The Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition language(VBScript), is a simplified version of the Visual Basic and Visual Basic for Applications family of programming languages. It is also well thought-out to be closely related to the BASIC programming language.

VBScript is a scripting language, which can enhance HTML Web pages by making them active, as compared to a simple static presentation of data.Specifically, VBScript was created by Microsoft to use either as a server-side scripting language with the Microsoft Internet Information Server (versions 3.0 and later).Or as a client-side scripting language for the Microsoft Internet Explorer (versions 3.0 and later) or as A most important advantage for using the server-side approach is that the VBScript is processed by the server before it is transmitted to the client. Therefore,the client only receives an HTML page and we do not have to concern ourselves as to whether the browser can interpret the VBScript. In contrast, by using the client-side approach, you reduce the work load of the server by transfer the work to client end. Unfortunately, older version and non-Microsoft browsers may not be able to correctly interpret and display the transmitted file. In addition to this, the source code is out in the open to the browser user and also a client-side program can produce a more-responsive application. since user input can be processed on the client machine, and not sent back to the server for processing.

VBScript is the default language of Active Server Pages (ASP).

VBScript may very well be the most important programming language for many Web-application.

VBScript Version 5.0 was released in 1999. Certainly, the most important new feature of Version 5.0 is the ability to create your own class objects. Other new features included like the Timer function, With statement, and regular expression searching using the RegExp and Match objects.

A scripting language differentiates itself from other typical languages in that they not needing to be compiled and are usually simpler to learn. A Scripting language is interpreted at run-time so you can execuate instructions immediately.

• Scripting languages often follow the semantics and syntax of command languages. For illustration many scripting languages do not require quoting of string literals, but rather require explicit evaluation of variables (x denotes the string "x", but $x denotes the value of the variable x).





• Scripting languages make it very simple to call system related commands, prepare their arguments, and manipulate their results. They generally have some built-in primitives for manipulating environment variables,file and directory names, argument lists etc.





• Scripting languages flexible to handle strings, and don't emphasize numerical manipulation.





• Since calling system related commands is generally much more expensive than script execution itself, there is little emphasis on run-time efficiency, therefore they are often implemented using interpreters,macro processors or bytecode interpreters.

Before continue to start VBScript you should have a basic understanding of the following:

• WWW, HTML and the basic concept of building Web pages

If you want to study these subjects first, go to our Home Page.