one of the first successful interactive development environments for Windows programming, introduced by Microsoft in 1991. Programmers can lay out the program's windows graphically (Figure 291) and write BASIC code to specify what happens when each button is clicked or other events occur. Any part of the layout or code can be changed at any time. Unlike in earlier Windows programming environments, the programmer need not write any general code to initialize windows, handle events, or interact with the operating system.
The current version is called Visual Basic.NET or VB.NET and uses the .NET Framework for fully object-oriented programming. Similar products for other programming languages include Microsoft's Visual C++ and Visual C# and Borland's Delphi and Kylix (for Pascal), JBuilder (for Java), and C++ Builder.
