Visual Basic is a third-generation event-driven programming language and integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft for its COM programming model first released in 1991. Visual Basic is designed to be relatively easy to learn and use. Visual Basic was derived from BASIC and enables the rapid application development (RAD) of graphical user interface (GUI) applications, access to databases using Data Access Objects, Remote Data Objects, or ActiveX Data Objects, and creation of ActiveX controls and objects. Scripting languages such as VBA and VBScript are syntactically similar to Visual Basic, but perform differently.
A programmer can put together an application using the components provided with Visual Basic itself. Programs written in Visual Basic can also use the Windows API, but doing so requires external function declarations. Though the program has received criticism for its perceived faults, from version 3 Visual Basic was a runaway commercial success, and many companies offered third party controls greatly extending its functionality.
The final release was version 6 in 1998. Microsoft's extended support ended in March 2008 and the designated successor was Visual Basic .NET (now known simply as Visual Basic).
Read more about Visual Basic: Language Features, Characteristics, History, Derivative Languages, Performance and Other Issues, Legacy Development and Support, Example Code
Famous quotes containing the words visual and/or basic:
“Dialogue should simply be a sound among other sounds, just something that comes out of the mouths of people whose eyes tell the story in visual terms.”
—Alfred Hitchcock (1899–1980)
“The basic essential of a great actor is that he loves himself in acting.”
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977)