Event Driven Programming 1990–2020
A Limited Personal History of VB.NET, then WPF, then UWP/WinUI
What technologies can be leveraged better than both object-oriented programming and procedural programming combined? Event-driven programming with fully featured object-oriented capabilities is the sort of technology that can provide it all and together.
Modern Events in WPF and UWP
Windows Forms, Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP) are each prime examples of event-driven programming. The object orientation of these interface frameworks is nothing revolutionary. Instead, what was at just before the turn of the century fairly revolutionary was the comprehensive and flexible ability to handle hardware, software, and system events in a robust and flexible manner.
The Driven Events of 1991 to 2002
This event driven model has been more pivotal to programming history than ever object-oriented models have been. Visual Basic initially began a programmers small niche revolution in the year 1991. Over a decade later, in the year 2002, Visual Basic met its end as an independent platform, and VB.NET emerged alongside its new alternative syntax twin — with a makeover into C++ syntax style — giving arise to the then new C# language. This 2002 sudden entry into software programming history predominance all happened upon the advent of the first .NET Framework, and the release of Visual Studio.NET in that year.
Early Visual Basic Event-Driven Programming
In the year 1991, Visual Basic debuted. This began an upheaval and split in personal computer software design, development, and engineering. In the years of Visual Basic, there was surely a rift between conventional and more powerful C++ software programming and the radical and productive but more restricted event driven ways of Visual Basic. Visual Basic developers could prototype and bring a product to readiness faster than ever, but were plagued by having their software limited in power and adjustability. The Visual Basic programs were nice, but they all had to stop short of full detail custom optimization to task, which C++ programs could do. Both groups of software programmers seemed to be glad of the way they developed their respective software titles, and also both groups of software programmers seemed to have respectful envy for what the “other side” could do with those “other technologies,” as well as a playful sense of humor about which side of the aisle with which a programmer was developing software.
BASIC, QuickBasic, and Visual Basic
in 1990, Visual Basic eclipsed and rendered quickly obsolete, its late 1980s predecessor, Quick Basic. Many Integrated Design Environment (IDE) features of Quick Basic were adopted by Visual Basic. The language syntax of BASIC remained largely intact, just as it had been for a decade of interpreted BASIC and compiled Quick Basic. However, much was added to the language in terms of keywords and backing framework.
Event after Event
Event handling is the key feature by which Visual Basic of old did it’s magic, it made it’s way into Windows Forms, then it made its way into Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), and now it is alive and well in Universal Windows Platform (UWP).
Event Handlers in Contemporary UWP Programming
In Visual Studio 2019 Community, with a UWP Project loaded, the software developer may select any of a wide variety of Elements in the XAML code window, and then proceed to toggle the lightning small button on the upper-right of the Properties docked window (with the tooltip, upon hovering, depicting “Event Handlers for the selected element”).
If this is done, even for an element of lesser properties such as a Grid XAML element, or for just about any other element, the programmer can review the very thorough and detailed events to which to handle with functions in the code behind .cs file. I believe that the extensive listing of the many and varied events which displays upon switching from Properties to Events indicates that many programmers, in being much like me, have not explored the powerful and broad ranging software app behaviors that the UWP thoroughly makes available to all of us, primarily by way of events and adept usage of event handlers.
Event Driven Programming 1990–2020 was originally published in Humen Facets Techniques (Mastery Meny Sciences) on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.