Whether you're moving to .NET for the first time, or you're already writing applications on .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.0, Pro VB 2008 and the .NET 3.5 Platform will provide you with a solid grounding in this technology and serve as a comprehensive reference throughout your coding career: *Explore five new chapters of content - including the grammar of the common intermediate language (CIL), .NET generics, and object serialization services. *Discover all the new .NET 3.5 features - nullable types, delegate covariance, ASP.NET 2.0 master pages, the new Windows Forms "Strip" controls, and much more. *Get a professional foothold - targeted to appeal to experienced software professionals and/or graduate students of computer science (so don't expect three chapters on iteration or decision constructs!). *Gain a rock solid foundation in programming using Visual Basic. *Get comfortable with all the core aspects of the .NET platform - including assemblies, remoting, Windows Forms, Web Forms, ADO.NET, XML web services, and much more. Once you've digested the information contained in the 25 chapters of this 1000+ page book, you'll be ready to apply this knowledge to your specific programming assignments and well equipped to explore the .NET universe on your own. What you'll learn * Everything you need to put .NET 3.5 and Visual Basic 2008 to use in your professional workbefore anyone else! * Insights and techniques from the author's experience since .NET 1.0 * Complete coverage of .NET 3.5 - WPF, WCF and WF Who this book is for Anyone with some software development experience interested in the new .NET 3.5 platform and the Visual Basic language. Whether you're moving to .NET for the first time or you're already writing applications on .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.0, this book will provide you with a solid grounding in this new technology and serve as a comprehensive reference throughout your coding career.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Introduction Visual Basic 2008 and the .Net Platform Chapter 1 The Philosophy of .Net Chapter 2 Building Visual Basic 2008 Applications Part 2 Core VB Programming Constructs Chapter 3 VB 2008 Programming Constructs, Part I Chapter 4 VB 2008 Programming Constructs, Part II Chapter 5 Designing Encapsulated Class Types Chapter 6 Understanding Inheritance and Polymorphism Chapter 7 Understanding Structured Exception Hnalding Chapter 8 Understanding Object Lifetime Part 3 Advanced VB Programming Consructs Chapter 9 Working with Interface Types Chapter 10 Collections, Generics, and Nullable Data Types Chapter 11 Delegates, Events, and Lambdas Chapter 12 Operator Overloading and Custom Conversion Routines Chapter 13 VB 2008-Specific Language Features Chapter 14 An Introduction to LINQ Part 4 Programming with .NET Assemblies Chapter 15 Introducing .NET Assemblies Chapter 16 Type Reflection, Late Binding, and Attribute-Based Programming Chapter 17 Processes, AppDomains, and Object Contexts Chapter 18 Building Multithreaded Applications Chapter 19 .NET Interoperability Assemblies Part 5 Introducing the .NET Base Class Libraries Chapter 20 File and Directory Manipulation Chapter 21 Introducing Object Serialization Chapter 22 ADO.NET Part I: The Connected Layer Chapter 23 ADO.NET Part II: The Disconnected Layer Chapter 24 Programming with the LINQ APIs Chapter 25 Introducing Windows Communication Foundation Chapter 26 Introducing Windows Workflow Foundation Part 6 Desktop Applications with Windows Forms Chapter 27 Introducing Windows Forms Chapter 28 Rendering Graphical Data with GDI+ Chapter 29 Programming with Windows Forms Controls Part 7 Desktop Applications with WPF Chapter 30 Introducing Windows Presentation Foundation and XAML Chapter 31 Programming with WPF Controls Chapter 32 WPF 2D Graphical Rendering, Resources, and Themes Part 8 Building Web Applications with ASP.NET Chapter 33 Building ASP.NET Web Pages Chapter 34 ASP.NET Web Controls, Themes, and Master Pages Chapter 35 ASP.NET State Management Techniques Index