Introduction to the Visual C

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• Introduction to the Visual C 2005 Express
  Edition IDE

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• Seeing is believing.
• Proverb

• Form ever follows function.
• Louis Henri Sullivan

• Intelligence is the faculty of making artificial
  objects, especially tools to make tools.
• Henri-Louis Bergson

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OBJECTIVES

• In this chapter you will learn
• The basics of the Visual Studio Integrated
  Development Environment (IDE) that assists you in
  writing, running and debugging your Visual C
  programs.
• Visual Studio's help features.
• Key commands contained in the IDE's menus and
  toolbars.
• The purpose of the various kinds of windows in
  the Visual Studio 2005 IDE.
• What visual programming is and how it simplifies
  and speeds program development.
• To create, compile and execute a simple Visual C
  program that displays text and an image using the
  Visual Studio IDE and the technique of visual
  programming.

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• 2.1 Introduction
• 2.2 Overview of the Visual Studio 2005 IDE
• 2.3 Menu Bar and Toolbar
• 2.4 Navigating the Visual Studio 2005 IDE
• 2.4.1 Solution Explorer
• 2.4.2 Toolbox
• 2.4.3 Properties Window
• 2.5 Using Help
• 2.6 Using Visual Programming to Create a Simple
  Program Displaying Text and an Image
• 2.7 Wrap-Up
• 2.8 Web Resources

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Fig. 2.1 Start Page in Visual C 2005 Express
Edition.
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Fig. 2.2 Displaying a Web page in Visual Studio.
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Fig. 2.3 New Project dialog.
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Fig. 2.4 Design view of the IDE.
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Fig. 2.5 Example of a text box control in the
Visual Studio IDE.
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Fig. 2.6 Examples of buttons in the Visual
Studio IDE.
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Fig. 2.7 Visual Studio menu bar.
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Fig. 2.8 Summary of Visual Studio 2005 IDE
menus (Part 1 of 2).
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Fig. 2.8 Summary of Visual Studio 2005 IDE
menus (Part 2 of 2).
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Fig. 2.9 Standard toolbar in Visual Studio.
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Fig. 2.10 Adding the Build toolbar to the IDE.
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Fig. 2.11 IDE toolbar icon showing additional
commands.
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Fig. 2.12 Tool tip demonstration.
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Fig. 2.13 Toolbar icons for three Visual Studio
windows.
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Fig. 2.14 Auto-hide feature demonstration.
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Fig. 2.15 Displaying a hidden window when
auto-hide is enabled.
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Fig. 2.16 Disabling auto-hide (pinning down a
window).
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Fig. 2.17 Solution Explorer with an open
project.
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Fig. 2.18 Solution Explorer showing plus boxes
and minus boxes for expanding and collapsing the
tree to show or hide project files.
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Fig. 2.19 Solution Explorer expanding the
Properties file after clicking its plus box.
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Fig. 2.20 Solution Explorer collapsing all
files after clicking any minus boxes.
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Fig. 2.21 Toolbox window displaying controls
for the Common Controls group.
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Fig. 2.22 Properties window displaying the Text
property of the Form.
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Fig. 2.23 Help menu commands.
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Fig. 2.24 Dynamic Help window.
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Fig. 2.25 Using context-sensitive help.
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Fig. 2.26 Options dialog displaying Help
settings.
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Fig. 2.27 Simple program executing.
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Fig. 2.28 New Project dialog.
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Fig. 2.29 Save Project dialog.
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Fig. 2.30 Setting the project location in the
Project Location dialog.
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Fig. 2.31 Setting the forms Text property in
the Properties window.
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Fig. 2.32 Form with enabled sizing handles.
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Fig. 2.33 Resized form.
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Fig. 2.34 Changing the forms BackColor
property.
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Fig. 2.35 Form with new BackColor property
applied.
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Fig. 2.36 Adding a label to the form.
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Fig. 2.37 Changing the Labels AutoSize
property to False.
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Fig. 2.38 GUI after the form and Label have
been customized.
Label centered with updated Text property
Sizing handles
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Fig. 2.39 Properties window displaying the
Labels properties.
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Fig. 2.40 Font dialog for selecting fonts,
styles and sizes.
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Fig. 2.41 Centering the Labels text.
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Fig. 2.42 Inserting and aligning a PictureBox.
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Fig. 2.43 Image property of the PictureBox.
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Fig. 2.44 Select Resource dialog to select an
image for the PictureBox.
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Fig. 2.45 Select Resource dialog displaying a
preview of selected image.
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Fig. 2.46 Scaling an image to the size of the
PictureBox.
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Fig. 2.47 PictureBox displaying an image.
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Fig. 2.48 Building a solution.
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Fig. 2.49 IDE in run mode, with the running
program in the foreground window.