Chapter 11. Control and User Interface Standards

In the early days of computer programming, the user interface was not an issue. Hollerith cards, toggle switches on a mainframe front panel, punched paper tapes, these were all the interface that a real programmer needed. And why not? The programmers were generally the only ones who ever interacted with the computer. As long as the programmer could understand the input and output, there was really no reason to provide any more convenience or complexity to the application.

Today, programmers are one of the smallest groups of users to approach a computer. Many computer users (possibly most) are practically computer illiterate. The responsibilities placed on the programmer are much higher today because they will not be the primary ones interacting with the computer. In order to simplify the computer experience for the average user, programmers make use of user interface standards to bring a more consistent and familiar experience to each application. Chapter 4, User Interface Consistency, provided a high-level overview of user interface programming guidelines. Here in Chapter 11, more details about individual user interface elements complete the picture. While some of the general guidelines presented in this chapter apply to the user interfaces available through Visual Basic, Visual Basic for Applications, and Visual Basic, Scripting Edition, individual implementations of VBA and VBScript may provide user interface controls and features that are similar, but not identical to those available in the standard Visual Basic development environment. This chapter focuses on those elements available in standard Visual Basic.