LOG A BUG REPORT

It is inevitable that a product as sophisticated as Visual Studio .NET will have a few bugs in it. Microsoft wants your help in identifying bugs you have run into so the

Visual Studio .NET team at Microsoft can fix your reported problem as quickly as possible. Microsoft makes it easy for you to send issues to Microsoft directly in the Microsoft Development Environment, MDE, window.

You log into the Visual Studio .NET Web site with your username and password. If you do not have a username or password, you can create one from the Web site. When you create a username and password, you will also have to enter your contact information that includes your name, mailing address, e-mail address, and telephone number.

After you log on successfully, you can read up on Visual Studio .NET news and information from the Visual Studio

.NET site, and from here you can also log bug reports. After you enter a bug report, the Web site forwards the report to the appropriate personnel on the Visual Studio .NET team.

If the Visual Studio .NET team needs more information from you to replicate or fix the problem, they will contact you by e-mail using the contact information you entered when you created your username and password.

■ The Start page appears in the parent window.

¤ Click the Report a Visual Studio .NET issue link.

■ The Login page appears in the parent window.

Note: If you have a dial-up Internet connection, your dial-up connection window will appear so you can dial your Internet service provider. If you cannot connect to the Internet, the parent window displays an action cancelled message stating that Internet Explorer was unable to connect.

‹ Enter your login ID and password.

Note: If you do not have a login ID or password, sign up by clicking the Register Now link.

› Click Submit.

It is easy to forget passwords, because you can have different passwords for each service, program, or operating system that requires a password. You should keep your passwords in a safe place, never on a network, so you can refer to them in case you forget them.

If you forget your password into the Visual Studio .NET site, you can click the I forgot my password link in the Login page. You will have to enter your user ID name and your e-mail address so Microsoft can e-mail you your password. If you forget your user ID name then you will have to open a new account with a different username so you can log on.

You can submit feedback directly to the Visual Studio .NET team at Microsoft without entering the Visual Studio .NET site. The Login page has a Feedback link at the upper right-hand corner of the site. When you click this link, a blank e-mail message to the Visual Studio .NET team e-mail address will appear so you can send the team an e-mail with your comments, suggestions, and/or problems.

340056

eric@eebutow.com

■ The bug report screen appears so you can give technical support detailed information about your problem.

# contains three different types of building blocks Cthat define variables and functionality. You combine

these building blocks — methods, classes, and structures — together to form a functioning program.

A class is the smallest building block, and it acts like a box for you to keep certain classes of elements such as the ages of your cats. You can also declare classes as base classes where a class can inherit characteristics from a base class. For example, you can have a base class of cats’ names and have inheritor classes that contain more specific information such as fur color.

A structure is a value type. Unlike a class, which contains references to data in your program, a structure contains the data to which the classes refer. You can create structures using the struct keyword that you will learn about later in this chapter.

A module, the largest building block, is a portable executable file that can contain structures and classes. Modules have .exe (executable) or .dll (Dynamic Link

Library) extensions; you can use modules to test various portions of your program before you integrate them and to integrate with other Windows programs that will reference the same DLL file.

VIEW INFORMATION ABOUT C# BUILDING BLOCKS

■ The Index menu appears.

Note: Close the Properties window by clicking to the right of the Properties title bar.

Visual C#

› Type modules in the Look for field.

ˇ Click to select Visual C# from the Filtered by drop-down list.

You can create a module with the class name Module so your program knows the module will integrate with other parts of a program with a namespace such as a class. This ensures that your module and a class in your program work together.

If you want to create modules as separate programs, you can give each one a separate namespace name, or if you want to have the modules integrated, you can give several modules the same namespace name.

Classes help your program run more quickly. A class has the extra advantage of being a reference type — you can pass along a class that contains data instead of passing the data itself. Structs have the advantage of requiring less memory because moving a struct means that the program does not have to keep referencing data and using memory for that purpose.

Á Click compared to classes in the topics list.

■ The Ways to Implement Component Functionality page appears in the parent window.