Learning Visual Basic 6

Object - Oriented Programming 1 (Introduction to Visual Basic 6 Programming)

Windows and Tools

Windows and Tools

The Visual Basic development environment contains these programming tools and windows, with which
you construct your Visual Basic programs:

Menu bar

Toolbars

Visual Basic toolbox

Form window

Properties window

Project Explorer

Immediate window

Form Layout window

The exact size and shape of the windows depends on how your system has been configured. In Visual
Basic 6.0, you can align and attach (dock) the windows to make all the elements of the programming
system visible and accessible. You’ll learn how to customize your development environment in Moving,
Docking, and Resizing Windows.
Loading and Running a Program

Before you can work with a Visual Basic program, you need to load the program into memory, just as
you would load a word processing document in a word processor for editing.

To load a Visual Basic program into memory and run it

On the File menu, click Open Project. The Open Project dialog box appears. With this dialog box, you can
open any existing Visual Basic program on your hard disk, attached network drive, CD-ROM, or floppy
disk.

If necessary, use the Look In drop-down list box and the Up One Level button to locate the program you
want to load. Then, double-click the program name. The project file loads the Visual Basic user interface
form, properties, and program code. (Visual Basic project files are distinguished by the .VBP file name
extension.)

If the program user interface does not appear, open the Forms folder in the Project window, select the
first form, and then click View Object in the Project window. This is an optional but useful step,
especially if you want to look at the program user interface in the Form window before you run it.

On the Visual Basic Standard toolbar, click Start to run the program. The toolbox and several of the
other windows disappear, and the Visual Basic program starts to run.

On the toolbar, click End when you want to exit the program.

See below to view an illustration of the standard contents of the toolbox.

Form Window

When you start Visual Basic, a default form (Form1) with a standard grid (a window consisting of
regularly spaced dots) appears in a pane called the Form window. You can use the Form window grid to
create the user interface and to line up interface elements.
Building Interface Elements

To build the interface elements, you click an interface control in the Visual Basic toolbox, and then you
draw the user interface element on your form by using the mouse. This process is usually a simple
matter of clicking to position one corner of the element and then dragging to create a rectangle the size
you want. After you create the element — say, a text box — you can refine it by setting properties for
the element. In a text box, for example, you can set properties to make the text boldface, italic, or
underlined.

Adjusting Form Size

You can adjust the size of the form by using the mouse — the form can take up part or the entire screen.

Controlling Form Placement

To control the placement of the form when you run the program, adjust the placement of the form in
the Form Layout window.

Properties Window

With the Properties window, you change the characteristics (property settings) of the user interface
elements on a form. A property setting is a characteristic of a user interface object. For example, you can
change the text displayed by a text box control to a different font, point size, or alignment. (With Visual
Basic, you can display text in any font installed on your system, just as you can in Microsoft Excel or
Microsoft Word.)
Displaying the Properties Window

To display the Properties window, click the Properties Window button on the toolbar. If the window is
currently docked, you can enlarge it by double-clicking the title bar. To redock the Properties window,
double-click its title bar again.

Properties Window Elements

The Properties window contains the following elements:

A drop-down list box at the top of the window, from which you select the object whose properties you
want to view or set.

Two tabs, which list the properties either alphabetically or by category.

A description pane that shows the name of the selected property and a short description of it.

Changing Property Settings

You can change property settings by using the Properties window while you design the user interface or
by using program code to make changes while the program runs.

Project Window

A Visual Basic program consists of several files that are linked together to make the program run. The
Visual Basic 6.0 development environment includes a Project window to help you switch back and forth
between these components as you work on a project.
Project Window Components

The Project window lists all the files used in the programming process and provides access to them with
two special buttons: View Code and View Object.

Displaying the Project Window

To display the Project window, click the Project Explorer button on the Visual Basic toolbar. If the
window is currently docked, you can enlarge it by double-clicking the title bar. To re-dock the Project
window, double-click its title bar again.

Adding and Removing Files

The project file maintains a list of all the supporting files in a Visual Basic programming project. You can
recognize project files by their .vbp file name extension. You can add individual files to and remove them
from a project by using commands on the Project menu. The changes that you make will be reflected in
the Project window.

Note: In Visual Basic versions 1 through 3, project files had the .mak file name extension. In Visual Basic
versions 4, 5, and 6.0, project files have the .vbp file name extension.

Adding Projects

If you load additional projects into Visual Basic with the File menu Add Project command, outlining
symbols appear in the Project window to help you organize and switch between projects.

Code Window

You can create much of your program by using controls and setting properties. However, most Visual
Basic programs require additional program code that acts as the brains behind the user interface that
you create. This computing logic is created using program statements — keywords, identifiers, and
arguments — that clearly spell out what the program should do each step of the way.
You enter program statements in the Code window, a special text editing window designed specifically
for Visual Basic program code. You can display the Code window in either of two ways:

By clicking View Code in the Project window.

By clicking the View menu Code command

Form Layout Window

The Form Layout window is a visual design tool. With it, you can control the placement of the forms in
the Windows environment when they are executed. When you have more than one form in your
program, the Form Layout window is especially useful — you can arrange the forms onscreen exactly the
way you want.

To position a form in the Form Layout window, simply drag the miniature form to the desired location in
the window.

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SoftwareMicrosoft OfficeExcelVisual Basic Editor Components

Visual Basic Editor Components

In This Article

By Michael Alexander

Visual Basic Editor is a separate application that runs when you open Excel. To see this hidden VBE
environment, you’ll need to activate it. The quickest way to activate VBE is to press Alt+F11 when Excel
is active. To return to Excel, press Alt+F11 again.

The figure shows the VBE program with some of the key parts identified. VBE contains several windows
and is highly customizable, so chances are your window won’t look exactly like what you see in the
figure. You can hide windows, rearrange windows, dock windows, and so on.

VBE with significant elements identified.

VBE with significant elements identified.

Menu bar

The VBE menu bar works just like every other menu bar you’ve encountered. It contains commands that
you use to do things with the various components in VBE. Many menu commands have shortcut keys
associated with them.
VBE also features shortcut menus. You can right-click almost anything in VBE and get a shortcut menu of
common commands.

Toolbar

The standard toolbar, which is directly under the menu bar by default, is one of four VBE toolbars. You
can customize the toolbars, move them around, display other toolbars, and so on. If you’re so inclined,
use the View → Toolbars command to work with VBE toolbars. Most people just leave them as they are.

Project window

The project window displays a tree diagram that shows every workbook currently open in Excel
(including add-ins and hidden workbooks). Double-click items to expand or contract them.

If the project window is not visible, press Ctrl+R or choose View → Project Explorer. To hide the project
window, click the close button (the X) in its title bar. Alternatively, right-click anywhere in the project
window and select Hide from the shortcut menu.

Code window

Every object in a project has an associated code window, which contains VBA code. To view an object’s
code window, double-click the object in the project window. For example, to view the code window for
the Sheet1 object, double-click Sheet1 in the project window. Unless you’ve added some VBA code, the
code window will be empty.

Immediate window

The immediate window may or may not be visible. If it isn’t visible, press Ctrl+G or choose View→
Immediate Window. To close the Immediate window, click the close button (the X) in its title bar (or
right-click anywhere in the Immediate window and select Hide from the shortcut menu).

The Immediate window is most useful for executing VBA statements directly and for debugging your
code. If you’re just starting out with VBA, this window won’t be that useful, so feel free to hide it and
free up some screen space for other things.
About the Book Author

Michael Alexander is a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) who has been named a
Microsoft MVP for his ongoing contributions to the Excel community. He has more than 15 years of
experience in consulting and developing Office solutions, and shares basic Access and Excel tips on his
free tutorial site, www.datapigtechnologies.com.

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The Visual Basic IDE is made up of a number of components

1. Menu Bar

2. Tool Bar

3. Project Explorer

4. Properties window

5. Form Layout Window

6. Toolbox

7. Form Designer

8. Object Browser

Menu Bar:

1. This Menu Bar displays the commands that are required to build an application.

2. The main menu items have sub menu items that can be chosen when needed.
3. The toolbar in the menu bar provide quick access to the commonly used commands and a button in
the toolbar is clicked once to carry out the action represented by it.

Tool Bar:

1. The Toolbox contains a set of controls that are used to place on a Form at design time thereby
creating the user interface area.

2. Additional controls can be included in the toolbox by using the Components menu item on the Project
menu.

CONTROL DESCRIPTION

Pointer Provides a way to move and resize the controls form

Picture Box Displays icons/bitmaps and meta files. It displays text or acts as a visual container for other
controls.

Text box Used to display message and enter text.

Frame Serves as a visual and functional container for controls

Command Button Used to carry out the specified action when the user chooses it.

Checkbox Displays a True/False or Yes/No option.

Option Button Option Button control which is a part of an option group allows the user to select only
one option even it displays multiple choices.

List Box Displays a list of items from which a user can select one.

Combo Box Contains a Text-box and a List Box. This allows the user to select an item from the drop-
down List Box, or to type in a selection in the Text-box.

HScrollBar and VScrollBar These controls allow the user to select a value within the specified range of
values

Timer Executes the timer events at specified intervals of time

DriveListBox Displays the valid disk drives and allows the user to select one of them.

DirListBox Allows the user to select the directories and paths, which are displayed.

FileListBox Displays a set of files from which a user can select the desired one.

Shape Used to add shape (rectangle, square or circle) to a Form

Line Used to draw straight line to the Form

Image used to display images such as icons, bitmaps and meta files. But less capability than the Picture
Box

Data Enables the user to connect to an existing database and display information from it.

OLE Used to link or embed an object, display and manipulate data from other windows based
applications.

Label Displays a text that the user cannot modify or interact with.

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The components of the IDE screen of visual basic

The IDE in VB (visual basic) is "Visual Studio". It consists of the following components. Those are

Toolbar

Menu bar

Project explorer

Properties window

Form layout window

Object designer

Form designer

Toolbox

IDE stands for Integrated Development Environment. The main functions include writing, compiling and
debugging code, monitoring resources. It is intended as a set of tools that all work together. In visual
basic, the IDE is "visual studio".

Learn more about visual basic

Why do we use visual basic? give at least three reason

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When you plane a visual basic program, you follow a three step process that should end with. a. settings
the property, b. written code

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Technical Terms

ASCII Definition

ASCII

Stands for "American Standard Code for Information Interchange." ASCII is a character encoding that
uses numeric codes to represent characters. These include upper and lowercase English letters,
numbers, and punctuation symbols.

Standard ASCII

Standard ASCII can represent 128 characters. It uses 7 bits to represent each character since the first bit
of the byte is always 0. For instance, a capital "T" is represented by 84, or 01010100 in binary. A
lowercase "t" is represented by 116 or 01110100 in binary. Other keyboard keys are also mapped to
standard ASCII values. For example, the Escape key (ESC) is 27 in ASCII and the Delete key (DEL) is 127.
ASCII codes may also be displayed as hexadecimal values instead of the decimal numbers (0 to 127)
listed above. For example, the ASCII value of the Escape key (27) in hexadecimal is 1B. The hexadecimal
value of the Delete key (127) is 7F.

Extended ASCII

The 128 (27) characters supported by standard ASCII are enough to represent all standard English
letters, numbers, and punctuation symbols. However, it is not sufficient to represent all special
characters and characters from other languages. Extended ASCII helps solve this problem by adding an
extra 128 values, for a total of 256 (28) characters. The additional binary values start with a 1 instead of
a 0. For example, in extended ASCII, the character "é" is represented by 233, or 11101001 in binary. The
capital letter "Ö" is represented by 214, or 11010110 in binary.

While extended ASCII doubles the character set of standard ASCII, it does not include nearly enough
characters to support all languages. Some Asian languages, for example, require thousands of
characters. Therefore, other character encodings, such as Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) and UTF-8 are now more
commonly used than ASCII for documents and webpages. UTF-8 supports over one million characters.

Updated April 27, 2020

Definitions by TechTerms.com

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ASCII

Home

Geography & Travel

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ASCII

communications

BY The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica View Edit History

FULL ARTICLE

ASCII, abbreviation of American Standard Code For Information Interchange, a standard data-
transmission code that is used by smaller and less-powerful computers to represent both textual data
(letters, numbers, and punctuation marks) and noninput-device commands (control characters). Like
other coding systems, it converts information into standardized digital formats that allow computers to
communicate with each other and to efficiently process and store data.

Related Topics: ASCII art Extended ASCII Coding system

The ASCII code was originally developed for teletypewriters but eventually found wide application in
personal computers. The standard ASCII code uses seven-digit binary numbers; i.e., numbers consisting
of various sequences of 0’s and 1’s. The code can represent 128 different characters, since there are 128
different possible combinations of seven 0’s and 1’s. The binary sequence 1010000, for example,
represents an uppercase “P,” while the sequence 1110000 represents a lowercase “p.”

Digital computers use a binary code that is arranged in groups of eight rather than of seven digits, or
bits. Each such eight-digit group is called a byte. Because digital computers use eight-bit bytes, the ASCII
code is commonly embedded in an eight-bit field consisting of the seven information bits and a parity bit
that is used for error-checking purposes or to represent special symbols. The use of an eight-bit system
increased the number of characters the code could represent to 256. The eight-bit system, which is
known as the extended ASCII code, was introduced in 1981 by the International Business Machines
Corporation (IBM) for use with its first model of personal computer. This extended ASCII code soon
became the industry-wide standard for personal computers. In it, 32 code combinations are used for
machine and control commands, such as “start of text,” “carriage return,” and “form feed.” The next
group of 32 combinations is used for numbers and various punctuation symbols. Another group of 32
combinations is used for uppercase letters and a few other punctuation marks, and the last 32 are used
for lowercase letters.

A different coding system, the EBCDIC (Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code), is used in
mainframe computers and minicomputers.

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Learn More in these related Britannica articles:

Vigenère table

cryptology: The fundamentals of codes, ciphers, and authentication

…Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). Employed in all personal computers and terminals, it
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Home / Gifts / George Boole / The Life and Work of George Boole – A Prelude to the Digital Age

The Life and Work of George Boole – A Prelude to the Digital Age

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Quick Overview

This book, aimed at the general reader, is the first full-length biography of George Boole (1815–1864)
who has been variously described as the founder of pure mathematics, father of computer science and
discoverer of symbolic logic. Boole is mostly remembered as a mathematician and logician whose work
found application in computer science long after his death, but this biography reveals Boole as much
more than a mathematical genius; he was a child prodigy, self-taught linguist and practical scientist,
turbulent academic and devoted teacher, social reformer and poet, psychologist and humanitarian,
religious thinker and good family man – truly a nineteenth-century polymath.

George Boole was born in Lincoln, England, the son of a struggling shoemaker. Boole was forced to leave
school at the age of sixteen and never attended a university. He taught himself languages, natural
philosophy and mathematics. After his father’s business failed he supported the entire family by
becoming an assistant teacher, eventually opening his own boarding school in Lincoln. He began to
produce original mathematical research and, in 1844, he was awarded the first gold medal for
mathematics by the Royal Society.

Boole was deeply interested in the idea of expressing the workings of the human mind in symbolic form,
and his two books on this subject, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and An Investigation of the
Laws of Thought (1854) form the basis of today’s computer science and electronic circuitry. He also
made important contributions to areas of mathematics such as invariant theory (of which he was the
founder), differential and difference equations and probability. Much of the ‘new mathematics’ now
studied by children in school – set theory, binary numbers and Boolean algebra, has its origins in Boole’s
work.

In 1849, Boole was appointed first professor of mathematics in Ireland’s new Queen’s College (now
University College) Cork and taught and worked there until his tragic and premature death in 1864. In
1855, he had married Mary Everest, a niece of the man after whom the world’s highest mountain is
named. The Boole’s had five remarkable daughters including Alicia, a mathematician, Lucy, a professor
of chemistry, and Ethel (Voynich), a novelist and author of The Gadfly.

Desmond MacHale is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where Boole was
the first professor of mathematics.

Foreword by Ian Stewart Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Warwick University, UK

Hardback

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The Life and Work of George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age

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The Life and Work of George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age

The Life and Work of George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age

ISBN: 9781782050049

Our Price: €19.95

Description

Foreword by Ian Stewart Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, Warwick University, UK

This book, aimed at the general reader, is the first full-length biography of George Boole (1815–1864)
who has been variously described as the founder of pure mathematics, father of computer science and
discoverer of symbolic logic. Boole is mostly remembered as a mathematician and logician whose work
found application in computer science long after his death, but this biography reveals Boole as much
more than a mathematical genius; he was a child prodigy, self-taught linguist and practical scientist,
turbulent academic and devoted teacher, social reformer and poet, psychologist and humanitarian,
religious thinker and good family man – truly a nineteenth-century polymath.

George Boole was born in Lincoln, England, the son of a struggling shoemaker. Boole was forced to leave
school at the age of sixteen and never attended a university. He taught himself languages, natural
philosophy and mathematics. After his father's business failed he supported the entire family by
becoming an assistant teacher, eventually opening his own boarding school in Lincoln. He began to
produce original mathematical research and, in 1844, he was awarded the first gold medal for
mathematics by the Royal Society.

Boole was deeply interested in the idea of expressing the workings of the human mind in symbolic form,
and his two books on this subject, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and An Investigation of the
Laws of Thought (1854) form the basis of today's computer science and electronic circuitry. He also
made important contributions to areas of mathematics such as invariant theory (of which he was the
founder), differential and difference equations and probability. Much of the 'new mathematics' now
studied by children in school – set theory, binary numbers and Boolean algebra, has its origins in Boole's
work.

In 1849, Boole was appointed first professor of mathematics in Ireland's new Queen's College (now
University College) Cork and taught and worked there until his tragic and premature death in 1864. In
1855, he had married Mary Everest, a niece of the man after whom the world's highest mountain is
named. The Boole's had five remarkable daughters including Alicia, a mathematician, Lucy, a professor
of chemistry, and Ethel (Voynich), a novelist and author of The Gadfly.

Desmond MacHale is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where Boole was
the first professor of mathematics.

Read Professor Ian Stewart's Foreword

Ebook is available on Apple ibooks

Ebook is available on Amazon (USA) Kindle

Ebook is available on Amazon (UK) Kindle

In 2015 University College Cork will celebrate the bicentenary of George Boole's birth in 1815. To find
out more visit georgeboole.com

© Copyright 2021 Cork University Press

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Description

Product Description

* Founder of the field of Computer Science

* 150th Anniversary of his death

This book is the first full-length biography of George Boole (1815–1864), who has been variously
described as the founder of pure mathematics, father of computer science and discoverer of symbolic
logic. Boole is mostly remembered as a mathematician and logician whose work found application in
computer science long after his death, but this biography reveals Boole as much more than a
mathematical genius; he was a child prodigy, self-taught linguist and practical scientist, turbulent
academic and devoted teacher, social reformer and poet, psychologist and humanitarian, religious
thinker and good family man – truly a nineteenth-century polymath.

George Boole was born in Lincoln, England, the son of a struggling shoemaker. Boole was forced to leave
school at the age of sixteen and never attended a university. He taught himself languages, natural
philosophy and mathematics. After his father's business failed he supported the entire family by
becoming an assistant teacher, eventually opening his own boarding school in Lincoln. He began to
produce original mathematical research and, in 1844, he was awarded the first gold medal for
mathematics by the Royal Society.

Boole was deeply interested in the idea of expressing the workings of the human mind in symbolic form,
and his two books on this subject, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and An Investigation of the
Laws of Thought (1854) form the basis of today's computer science and electronic circuitry. He also
made important contributions to areas of mathematics such as invariant theory (of which he was the
founder), differential and difference equations and probability. Much of the "new mathematics" now
studied by children in school – set theory, binary numbers and Boolean algebra, has its origins in Boole's
work.

In 1849, Boole was appointed first professor of mathematics in Ireland's new Queen's College (now
University College) Cork and taught and worked there until his tragic and premature death in 1864. In
1855, he had married Mary Everest, a niece of the man after whom the world's highest mountain is
named. The Booles had five remarkable daughters including Alicia, a mathematician, Lucy, a professor of
chemistry, and Ethel (Voynich), a novelist and author of The Gadfly.
Review

"MacHale's book is a major achievement….and deserves to be a bestseller." ( Times Higher Education

Supplement)

About the Author

Desmond MacHale is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where Boole was
the first Professor of Mathematics.

Ian Stewart

Read less

Product information

Publisher Cork University Press; Revised ed. edition (November 30, 2014)

Language English

Hardcover 360 pages

ISBN-101782050043

ISBN-13978-1782050049

Item Weight 1.6 pounds

Dimensions 6.5 x 1.1 x 9.5 inches

Best Sellers Rank #226,428 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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4.5 out of 54.5 out of 5

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Top reviews from the United States

Leo Depuydt (Consignment)

5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Boole, a Scientist of Newton's Stature, Finally Beginning to Get His Due ( A Milestone Publication)

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2019

**********. I gave this book five stars but it is worth ten. I own the original edition of the 1980s. The
copy of the original edition that arrived from Ireland had this musty smell as if it had been for a long
time in a humid storage space. These books were apparently not... See more

6 people found this helpful

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Jamie

2.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

a compilation of letters, articles

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2017

There is no attempt to give readers more than a 6th-grade level of understanding of Boole’s
contributions. Very rarely, an arcane equation is presented, but with no attempt to explain what it
means. It is a social/cultural history that mainly consists of a compilation of... See more

3 people found this helpful

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Stephen M. Newman

5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Insight into the mind of George Boole, one of the fathers of the computer and important mathematicl
insights.

Reviewed in the United States on August 1, 2015

George Boole is one of the most fascinating thinkers in history. Self taught, he created completely
original mathematics. He made logic into a branch of algebra. Claude Shannon turned his math into the
circuits of modern electronics. The one weakness of the book is it... See more

4 people found this helpful

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I. Lynch

4.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Accurate accounts of life and contributions of George Boole to Mathematics, Philosophy and Society.

Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2018

There were accounts of his own writings that were in this book that were fascinating, and others that I
believe were unnecessary.

Entertaining read.

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jfitzg

2.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Written in a very cliched style, with a fair ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2016

Written in a very cliched style, with a fair degree of pedestal placement (though at least some is
warranted). Difficult to stay with it.

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Dr Dave

5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 3, 2016

Thank you!

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David

5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Does Boole justice

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 12, 2015

Brings Boole to life MacHale gives one a sense of Boole and his life with a combination of easy erudition
context and well chosen selection of Booles own writings

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Anthony Gavin Hitchcock

5.0 out of 5 starsVerified Purchase

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 20, 2015

Beautifully written, interweaving the personal and the mathematical

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SearchMenuUniversity College Cork is the academic home of George Boole

George Boole 200

George Boole 200

University College Cork

GO TO PAGE

His Life

TIMELINE OF LIFE EVENTS

LINCOLN YEARS

UCC YEARS

FAMILY AND GENEALOGY

OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

SOCIAL REFORM

His Work

His Legacy

GEORGE BOOLEGEORGE BOOLEHIS LIFEOFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY

Print This Page

THE LIFE AND WORK OF GEORGE BOOLE: A PRELUDE TO THE DIGITAL AGE

This book, aimed at the general reader and now available again, is the first full-length biography of
George Boole (1815–1864) who has been variously described as the founder of pure mathematics, one
of the fathers of computer science and discoverer of symbolic logic. Boole is mostly remembered as a
mathematician and logician whose work found application in computer science long after his death, but
this biography reveals Boole as much more than a mathematical genius; he was a child prodigy, self-
taught linguist and practical scientist, turbulent academic and devoted teacher, social reformer and
poet, psychologist and humanitarian, religious thinker and good family man – truly a nineteenth-century
polymath.

The Life and Work of George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age by Des McHaleThe Life and Work of
George Boole: A Prelude to the Digital Age by Des McHale

About the book

" He was a brilliant thinker, the possessor of a truly original mind. His story is our story: the creation of
one of the great intellectual pillars that support our modern world. It is the story of a remarkable man,
beautifully told."

Ian Stewart, Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, at the University of Warwick, England, and popular-
science and science-fiction writer
George Boole was born in Lincoln, England, the son of a struggling shoemaker. Boole was forced to leave
school at the age of sixteen and never attended a university. He taught himself languages, natural
philosophy and mathematics. After his father’s business failed he supported the entire family by
becoming an assistant teacher, eventually opening his own boarding school in Lincoln. He began to
produce original mathematical research and, in 1844, he was awarded the first gold medal for
mathematics by the Royal Society.

Boole was deeply interested in the idea of expressing the workings of the human mind in symbolic form,
and his two books on this subject, The Mathematical Analysis of Logic (1847) and An Investigation of the
Laws of Thought (1854) form the basis of today’s computer science and electronic circuitry. He also
made important contributions to areas of mathematics such as invariant theory (of which he was the
founder), differential and difference equations and probability. Much of the ‘new mathematics’ now
studied by children in school – set theory, binary numbers and Boolean algebra, has its origins in Boole’s
work.

In 1849, Boole was appointed first professor of mathematics in Ireland’s new Queen’s College (now
University College) Cork and taught and worked there until his tragic and premature death in 1864. In
1855, he had married Mary Everest, a niece of the man after whom the world’s highest mountain is
named. The Booles had five remarkable daughters including Alicia, a mathematician, Lucy, a professor of
chemistry, and Ethel (Voynich), a novelist and author of The Gadfly.

The first edition of Desmond MacHale's seminal biography of George Boole was published in 1985

“MacHale has had a splendid tale to tell, and has met the challenge exceedingly well; his book deserves
to become widely read.” Times Higher Education Supplement.
“This is a well-researched and well-written biography of one of the most important figures in the history
of logic, and perhaps also in the history of mathematics per se.” Mathematical Review

“MacHale’s biography is indeed an attractive form of historical reading, and I certainly enjoyed some
self-education in the process.” Irish Times

“(MacHale) gives us a taste of what it might be like to be a genius struggling to understand and to
express insights.” New Scientist

About the author

Desmond MacHale is Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at University College Cork, where Boole was
the first Professor of Mathematics.

Reprinted September 2014, ISBN 978-1-78205-004-9, €19.95 hardback , 234 x 156 mm, 320 pages

Order the book from Cork University Press

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