Visual Basic is a Microsoft Windows application development tool that incorporates a variant of the BASIC programming language. New or casual programmers can use it to create simple applications for Windows platforms; more experienced programmers can write more complex, server-based applications.

The building blocks of Visual Basic applications are forms and controls, which are referred to as objects . The programmer creates and manipulates objects using a drag-and-drop graphical interface to create a framework for a Visual Basic application. The programmer can then use the programming language to reference and tie these objects together to create a complete application, referred to within Visual Basic as a project.

Visual Basic uses interpreter mode during application development and testing. Once testing is complete, compile the application using the Visual Basic native compiler. The end result is executable code optimized for a production environment. Both the Visual Basic application development tool and the optimized generated code run only on Microsoft Windows platforms.

Having created your Visual Basic component, the final stage is to connect it to CICS. This Part contains the following chapters:

In addition to the usual software, we have used the following in this Part: