With Visual Studio Community installed, we can launch it and take a look at its graphical user interface, or GUI (pronounced "gooey" 😝😄).
A GUI is what you interact with through icons, menus, and visual indicators to display information and related user controls. Use of a mouse, trackball, stylus or a finger is how you interact with a GUI. You use GUIs every day with smartphones, computers, and video games.
When you launch Visual Studio, it displays the Start Page with the following sections:
Get Started: a listing of common tutorials.
Recent: a list of your applications.
Open: open a file or project.
New project: start a new project from a template.
Developer News: listing of the most recent Microsoft news that pertains to developers.
On the right-hand side of the screen you will see the Solution Explorer that displays all the files, folders, and reference libraries used in your application.
Open a file in the Solution Explorer to see its contents displayed in the Main window to the left. This is where you will write and modify all your code.
Below the Solution Explorer is the Properties window. By selecting any item in the Solution Explorer, you can view its properties in the window below for reference or to modify.
Below the Main window is the Output window that displays messages related to a build compilation. Any errors found during a build would appear in this window along with information on what caused the error.
Let's recap!
Visual Studio's GUI is laid out in a number of windows.
The Main window is where you write your code.
The Solution Explorer displays your files, folders, and reference libraries.
The Properties window displays more information about a selected item in the Solution Explorer.
The Output window displays build compilation messages.
