Creating Visual Basic Projects
Creating a new Visual Basic project is a simple task. You can select either File, New Project or click the New Project link on the Start Page. In either case, Visual Studio shows the New Project window, as shown in Figure 2.3.
To understand what kind of Visual Basic applications you can create, you simply need to select the Visual Basic node on the left side of the window. Under this node, you see a lot of different kinds of applications you can create with Visual Basic 2015, such as Windows applications, web applications, Office customizations, Windows Communication Foundation services, Windows Store apps for Windows 8.1 and Windows Phone 8.1, and so on.
Available Project Templates
The list of installed project templates in the New Project window can vary depending on either the Visual Studio 2015 edition or additional items that are installed (for example, from the Visual Studio Gallery).
The main part of the New Project window shows a variety of available templates. Each kind of application is represented by a specific project template, which provides a skeleton of a project for that particular kind of application, including all the references and the basic code files required. For example, the WPF Application project template provides a skeleton of a project for creating a Windows application using WPF technology; it includes references to the WindowsBase.dll assembly, specific Imports directives, and WPF objects represented by the appropriate code files. Moreover, when you select this template, Visual Studio automatically enables the WPF designer. When you select a template in the New Project window, you see a detailed description for the template on the right side of the window.
Note
Part II, “Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic 2015,” discusses several kinds of applications you can build with Visual Basic 2015. At the moment, you don’t need to worry about all the details, but if you want a quick description, just look at the right side of the New Project window. Note that this first part of the book uses the Console Application project template.
When you create a new project, Visual Studio usually creates a solution containing that project. If you plan to add other projects to the solution, it can be a good idea to create a directory for the solution. This allows you to better organize your projects because one directory can contain the solution file, and that directory can then contain subdirectories, each of them related to a specific project. To create a director for a solution, in the New Project window, ensure that the Create Directory for Solution check box is selected.
The New Project window also allows you to do the following: .NET Framework multi-targeting, search through templates, manage templates, and find samples on the Internet. The following sections discuss these features.