No comments about Programming Basics Using Microsoft Visual Basic, C++, Html and Java.

5 comments about Visual Basic 2005 For Dummies.

1. I use a variety of programming languages and target a variety of platforms. When I needed a quick fix on Visual Basic 2005, I picked this book. Boy, am I delighted that I did!
   
   This book is easily the best introduction to Visual Basic 2005 as well as to the Visual Studio 2005 IDE. The author is concise yet crystal clear. The conciseness and depth makes this book an outstanding overview for experienced developers. The clarity should make it an excellent introduction for beginners.
   
   This book should really have been titled "Visual Basic 2005 Distilled". Five up!



2. I hate to be the person to ruin the perfect score that this book has acquired, but I simply in good conscience cannot give a five star rating due to some flaws in the methods used to teach VB 2005.
   
   In all fairness however, there exists no single programming book that will be able to suit every individual, at least in my opinion. For some this book could easily be 5 stars, for others much less. I think that much of this is based on the reader's perspective, experience, preferred learning style, and goals.
   
   First the good; the book is very well written. The style that the author uses is clear and concise. The book is an easy read in the sense that it doesn't feel like you're reading a textbook, or rather, a lab report on some obscure organic chemistry finding from 1970. Instead of throwing numbers, statistics, or tables requiring massive amounts of raw memorization, the book allows the reader to jump around and reference the parts that are relevant to their "here and now" issues. The book can be read straight through, or used as a reference, and in either case the introduction and application of the .net backbone is well advocated and mostly easy to understand.
   
   Furthermore, the code examples work and provide for very good, usable programs that the user could build upon should they desire. Rather than just providing for simple programs that are useless, the book demonstrates viable, functional programs which is something that many programming books fail to do. Also, there is a lot of explanation given as to the relevance of class libraries and dll's, and how they tie into a project.
   
   Unfortunately, there are some critical flaws that many will notice if they take the time to really evaluate the techniques this book uses. To start with, this book is not for beginning programmers that lack experience. The author assumes that the reader already knows quite a bit about VB and more specifically, about .net when providing very brief explanations or examples. If the reader has never touched programming before, this book would be a waste of time, and I find it odd that a dummies book would be allowed to require a non-dummy. Fortunately for me, I have done quite a bit of coding in VB 6.0 so most of the time I was familiar with the references the author would make when he used programming lingo that lacked explanation.
   
   Moving on, the teaching method of this book is a big no-no in my opinion. Rather than explain what every command is doing in a program, the book basically says, "here's how you make a program that does "X"", and then the reader is spoon fed a big block of code, often with only one or two commands or lines within the code explained. Making a person a programmer this does not do, rather just copying code from a book that fails to explain the dynamics behind the code resembles data entry more than coding. Anybody can just copy blocks of code and make a windows program in VB, or any other language for that matter, and most people that teach VB strongly suggest against just spoon-feeding code to people and solving their problems for them.
   
   Coming from VB 6.0, I was mostly interested in getting behind the .net framework and utilizing this added power to create much more serious programs. Unfortunately, little advice is given to the 6.0 programmer, and most of the specific .net commands (especially the new ones in 2005) are not presented in a way that the user can utilize that suits their own style, rather we're given a gigantic line of .net specific code and told, "this does that". Rather than explaining how or why each specific property comes into play to produce a result, we're just given a big line or a big block of code and are supposed to just trust that it helps to perform a function that contributes to the results of the final project. The problem this creates is that many people will be likely to write out code because they just happen to know that it performs a certain function, but they don't know WHY it performs this function, and therefore will lack the ability to create custom code to suit their needs.
   
   If I don't know why a command, command property, or event does what it does, then all I can do is memorize lines of code from other people, and mish mash them together to make my own programs.
   
   In any case, this book is probably better suited to the individual that is taking VB 2005 classes and needs another perspective, another reference to aid them. As a standalone product however, I feel that it is lacking somewhat. On the other hand, if you're not receiving any instruction, want an easy read, and have no problem with being spoon-fed code just to see its end result, then look no further.



3. This book hits the ground running. It familurizes the reader with Visual Basic 2005, pointing out what is new for experienced VB programmers on the way. If you are looking to learn Visual Basic, this is the book to start with. It will give you a solid foundation for further study.



4. I always click on "See all my reviews" when I don't agree with a bevy of 5 star reviews, and more often than not you'll notice all those glowing accounts of greatness are the only review a person has submitted. I have a hard time swallowing those reviews, especially after having read the book.
   
   There's one thing I can't stand in any type of tutorial/guide, and that's basic mistakes. For a programming book to have a minor typo a couple times is forgivable; for entire blocks of code to be just WRONG is not. This book has plenty of examples of mistakes - just look at his website [...] to see all of them listed. I gave up on this horrible text after finishing chapter 4. It's a complete mess. I found his website after-the-fact and he even says, "I did less than a good job of describing how to [ ... ]. I guess I was drinking that night."
   
   You got an extra star for at least being truthful.
   
   A read-through of this book by someone other than a non-technical editor is in order before sending this thing to print. Disappointing text, not worth the time/$ when there are others that explain the same concepts without being ripe with mistakes.



5. This book is terrible, especially for new programmers. I am an experienced programmer and just picked up this book at a yard sale, because I like programming books. If you are new to programming, do not get discouraged by this book. There are some other beginning programming books that are much better.

No comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Windows and Mobile Applications: Introductory.

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Self-Paced Training Kit: Developing Windows®-Based Applications with Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET and Microsoft Visual C#® .NET, Second Ed (Pro-Certification).

1. I'd just like to say something. I finished reading this book from the very beginning a week ago to the very end this morning, and passed the exam with a score of 940 this afternoon. I don't know any other exam prep book for the same exam.
   
   - Admittedly, the book is pretty shallow: it even teaches you what class/construstor/destructor/inheritance/etc are. To an old day VB'er unfamiliar with .NET/OOP stuff, or to any .NET beginner, this might be nice. But to most, especially to those specilized in C# (very likely also in C++), or to whoever is about to take an exam towards a certified developer, this is not necessary at all. I wish the book had covered some really advanced topics and/or gone deeper on existing topics.
   
   - As for the exam, my personal opinion is that this book should be enough, as long as you also get some hands-on experience by actually messing around with .NET desktop apps for a while. Deskop apps are not my strong area and I rarely develop apps using .NET Windows Forms. But the book helped me with all the questions on the actual exam about desktop apps so I could pass the exam with ease. Without the book I doubt I could get the passing score of 700. A similar book might also help me that much, but I only needed one and this one was what I used.
   
   - I'm not giving the book 5-star because this is going to be a useless book once read or once you passed the exam. I'm also not giving the book 3-star or lower because this is a well-written book after all, and with some hands-on experience, you should have little trouble passing the exam if you fully understand what the book tries to tell you.



2. This book has some highlights, but it is tightly authored to the VS.NET version it comes bundled with. Some folks will find this a bonanza, but that's only if you're willing to rubber-stamp your exam. There's abundance of Wizard code specific to VS.NET 2003 version. I am working with VC# Express 2005 and many of the things are N/A in this environment. ... anyway, I could sort my way out by looking at the samples and learn that what used to be a Control is nothing more than a Class that derives from Controls and some additional boilerplate.
   
   To make things worst, this book assumes you will be using Wizards and dispenses any explanation on why / how things work.
   
   In addition to all the above, by 11/2005 standards the book itself is dated as C# does include now support for generics, which is not present in this book.
   
   I still do give it a 3 just because I like some of the stuff, and it simplifies a couple of learning points.
   
   BTW: A good POV on using Wizards is here -->
   http://charlespetzold.com/etc/DoesVisualStudioRotTheMind.html



3. I'm an experienced vb6 programmer and looked for a book to help me make the switch. I found this book diving into issues without giving you any prerequisites. I had a hard time understanding where he wants to take me.



4. this product is awesome,but ull need extra help to get cert.
   you can get more help in this link
   (getcert's POST)
   
   http://www.mcse.ms/message2132798.html
   
   thanks



5. This book was needed as a study guide for people at my company to take the MCP test. It is very informative with great examples.

5 comments about Powerful PowerPoint for Educators: Using Visual Basic for Applications to Make PowerPoint Interactive.

1. This book is not really properly titled -- it should be "Using Scripting to Make PowerPoint Interactive." The author makes it clear (part way through the book) that he is not writing this for people with programming knowledge -- all he intends for you to do is copy the scripts he provides and use them as he intends. He even discourages the reader to read what little is written about programming.
   
   In addition, the $45 price tag is ludicrously high. This book is worth $19.95 tops.



2. If you're like me, experienced with PowerPoint, but not a programmer, then taking a trip into the world of vba scripting with David Marcovitz's "Powerful PowerPoint for Educators" makes it easy and enjoyable. This book is like having a conversation with the author who has "been there and done it" in terms of developing script that is practical and useful in so many PowerPoint projects you may need to develop. Among other objectives, I had the need to incorporate an interactive leadership style self-assessment in my cbt of the same name, and thanks to David's book I was able to let the user make his/her selections (as well as change them too), track scores, and then take those scores on to subsequent slides to discern the meaning of each of them (not to mention printing as well as saving those scores based on user preference). And of course, all along the way, I learned a great deal about other scripting options that proved useful in this application as well as for future projects.
   If you're at the stage where you need to use vba scripting, this is the book that should be your primer. It will take you where you need to go!



3. This book is an excellent resource if you want to learn how to use Visual Basic to write interactive quizzes in PowerPoint.It is definitely aimed at educators. There are better books out there for learning PowerPoint, but this book is definitely outstanding in this one area.



4. This book is a great resource but you do need some background in Visual Basic. Don't let that keep you from buying the book though. The book is well written, the writer leads you through most of the tough parts some of the easy stuff is assumed though. No regrets... :-)



5. This is a nice book, but it is not for the beginner. Also, consider whether your IT department disables macros in your installation of PowerPoint. If they do, this book is useless. So, if you're very familiar with Visual Basic for Applications and macros are enabled, this is a great book.

No comments about Learning ASP.NET 3.5.

5 comments about Advanced .NET Remoting, Second Edition.

1. I hate it when I pay good money for a poorly written book. So when I buy a book like this and it turns out so well, I am thrilled!
   
   I have been in ".NET land" since 2001 when .NET beta 2 came out. I have written ASP.NET and Winform applications. During that time I just have not had the need to use .NET remoting, until now. The first 2 or 3 chapters are a great introduction for experienced .NET developers. I like the fact that I did not have to wade through a lot of stuff for beginners. From there the topics get advanced, with plenty of good example code to highlight the topics. Even though I had never really touched .NET remoting (except SOAP Web Services), the explanations and examples work well for me. The author keeps the examples simple, and on-topic. In my opinion, this helps to highlight the topics at hand. The content is geared towards real programmers who will be using the technology.
   
   I also have really enjoyed the authors' candor concerning the weaknesses of .NET remoting. They have already highlighted a bad approach that I was considering.
   
   I am more than happy to give this book a 5 star review!



2. This book almost contain every detail of .NET Remoting.I am sure you can well understanding the .NET Remoting with the help of this book.It gives many good tips and useful cases ,also have some additional experiences of the author.However, I am sory that this book don't have any real and integrated distributed business solutions based on .NET Remoting(I think so ,at least ), although it contains many good cases. but I still strongly recommend you to buy this book, if you want to know .NET Remoting deeply.



3. This is actually a good book, however, it approaches the subject with an extremely hypothetical view. Lack of real world examples has made reading this book a real bore.
   
   The book on the other hand offers in-depth information regarding the "behind the scenes" work of .NET remoting.
   
   Final verdict: Good value for money, but do not expect any code to work.



4. I'm never one to buy books one technology, mainly because they change frequently and you can always find tutorials online. This book however, is well written, descriptive and a must for anyone working with .NET remoting. Excellent!



5. Excellent book. Exactly what I was looking for. With it you can gain a very well understanding of the subject. simple examples that you can easyly adapt to your specific needs.

5 comments about Programming in Visual Basic 6.0 Update Edition with CD.

1. I was lucky to stumble across this book in Amazon.com and didn't really know what I was getting. Once reading through the first chapters and trying some of the exercises I realize this is great. The book teaches you the correct way to program in simple descriptive language. I have now leant what I need to start my own small projects and have ordered the Advanced VB6 from the same authors, looking forward to getting it. The book also comes with the learning VB6.0 CD which gets you started.



2. Concise, precise and with hands-on examples of entire projects. This book is scattered with coloured screenshots to illustrate their instructions so you never have to guess what the authors mean. Targetted at the absolute beginner (in programming) but as it is a breeze to read, the more advanced reader is sure to pick up a few VB gems on his stroll through it.



3. the book was received in a good, timely manner at a cheap price
   at a fraction of the cost of a new book, i am doing all my assignments and learning more about vb
   the only thing that would need improvement is packaging
   a cd came along with this book but since the packaging was done in an envelope it was broken in half which has prevented me from doing work at home
   otherwise, this is a good seller and would deal with them again if they improve their packaging
   thanks



4. I NEVER ordered this book but you sent it and charged me for it anyway. I returned it upon its arrival but had to go to extreme hastles to communicate with you people. Have you re-embursed my account yet? That's the first time I've ever had a problem with Amazon, but I still love you.



5. good book as a classroom study, not so good as a self learner. lot's of info missing that you would get in an interactive environment, such as the exercise answers. and no website available for more info as many others provide. as a class text this is understandable as the students normally wouldn't have all the answers available to them except thru the teacher.

4 comments about Visual Basic(R) 2005 for Programmers (2nd Edition) (Deitel Developer Series).

1. It still somewhat amazes me that Visual Basic has stood the test of time like it has. It keeps getting updates and facelifts, and continues to "play well" in today's environment. If you need a comprehensive guide to the language and the programming environment, I think you would be well-served by the book Visual Basic 2005 for Programmers (2nd Edition) by Paul J. Deitel and Harvey M. Deitel. Not much seems to be missing, and there are a few features that would cause me to highly recommend it to the Visual Basic crowd...
   
   Contents: Introduction to .NET, Visual Basic and Object Technology; Introduction to the Visual Basic Express 2005 IDE; Introduction to Visual Basic Programming; Introduction to Classes and Objects; Control Statements Part 1; Control Statements Part 2; Methods - A Deeper Look; Arrays; Classes and Objects - A Deeper Look; Object-Oriented Programming - Inheritance; Object-Oriented Programming - Polymorphism; Exception Handling; Graphical User Interface Concepts Part 1; Graphical User Interface Concepts Part 2; Multithreading; Strings, Characters and Regular Expressions; Graphics and Multimedia; Files and Streams; Extensible Markup Language (XML); Database, SQL and ADO.NET; ASP.NET 2.0, Web Forms and Web Controls; Web Services; Networking - Streams-Based Sockets and Datagrams; Data Structures; Generics; Collections; Operator Precedence Chart; Number Systems; Using the Visual Studio 2005 Debugger; ASCII Character Set; Unicode; Introduction to XML Part 1; Introduction to XML Part 2; XHTML Special Characters; XHTML Colors; ATM Case Study Code; UML 2 - Additional Diagram Types; Primitive Types; Index
   
   As I said, there's not a lot that's missing here... :)
   
   The authors forego the hand-holding tutorial approach and target the professional programmer who already knows the basics of how programming works. As such, the book dives into documenting the different features of the language and provide a large amount of example code that demonstrates the features being discussed. It's also written in such a way that it can serve as an ongoing reference manual when you're up and running with the language. It's impossible to know everything about every last feature, so you can go back and check into areas where you're still a little fuzzy...
   
   As I mentioned earlier, there are a few features here that really make me like this book. For one, it introduces UML diagrams and real object-oriented concepts. All too often the Visual Basic programmers I've met are self-taught individuals who can sling code but don't understand the larger industry concepts. Using UML here helps to bring them up to speed with the rest of the world. There are also a number of "call-out" tips in the book that are grouped around good programming practices, common programming errors, error prevention, look-and-feel observations, performance, portability, and software engineering. These gems, by being separated out of the text, are highly noticeable and extremely valuable to help you write better code. The authors also focus on the Visual Studio Express packages for the IDE. These Express versions are free, so you don't have to buy this book and then fork over $500 for more software. You pretty much have a complete, self-contained learning package right here.
   
   I have my hands full with a number of other technology learning goals right now, and Visual Basic isn't on that list. But if it was, this would be the book I'd want in front of me...



2. As a seasoned Access developer, I was really excited at the launch of .NET in 2001 as I wanted to make the jump to developing VB/SQL applications. But alas, every time I made an attempt to develop a VB.NET application using Visual Studio 2002/2003, I would end up with a ton of errors that I couldn't fix, and I would always go back to Access because it was so much easier. The books around at the time were also difficult to understand.
   
   Then I went to a developer conference in 2005 and saw the latest versions of VB.NET, Visual Studio 2005 and SQL Server 2005, and I thought Finally!! - Microsoft have made developing VB/SQL applications as simple as Access Database applications. So I wanted to find a book that covered all the cool features of VB.NET 2.0, as well as a discussion of OOP and UML. And just recently I discovered this awesome book by the Deitels.
   
   This book is the perfect introduction to VB.NET 2.0 - for someone who has programmed, but not necessarily VB6. It doesn't discuss differences between VB6/VB.NET 1.1 and VB.NET 2.0, as most other books seem to waste space doing. Rather than have separate chapters for OOP/UML, it combines discussion of OOP/UML within the context of VB.NET concepts such as classes and inheritance, which by the way are exquisitely explained in a simple, readable format with relevant examples.
   
   While the ATM case study, that is gradually built up throughout the book, is excellent, I just wish they had taken it one step further and discussed the design of the "Bank Database", and the relationship between the database design and the classes. Since nearly every business application built these days involves a database backend, this would have been worthwhile discussion.



3. I am an engineer that has been learning c# and VB to build some applications to help our department automate our processes and turned to the Deitel books for instruction. The Deitel series books are excellent. If you had to get only one reference book, I would suggest getting one of theirs. The "How To" books are textbooks and the "for programmers" books basically leave out the self tests and chapter questions. I have both the C# How to and the VB.net Programmers books along with a couple more brand X books. If you are looking for an excellent reference, get the Deitel "for programmers" book. It's a lot cheaper and will still have the information you are looking for.



4. This is an excellent book on VB. If you are already a programmer or want to learn programming, this is the right book. It will give you an overview on programming concepts and deep details on programming with VB.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Complete.

1. for its price, and the amount of information provided, this book is an absolute must have for anyone who does any sort of visual basic programming. while it does skim over some of the more advanced topics in some places, it does what most other visual basic books do not - provides the reader with an awareness of the advanced topics so that they can then decide whether they wish to pursue those subjects further. with example programs that can be downloaded from the Sybex website ... and heaps of explanations and exercises within the book, it will take you to a whole new level of visual basic expertise.



2. For my introduction to today's Basic (no longer all caps, I note) and my re-education in programming, I found this to be the best value if you already have the Basic 6 program. If you haven't you might want to try one of the other books, such as Practical Visual Basic 6 by Bob Reselman and Richard Peasley which includes a disk with the Working Model Edition of Microsoft's Visual Basic 6. Professional programmers of course will want to buy the full-blown Visual Basic, but even they might find this manual handy.

   I came from the environment of the line numbered GW Basic and even "Shingo" Basic after taking a class in Basic programming at the local junior college in the late eighties. After that I learned QuickBasic on my own. QuickBasic was a programming language developed from Basic that incorporated the structured programming techniques and some of the commands and ideas used in more professional languages like C, and I forget what else. I wrote some moderately complicated programs of eight or nine hundred lines and then I didn't do any programming for years. When I returned a couple of years ago I discovered that what was now the state of the art for the amateur programmer was Visual Basic. I took a look at the program (a stripped down version that came with Word Perfect) and was absolutely flabbergasted. I could not figure out how to even begin writing a program!

   So I went to the bookstore and found several shelves of Basic books. I tried one (I don't recall the title) but found it so lacking in information and guidance (for the price) that I actually took the book back the next day and got a refund. Some other books were entirely too advanced and too specialized for my needs. Then I tried this generic title, and with help from doing the exercises in Reselman's and Peasley's book, it brought me up to speed in Visual Basic enough to write a program to keep track of some stock market data that I was interested in.

   What this book does not do that I wish a Visual Basic book would do is include an equivalence table in which the old commands from the world of QuickBasic are paired off with the new commands, and a one-for-one comparison of the old and new ways of doing things. This would be very handy for those of us who learned our Basic some years ago. I looked around for such a book but without luck.

   Fortunately many things have not changed. The random number generator works the same, for example. The techniques and commands for using sequential files, for another example, are vitually the same. The really startling changes are in the way information is presented on the screen. If you're like me and haven't done any programming lately, you will probably find yourself facing a brand new learning curve here.

   This book begins with an introduction to Visual Basic 6 and the concept of object programming in Part I, followed by practical guidance in Part II, and then in Part III introduces the reader to scripting and using Visual Basic for Internet programming. Part IV is Visual Basic for Applications, which I didn't get to, and Part V is a reference. The various chapters are taken from other Sybex publications such as e.g, Steve Brown's Visual Basic 6 In Record Time.

   In the old days, the "quick and dirty" way to really learn a programming language was to jump right in with a project and get it to work. However, like the "spaghetti code" techniques of old, such an approach will not work well if one wants to write complex programs. So I found that there is no substitute for laboriously learning a significant portion of the commands and techniques before actually trying to write a program. Writing small programs guided by experts is the best way, and that is why I do not recommend any single book for the beginner. I recommend instead that this book be purchased as complement to another book, again Practical Visual Basic 6 mentioned above would be adequate. That way if one explanation or guidance is not entirely clear, you can have the advantage of another writer's approach.

   Bottom line is the Visual Basic program itself, a way to interface and develop programs in concert with Microsoft's Windows that will astonish you with its power. Or at least it astonished this old weekend programmer.




3. The book has written on the cover "1,000 pages ONLY $19.99", and it was able to accomplish this because all of the chapters come from other books but that have been editted to be smaller so that they fit. It feels to me like various information was lost in this editting process and the only way to get this missing information is to download the source code and look at that.
   Unfortunately, the projects do not seem to open in my version of VB6, and this has made repeating the programs they describe very difficult. I am not certain why the projects won't work, but I suspect that it is because I have upgraded to service pack 6 for VB6 and somewhere along the service pack path, the project files have become obsolete. So if you purchase this book, that is something you will want to be aware of.



4. I've been wrestling with trying to review this book, along with two others I purchased as a package recently, and I came to the conclusion that I can't review this book alone, I have to review all three together. I'm reading them all simultaneously, and the similarities and differences, combined together, are making the study of Visual Basic 6.0 an extremely enjoyable experience. The other two are: (1) Visual Basic 6 by Paul Sherrif (2) Step by Step Visual Basic 6.0 by Microsoft Press. Again, I can heartily recommend the combination of all three read at the same time. You will feel as if you are getting Visual Basic training at an accelerated pace, even tho, you will probably lose track of what book covered which topic. So far, at any rate, doing it this way is working out very well for me. Try it.



5. This is a good reference book but if you are looking for details this is not the book.