Chapter 14. The My Namespace

The release of the .NET Framework was supposed to mark a revolution in the ability to rapidly build applications. However, for many Visual Basic programmers many tasks actually became more complex and a lot harder to understand. For example, where previously you could use a simple Print command to send a document to the default printer, you now needed to create a whole bunch of objects, and trap events to determine when and what those objects could print. Microsoft shipped the My namespace with version 2.0 of the .NET Framework, which gives Visual Basic developers shortcuts to common tasks.

This chapter examines the My namespace and describes how you can harness it to simplify the creation of applications. As you'll see, the My namespace actually encompasses web development as well, bringing the ease of development that Visual Basic 6 programmers were used to in Windows development to web applications and services. Even C# developers can take advantage of My, which can be handy for simple tasks that don't warrant the extra effort of writing masses of class-based code.