Datasheet

Chapter 1: Introduction to the IDE
7
A solution is a group of one or more projects that should be managed together. For example, suppose that
you are building a server application that provides access to your order database. You are also building a
client program that each of your sales representatives will use to query the server application. Because
these two projects are closely related, it might make sense to manage them in a single solution. When
you open the solution, you get instant access to all the files in both projects.
Both projects and solutions can include associated files that are useful for building the application
but that do not become part of a final compiled product. For example, a project might include the
application’s proposal and architecture documents. These are not included in the compiled code, but
it is useful to associate them with the project so that they are easy to find, open, and edit while working
on the project.
When you open the project, Visual Studio lists those documents along with the program files. If you
double-click one of these documents, Visual Studio opens the file using an appropriate application. For
example, if you double-click a file with a .doc extension, Visual Studio normally opens it with Microsoft
Word.
To associate one of these files with a project or solution, right-click the project in the Solution Explorer
(more on the Solution Explorer shortly). Select the Add command’s Add New Item entry, and use the
resulting dialog box to select the file you want to add.
Often a Visual Basic solution contains a single project. If you just want to build a small executable
program, you probably don’t need to include other programming projects in the solution.
Another common scenario is to place Visual Basic code in one project and to place documentation (such
as project specifications and progress reports) in another project within the same solution. This keeps the
documentation handy whenever you are working on the application but keeps it separate enough that it
doesn’t clutter the Visual Studio windows when you want to work with the code.
Although you can add any file to a project or solution, it’s not a good idea to load dozens of unrelated
files. Although you may sometimes want to refer to an unrelated file while working on a project, the
extra clutter brings additional chances for confusion. It will be less confusing to shrink the Visual Basic
IDE to an icon and open the file using an external editor such as Word or WordPad. If you won’t use a
file very often with the project, don’t add it to the project.
Starting the IDE
When you launch Visual Studio, it initially displays the Start Page shown in Figure 1-2 by default. The
Start Page’s Recent Projects section lists projects that you have worked on recently and provides links
that let you open an existing project or Web site, or create a new project or web site. The Getting Started
section contains links to help topics that may be useful to beginners.
Depending on your network connection, the Visual Studio Headlines and Visual Studio Developer News
sections display developer-related news. In Figure 1-2 the computer wasn’t connected to the Internet so
the Start Page doesn’t show developer news.
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