Visual Studio and Visual Basic

Question

Hi.  I would like to write Visual Basic programs in Visual Studio.

 

I have read documentation on .NET, Visual Basic and Visual Studio.  I am confused.

 

Questions?  What is the relationship between Visual Basic and Visual Studio?  When the free, Community version of Visual Studio is downloaded, is Visual Basic included?  Or does Visual Basic have to be purchased and installed separately?

 

Thanks.

Answer 1

Thanks for the information. I will download/install the free, Community version of Visual Studio and go from there. FYI.

Answer 2

Visual Basic is a programming language; Visual Studio is the integrated development environment (IDE) used to write, build, debug, test, and deploy applications in languages such as Visual Basic, C#, and others.

Visual Studio provides the tools around the language: code editor, designers, compilers, debuggers, source control integration, and project templates. Visual Basic itself (the compiler, language services, templates) is delivered as part of Visual Studio via workloads, not as a separate paid product in this scenario.

When the free Visual Studio Community edition is downloaded and installed, Visual Basic support is available at no extra cost. During installation, select the .NET desktop development workload so that Visual Basic project templates (such as console apps and Windows Forms apps) and the necessary tooling are installed.

Visual Basic does not need to be purchased or installed separately when using Visual Studio Community; everything needed to write Visual Basic apps is included once the appropriate workload is chosen.

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References:

• Welcome to the Visual Studio IDE | Visual Basic
• What is Visual Studio?
• Tutorial: Create a simple Visual Basic console app
• Tutorial: Learn to use the code editor with Visual Basic
• Learn about projects and solutions using Visual Basic
• Tutorial: Create a WinForms app with Visual Basic