer access to a wide range of web-based products and services. A rich user experience is at the heart of Windows 8, where the new look and feel of Windows 8 applications provide rapid access to music, photos, contacts, and user settings in the Internet cloud, and the Windows Store provides immediate access to exciting consumer applications. Windows 8 has been designed to operate on a broad spectrum of devices, from touch-enabled tablets, to laptops, to traditional desktop computers. As customers immerse themselves in hundreds of vibrant Windows 8 applications, they are given the freedom to focus on the task at hand, rather than the commands or features of the operating system.
From the perspective of the software developer, Windows 8 presents amazing opportunities; its fast, secure, and robust, and will be installed on millions of computers worldwide, including the Microsoft Surface tablets. Windows 8 applications are exciting and easy to use, and they offer customers an interface that is content-rich and runs equally well on touch-based devices or desktop PCs. Most significantly, the Windows Store allows developers to sell their Windows 8 applications directly to the global marketplace, providing new sources of revenue and streamlining installation procedures.
This book will show you how to create compelling Windows 8 applications with Microsoft Visual Studio 2012, the newest version of Microsofts bestselling software development suite. You will learn how to download a free version of the Visual Studio 2012 Express software (thats right free !), and how to create interesting Windows 8 apps by using several of the tools and technologies within Visual Studio, including the Visual Basic programming language. By the end of this book you will have learned how to create the core features of a Windows 8 application; how to work productively in the Visual Studio Integrated Development Environment (IDE); how to design a user interface with XAML markup and Blend for Visual Studio; how to write efficient Visual Basic program code; and how to sell your own applications in the Windows Store.
One of the coolest features of this book, of course, is that every programming tool that it teaches and describes is free ! Microsoft is offering complementary access to the Express edition of Visual Studio because it hopes that you will enjoy learning how to program with it, and that you will one day become a professional Visual Basic programmer who will build and sell great Windows applications. All you need is Windows 8 installed on a compatible computer with an Internet connection, and the desire to write Visual Basic programs.
In fact, the outlook for professional Visual Basic programmers has never been brighter. You just need to Start Here !
Who Should Read This Book
This is a hands-on programming tutorial for readers who enjoy learning to do new things by actually doing them. Start Here! Learn Microsoft Visual Basic 2012 assumes no prior knowledge of Visual Studio or Visual Basic, and it focuses entirely on introductory programming concepts and procedures. You will be surprised at how much you can accomplish as a beginning programmer with Visual Studio, and you will be building your own projects in no time. I assume only that you are an intelligent student, hobbyist, or IT professional who is interested in learning how to program, and that you have no prior experience with Visual Basic or the Visual Studio software suite.
This books content will provide you with concrete Visual Basic coding techniques as well as a broad overview of programming strategies. In addition, you will learn about the capabilities of the Windows 8 operating system, and the specific design guidelines that Microsoft recommends for Windows 8 applications, an exciting new way of creating software. The Windows 8 user interface design principles are sleek and empowering, and they encourage developers to put information-rich, web-aware applications at the center of the computing experience. Windows 8 applications present new ways of collaborating with others, as well as exciting opportunities for working with new input devices, such as built-in cameras, touchpads, accelerometers, gyros, compasses, GPS controls, and ambient light sensors.
The overall goal of Start Here! Learn Microsoft Visual Basic 2012 is to get you to the point where you can comfortably use the development tools in Visual Studio, create your own basic Windows 8 applications, and then be ready to follow a more comprehensive Visual Basic programming book, such as my own Microsoft Visual Basic 2012 Step by Step (Microsoft Press, 2013).
Assumptions
This book is designed to teach readers with no programming experience how to use the Visual Basic programming language. As part of that process, readers will also learn how to use the Visual Studio 2012 Express software, which they can download for free. , shows you how to download and install Visual Studio 2012 Express on your system.
The book assumes that you have purchased and are running the Windows 8 operating system, and that you want to learn how to create applications for Windows 8. These applications are simply programs that run under Windows 8, follow basic guidelines about how the user interface works, and are (or should be) designed to take advantage of the numerous resources and connections available on the web. Windows 8 applications are deeply interactive, and are designed to be downloaded by customers from the Windows Store.
To make the most of your programming practice, you will need to know a little about how to perform common tasks in Windows 8, how to work with information on the web, how to customize the Start page and user interface, and how to adjust basic system settings. If you also have Windows 8 installed on a tablet or touchpad device, all the better, because a fundamental design emphasis of Windows 8 is to make touch and gestures a natural way to manipulate content. You can build your applications on a laptop or desktop running Visual Studio 2012 and Windows 8, and then test them on your tablet or touchpad.