Notes on .net

.net is Microsoft's new way for programming languages. Just like Java and the Microsoft Visual products, programs are compiled to an intermediate language which is interpreted at run time. As a reult, distributing applications also requires distributing the .net framework (runtime environment, aka interpreter) which is about 25 MB. I guess that applications will no longer fit on a floppy.

When debugging, there is an object browser which shows all the properties and the inheritence structure of the object.


Exception Handling

There can be any number of catch blocks. Use the when clause to control whether or not a catch is executed, such as when designing the app verses in a finished product.

In VB.net, entering

produces a list of possible exceptions

In VB 6, exceptions are identified by numbers, in VB.net, exceptions are identified by name.

Use throw ex to generate an exception.

Exceptions bubble up until they are handled. Those which aren't handled produce a generic "it failed" dialog box which allows the user to enter debug mode. (yikes!) Therefore, the top level of your code should always contain a generic Catch...Finally block even if it doesn't actually do anything with the error.

The exception handling routines provide a mechanism so that ALL ERRORS (or just selected errors) can be automatically sent to a web site. You can use this to report all unexpected errors, and, perhaps, to make your code better.


VB.net

Continuous live interpreter. Errors are shown as soon as you type them.


Author: Robert Clemenzi - clemenzi@cpcug.org
URL: http:// cpcug.org / user / clemenzi / technical / Languages / index.html