Before we dive fully into the language, it is first necessary to cover some basic concepts about the Visual Basic .NET language and the .NET Framework. This chapter covers some of the fundamental ideas that apply across the entire language. It also talks a little bit about the underlying design of the .NET Framework.
If you take a look at the source code for the
HelloWorld program from the previous chapter, several things should already be obvious. The first thing that should stand out is the way that the Visual Basic .NET language takes advantage of English words and syntax to make code as readable as possible. Compare the following Visual Basic .NET version of the “Hello, world!” program: