IE 423 – Design of Decision Support Systems

Visual StudioIntroduction to VB.NET programming

Important Events

Keepin Up

Read Pol and Ahuja – Chapter 10 – Visual

Studio Pol and Ahuja – Chapters 11-13

DSS Application Programming

Spreadsheets, Databases, etc. are tools to support decision makingYou still need a delivery systemsSometimes you can build a delivery system within a tool – like Access…but it often involves some programming

DSS Application Programming

We will be using Visual Basic.NET Don’t worry about the .NET part yet

VB programming model Object Oriented Programming Event-driven programming

DSS Application Programming

Object Oriented Programming As oppose to ? Focus on objects as the major

organizing principle for the software …rather than the procedure or

algorithm as the organizing principle In part, it is about how you think

about the program and its design

DSS Application Programming

Object Oriented Programming Objects are things in the program Objects have attributes, usually called

Properties Properties have a name and one or more

values Values can change or be set by your

program

DSS Application Programming

Object Oriented Programming Objects have actions, called Methods

Methods are things that the object do,… …or have done to them Methods are components of objects

Not independent

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Event-driven Programming Events are things that can happen to

objects In VB many events are predefined

(click) …but you can define others Code (program code – the code that

you are going to write) is associated with events

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So, how do you start thinking about developing a program?

What’s the “old” way?

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What’s the “old” way?Procedural Programming What to do to start. What to do next …and next …and next if this or that …and next And wrap it up

DSS Application Programming

Consider an exchange rate calculatorPrint “Welcome to the Exchange Rate Calculator”Get exchangerate !get todays rateInput “Enter amount in US Dollars”, amtforeignamt = amt * exchangeratePrint amt, “in this foreign currency = “, foreignamtend

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Previous slide is an example of procedural programming Why?

Alternative – Object Oriented Programming

How is this different?

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Procedural vs Object Oriented programmingProduct might be the sameFrom a functional (I/0) standpoint, could you produce the same program either way?Two important differences Thinking Implementation

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What are the objects in your problem and your design? Some problem specific Some are UI objects

What are the properties of these objects?What should happen when events happen to these objects?

DSS Application Programming

Note: your programming language must support object oriented, event-driven programmingVisual BasicVisual C++Visual C#C++ (object oriented)

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Visual Studio A place to make movies? A place to make music videos? A type of apartment with big

windows?

IDE – Interactive Development Environment

DSS Application Programming

Visual Studio IDE An environment to create and edit software …to run and test the software Has many, many tools to make software

development easier Controls (?) Windows Web Servers

Helps manage software development Configuration management

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Visual Studio IDE You can run your software in Visual

Studio When it is finished and tested you can

make a standalone software package

DSS Application Programming

Visual Studio IDE Mostly for MicroSoft Development

products