Asynchronous Processing without Threads

This section is short because you probably already know how to use a timer. Visual Basic .NET supports an Application object, similar to the VB6 App object. The VB .NET Application object implements an Idle event. You can assign a delegate to the Application.Idle event and achieve asynchronous capabilities too.

Using a Timer

The Timer is implemented as a control. A crystal oscillates at a certain frequency in your PC and this known oscillating frequency is used to clock your PC. At a very low level, the BIOS supports implementing an interrupt event handler that is notified when the internal hardware timer ticks. After 10 years or so, the low-level capabilities inherent in the average PC were wrapped in ...

Get Visual Basic® .NET Unleashed now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.