One of the most significant features of Visual Basic .NET is the full support of object-oriented programming. For years, developers have been asking for it, but you may not be quite sure how it can help to create and maintain scalable .NET applications. VB.NET is a language that facilitates object-oriented programming, but does not guarantee good object-oriented code. That's where Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET comes in. It will show you how to think about similarities in your application logic and how to design and create objects that maximize the benefit and power the .NET Framework enables.The concept of separating the interface from the implementation has been around for years, but with Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET you'll put it all into practice and you'll never willingly go back to those old ways. With chapters on object fundamentals and class anatomy, you'll lay a foundation that will prepare you to think and apply code reuse principles. Following that, you'll be ready to dive deep into code and the dynamic ecology that it interacts with. Inheritance, containment, polymorphism, overloading, and overriding are just the beginning of this adventure. From there, you'll discover exception handling, reflection, serialization, and I/O.Packed with examples that will guide you through every step, Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET is a guide for those with some programming experience. This book is for those who know Visual Basic 6.0 and are ready or have started the process of developing with Visual Basic .NET. It is an essential tool that will build your skills, as you become a master of Visual Basic .NET.It is one thing to know how to write object-oriented code. Knowing the when and the why is what makes good programmers. That's exactly what you'll know after reading this book.

J.P. Hamilton is a software engineer who lives and works in Houston,

Texas, perhaps the largest underrated city in the known universe.

At the age of eight, a serious addiction to Space Invaders and a

lack of funds led him to his first PC, a 6502-based beast built by

Ohio Scientific. He's been programming ever since. He has been

dabbling in the black art of COM programming for several years and

uses both languages: C++ and Visual Basic.

From time to time he leaves the realm of programming to pursue his

other interests: skydiving, running marathons, yoga, and drinking

coffee. His machine at home also doubles as a digital audio

workstation where he composes electronic music of all kinds. He

believes one should experience as much as possible in this life,

and is currently scheming for a way to climb Mt. Everest.

Preface; Audience; About This Book; Assumptions This Book Makes; Conventions Used in This Book; How to Contact Us; Acknowledgments; Chapter 1: Introduction; 1.1 Visual Basic .NET and Object-Oriented Programming; 1.2 The .NET Framework; Chapter 2: Object Fundamentals; 2.1 Creating and Compiling the Component; 2.2 Namespaces; 2.3 Using a Component; 2.4 Application Domains; 2.5 Contexts; 2.6 Assemblies; 2.7 Intermediate Language; 2.8 The Global Assembly Cache; 2.9 System Namespace; Chapter 3: Class Anatomy; 3.1 Member Variables; 3.2 Properties; 3.3 Methods; 3.4 Access Modifiers; 3.5 Passing Parameters; 3.6 Value Types; 3.7 Creation and Destruction; 3.8 Delegates and Events; 3.9 Design Considerations; 3.10 An Exercise; Chapter 4: Object-Orientation; 4.1 Generalization and Specialization; 4.2 Inheritance; 4.3 Containment; 4.4 Polymorphism; 4.5 Overloading; 4.6 Overriding; 4.7 Substitution; Chapter 5: Interfacing .NET; 5.1 Private Implementation; 5.2 Versioning; 5.3 Interfaces Versus Abstract Base Classes; 5.4 Interfaces in .NET; 5.5 Design Considerations; Chapter 6: Exceptional Objects; 6.1 The Basics of Exception Handling; 6.2 Unhandled Exception Handler; 6.3 The StackTrace Object; 6.4 Resuming Code; 6.5 Retrying Code; 6.6 Performance Counters; Chapter 7: Object Inspection; 7.1 Reflection; 7.2 Runtime Type Discovery; 7.3 Dynamic Type Loading; 7.4 Attributes; 7.5 Custom Attributes; Chapter 8: Object In, Object Out; 8.1 Streams; 8.2 Readers and Writers; 8.3 Serialization; 8.4 Schema Definition Tool; 8.5 Custom Serialization; 8.6 NetworkStream; Chapter 9: Object Remoting; 9.1 Channels; 9.2 A Remotable Object; 9.3 Windows Services; 9.4 The Client; 9.5 Designing for Remoting; 9.6 Marshal by Value (MBV); 9.7 Hosting Objects in IIS; 9.8 Windows Service Versus IIS; 9.9 Authentication; Chapter 10: Web Services; 10.1 Writing a Web Service; 10.2 Web Services Versus Remoting; 10.3 Using Web Services from .NET Remoting; 10.4 Compatibility; 10.5 UDDI; 10.6 Accessing Data for the Web Service; Bibliography; Colophon;