1

1
Introduction to
Computers, the
Internet and
Visual Basic
 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.
 2

The chief merit of language is clearness.

—Galen

High thoughts must have high language.

—Aristophanes

Our life is frittered away with detail. . . . Simplify, simplify.

—Henry David Thoreau

My object all sublime I shall achieve in time.

—W. S. Gilbert

Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all.

—John F. Kennedy

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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OBJECTIVES
In this chapter you will learn:
 Basic hardware and software concepts.
 The different types of programming languages.
 Which programming languages are most widely used.
 The history of the Visual Basic programming language.
 Some basics of object technology.
 The history of the UML—the industry-standard object
oriented system modeling language.
 The history of the Internet and the World Wide Web.
 The motivation behind and an overview of Microsoft’s
.NET initiative, which involves the Internet in developing
and using software systems.
 To test-drive a Visual Basic 2005 application that enables
you to draw on the screen.

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1.1 Introduction
1.2 What Is a Computer?
1.3 Computer Organization
1.4 Early Operating Systems
1.5 Personal Computing, Distributed Computing and
Client/Server Computing
1.6 Hardware Trends
1.7 Microsoft’s Windows® Operating System
1.8 Machine Languages, Assembly Languages and
High-Level Languages
1.9 Visual Basic
1.10 C, C++, Java and Visual C#
1.11 Other High-Level Languages
1.12 The Internet and the World Wide Web

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1.13 Extensible Markup Language (XML)

1.14 Microsoft’s .NET
1.15 The .NET Framework and the Common Language
Runtime
1.16 Test-Driving a Visual Basic Application
1.17 (Only Required Section of the Case Study) Software
Engineering Case Study: Introduction to Object
Technology and the UML
1.18 Wrap-Up
1.19 Web Resources

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1.1 Introduction

• Visual Basic 2005 How to Program, Third Edition

– Associated with the abbreviation VB
– Appropriate for people with no programming experience
or experienced programmers
– Object-Oriented programming
– Event driven programming

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1.2 What Is a Computer?

• Computer
– Performs computations and makes logical decisions
– Billions times faster than human beings
• Computer Programs
– Sets of instructions for which computer processes data
• Hardware
– Physical devices of computer system (Ex: Hard Drive)
• Computer
– Programs that run on computers (Ex: Games)

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1.3 Computer Organization

• Six logical units of computer system

– Input unit
• Mouse, keyboard
– Output unit
• Printer, monitor, audio speakers
– Memory unit
• Retains input and processed information
– Arithmetic and logic unit (ALU)
• Performs calculations
– Central processing unit (CPU)
• Supervises operation of other devices
– Secondary storage unit
• Hard drives, floppy drives

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1.4 Early Operating Systems

• Batch processing
– One job (task) at a time
– Operating systems developed
• Programs to make computers more convenient to use
• Switch jobs easier
• Multiprogramming
– Simultaneous” jobs
– Timesharing operating systems

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1.5 Personal, Distributed and 10

Client/Server Computing

• Personal computing
– Computers for personal use
• Distributed computing
– Computing performed among several computers
• Client/server computing
– Servers offer common store of programs and data
– Clients access programs and data from server
– Local Area Networks (LAN)

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1.6 Hardware Trends

• Gordon Moore
– Co-founder of Intel
– Moore’s Law: The costs of hardware exponentially decreases.

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1.7 Microsoft’s Windows Operation

System
• Microsoft
– Dominant software company
– Windows operating system
• A graphical user interface (GUI) built on top of DOS
– Most widely used operating system

• Linux
– Operating system based on Unix
– Open source
• Source code freely available to users
– Biggest competitor to Windows

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1.8 Machine Languages, Assembly

Languages and High-Level Languages
• Machine language
– “Natural language” of computer component
– Machine dependent
• Assembly language
– English-like abbreviations represent computer operations
– Translator programs convert to machine language
• High-level language
– Allows for writing more “English-like” instructions
• Contains commonly used mathematical operations
– Compiler converts to machine language
• Interpreter
– Execute high-level language programs without compilation

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Fig. 1.1 | Comparing machine, assembly and high-level languages.

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1.9 Visual Basic

• Evolved from BASIC
– Primary purpose was to familiarize novices with programming
technique
• Microsoft introduced with GUI
• Distinctly different language
• Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
– Write, run, test and debug programs conveniently
• .NET platform
– Web-based applications can be distributed to a variety of
devices
– Different languages can interact

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1.10 C, C++, Java and Visual C#

•C
– Development language of Unix
– Hardware-independent languages; portable to most
computers
• C++
– Evolved from C
– Object-Oriented programming (OOP)
• Objects: reusable software components

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1.10 C, C++, Java and Visual C# (Cont.)

• Java
– C++ based language
– Sun Microsystems
– Dynamic content (ex: animations) to Web pages
– Object-Oriented programming (OOP)

• Visual C#
– Roots from C, C++, and Java
– Powerful class library (FCL)

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1.11 Other High-Level Languages

• FORTRAN
– FORmula TRANslator
– Complex mathematical computations
• COBOL
– COmmon Business Oriented Language
– Commercial application that require precise and efficient
manipulation of large amounts of data
• Pascal
– Structured programming
• Ada
– Multitasking: Allow many activities to occur in parallel

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1.12 Internet and the World Wide Web

• Internet
– Developed more than four decades ago with DOD funding
– Originally for connecting few main computer systems
– Now accessible by hundreds of millions of computers

• World Wide Web (WWW)

– Allows for locating/viewing multimedia-based documents
– W3C
• Devoted to developing nonproprietary, interoperable technologies

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1.13 Extensible Markup Language (XML)

• XML
– Resulted from HTML’s limitations
– Data independence

• Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)

– Technology for transmissions of objects over the internet

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1.14 Microsoft’s .NET

• Independence from specific language or platform

• Reusable application software components that can be

used over the Internet

• .NET Strategy: Allow programmers and companies to

concentrate on their specialties without having to
implement every component of every application

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1.15 The .NET Framework and the

Common Language Runtime
• .NET Framework is the heart of the .NET strategy
• Common Language Infrastructure (CLI):
Information about storage of data types
• Common Language Runtime (CLR): Programs
compiled into machine specific language
• Microsoft Intermediate Language (MSIL) plays a
crucial role for language interoperability
• Just-In-Time Compiler (JIT): Translates MSIL into
machine-language code when application executes

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.NET programming languages

APL Mondrian
Visual C# Oberon
COBOL Oz
Component Pascal Pascal

Curriculum Perl
Eiffel Python
Forth RPG
Fortran Scheme
Haskell Smalltalk
Java Standard ML

JScript Visual Basic

Mercury Visual C++

Fig. 1.2 | .NET languages.

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1.16 Test-Driving a Visual Basic

Application
• Test-Driving the Drawing Application
– Checking your setup
– Locating the application directory
– Running the Drawing application (Fig. 1.3)
– Changing the brush color (Fig. 1.4)
– Changing the brush size (Fig. 1.5)
– Finishing the drawing (Fig. 1.6)
– Closing the application

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Fig. 1.3 | Visual Basic Drawing application.

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Fig. 1.4 | Drawing with a new brush color.

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Fig. 1.5 | Drawing with a new brush size.

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Fig. 1.6 | Finishing the drawing.

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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1.17 Software Engineering Case Study:
Introduction to Object Technology and
the UML
• Object orientation
• Unified Modeling Language (UML)
– Graphical language that uses common notation
– Allows developers to represent object-oriented designs

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1.17 Software Engineering Case Study:
Introduction to Object Technology and
the UML (continued)
• Objects
– Reusable software components that model real-world items
– Look all around you
• People, animals, plants, cars, etc.
– Attributes
• Size, shape, color, weight, etc.
– Behaviors
• Babies cry, crawl, sleep, etc.

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1.17 Software Engineering Case Study:
Introduction to Object Technology and
the UML (continued)
• Object-oriented design (OOD)
– Models real-world objects
– Models communication among objects
– Encapsulates attributes and operations (behaviors)
• Information hiding
• Communication through well-defined interfaces
– Inheritance
• Object-oriented language
– Programming in object-oriented languages is called object-
oriented programming (OOP)
– Visual Basic, C#, Java, C++

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1.17 Software Engineering Case Study:
Introduction to Object Technology and
the UML (continued)
• Object-Oriented Analysis and Design (OOA/D)
– Essential for large programs
– Analyze program requirements, then develop solution
• UML
– Unified Modeling Language
• Pseudocode
– Informal text-based means of expressing program logic

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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1.17 Software Engineering Case Study:
Introduction to Object Technology and
the UML (continued)
• History of the UML
– Need developed for process with which to approach
OOA/D
– Booch, Rumbaugh and Jacobson
– Object Management Group (OMG) supervised
– Version 2 is current version

• UML
– Graphical representation scheme
– Enables developers to model object-oriented systems
– Flexible and extensible

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Application name File to execute

Parking Fees Garage.exe

Tic Tac Toe TicTacToe.exe
Drawing Stars DrawStars.exe
Drawing Shapes DrawShapes.exe
Drawing Polygons DrawPolygons.exe

Fig. 1.7 | Examples of Visual Basic applications found in this book.

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Software Engineering Observation 1.1

Reuse of existing classes when building new

classes and programs saves time, money and
effort. Reuse also helps programmers build more
reliable and effective systems, because existing
classes and components often have gone through
extensive testing, debugging and performance
tuning.

 2007 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.