Datasheet

Chapter 1: Getting Started
11
The Major IDE Windows
The IDE shown in Figure 1 - 7 divides the screen into three windows. The left window shows the Visual
Studio Toolbox, which, by default, shows some of the objects Visual Studio makes available to you.
If you look closely you can see that the Toolbox presents a smorgasbord of objects you can use in your
programs, including textboxes, labels, buttons, and other controls you will find useful as you develop
your programs.
The middle window is referred to as the Source window and currently shows an unadorned Visual
Studio form object. As presented in Figure 1 - 7 , the form has no other objects placed on it . . . yet. That is,
you haven ’ t added any other objects (such as textboxes or buttons) from the Toolbox onto the form. You
will change this later in this chapter.
The right side of the IDE currently shows two subwindows. The subwindow on top shows the Solution
Explorer. Simply stated, the Solution Explorer shows the current development state of your project.
It shows the forms the program has and its references, plus other information that we ’ ll discuss in later
chapters.
Below the Solution Explorer window is the Properties window. The purpose of the Properties window
is to show you the properties associated with the object currently in focus in the Source window. If you
look closely at the form in the Source window in Figure 1 - 7 , you ’ ll notice that it has a couple of small
white boxes along its edge. These are called sizing boxes and their purpose is to enable you to alter the
size of the objects to which they are attached. However, the sizing boxes also show which object in
the Source window currently has the attention, or focus , of Visual Studio. Whatever object has the focus
in the Source window is also the object that the Properties window displays. In Figure 1 - 7 the properties
shown in the Properties window apply to the form shown in the Source window. Visual Studio always
maintains this relationship between the object in focus in the Source window and the information
displayed in the Properties window.
Using the Source Code Window
If you click Form1.cs in the Solution Explorer window, you can move to the Solution Explorer menu bar
and click the source code icon to view the code that Visual Studio has written for you thus far. Figure 1 - 8
shows you the location of the source code icon in the Solution Explorer window. (When you hover the
cursor over the source code icon a small textbox opens and displays the words “ View Code, ” as shown
in Figure 1 - 8 .)
Figure 1 - 8
ISBN: 978-0-470-26129-3 I Title: Beginning C# 3.0 : An Introduction to Object Oriented Programming I SKU: 9785CH0009874