A long time ago, I decided that my goal was to become a computer program designer. I even took a couple of college course on programming. I never did follow through with my goal but have wanted to do some programming every since then. A software program caught my eye that I thought would help me build some applications. The program is Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Edition from Microsoft.

Visual Basic 6.0 is a tool that produces components and applications with a minimum amount of work. These items can be used on independent systems or as part of a client/server environment. It is considered to be a Rapid Application Development (RAD) tool.

Some of the key features of Visual Basic 6.0 include the Data Environment Designer and Dynamic HTML Page Designer. Some other features are Visual Basic WebClass Designer and the integrated Visual Database tools.

Some of the biggest requests that developers get right now are for Web based programs. It seems that everybody is on the Net and want to have some kind of dynamic hook to draw surfers in and keep them coming back. That's where Visual Basic's web development tools come in. With these tools you will be able to create a cross platform, browser independent, application. Add some of the advanced features of Dynamic HTML like layout, position and multimedia options.

If you require an application that will utilize databases then Visual Basic can build one easily. The program includes the Data Environment Designer. This feature allows you to build ADO (Access Database Object) based components. There is a new Integrated Report Writer that assists in building your database application. The feature also allows for data access between machines over the network.

You can put together forms and reports fairly quick by doing some dragging and dropping from the Data Environment. The Visual Component Manager helps keep track of coding elements for cataloging and reuse. There are also quite a few query and data manipulation tools that will help shore up your application.

When you're done building an application, there are extensive debugging tools. These tools will help bring your application to a finished state. From there all you'll need to do is market your application and make lots of money from it.

There are some other things packaged with the Visual Basic program. You get the Visual Studio Service Pack, which has some file updates and additional things for the program. There is also the msdn Library. This disc has a wealth of information with code samples and documentation. There was even a mail in card to receive the latest version of the Library. For free even.

If you need a quick and efficient way to create a business application, then look no further than Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Professional Version. It has all of the tools to make a professional application with very little effort.

For current pricing or additional information about Visual Basic 6.0 visit the Microsoft web site at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/

System requirements:

486Dx/66 PC
Windows 95 or later operating system
16 MB or RAM
Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.01 Service Pack
74 MB of free hard drive space
CD-ROM drive
VGA Graphics
Mouse or other pointing device