No comments about Basic Approach to Structured Basic.

No comments about Programming with Turbo PASCAL (McGraw-Hill's Best--Basic Engineering Series and Tools).

1 comments about The New Basics: Programming Techniques and Library Development.

1. You know, v-e-ery not bad book

No comments about Learn Basic: A Guide to Programming the Texas Instruments Professional Compact Computer 40 (A BYTE book).

No comments about Commodore 64 Tutor for Home and School.

No comments about Level II Roms.

No comments about Basic programming concepts.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Certification Exam Guide.

1. ... but not enough for the exam.

   This book is great for a relatively inexperienced programmer to quickly expand their knowledge with examples.

   Its biggest flaw is that it really is not sufficient, on its own, to prepare for the exam certification. The cover states "Everything you need to pass Microsoft's Visual Basic 6 Certification Exam". The "blurb" on the cover is, in my opinion, overly ambitious and the contents do not fully realise this ambition. If you are interested in the Microsoft Certification, then this book is a useful supplement only. You will need to have another serious reference with this "guide" serving as backup.

   If you are inexperienced and starting a new job as a VB programmer this is an excellent way to rapidly ramp up your knowledge and experience and a very useful reference. However, once you are up to speed and want to take your knowledge to the next level, even just for certification, you will then see the limitations of this "All in one" book.

   THE BOTTOM LINE - if you want it to rapidly expand your basic VB programming experience this performs well, however, if you do want a complete "VB Certification" book to prepare you for the MCP's, this is DEFINITELY NOT the book for you unless you want it to supplement your study of another book/course.




2. Covers a wide range of topics and not baby-sits reader with small and obvious details. Could have earn five stars if cover more on database access. I have to buy a separate book just for database.



3. covers a wide range of topics and not baby-sits reader with small and obvious details. Could have earn five stars if cover more on database access. I have to buy a separate book just for database.



4. This book ROCKS! And The Author ROCKS! A well presened, well written book on Dan Mezick's part. Its exercises and demonstrations laid a firm foundation in the fundamentals of Visual Basic. Never a dull moment, This book written by the most experienced, entertaining, captivating authors in the technology market. The only thing that comes even close to this book is seeing Mezick presenting live, but thats a scary proposition in it self!



5. Want to get certified. This can't be your only source and hope to pass. Mixing the 175&176 subjects is confusing for study but all in all it provides good coverage of most subject matter included on the test. Sample test is not a good reflection of the actual exam so WATCH OUT. If you want to pass the certs get this book (to start with), a certified practice exam and read ALOT of the MSDN information.

No comments about The art of programming basic: HP 2000 system.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Visual Basic 4 in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. This book is ridiculously lousy and sloppy. It is concise, but to the point where valuble information is squeezed out dry. The reference card is ridiculously designed (instead of making a reference card of commands and methods and tools, they put in name conventions for controls and color codes). Another thing is when you read this book, you have to go VERY CAREFULLY so that you don't miss any commands or methods. Some books provide neat features like a shaded box entry in the chapters, with the listing of commands and what they do. This book is: Start a project, run it, look at the code, good...next!. I highly do not advise anyone to pick up this book. Such a big book for such little information.



2. My first steps in Visual Basic programming were taken with this book. Actually it gave me the basics about controls, forms,VB code, multimedia programming, file access code and other features. At that time this book was enough for me. But after some years I feel a lack about VB. So I tell you: this is not the best book about VB basics, mainly if you are a programmer.



3. The book is not recommended for serious VB programmers. It does not deal with real-world projects. You learn only a tiny fraction of VB with this book. The only good thing that you will learn from this book is the ability to create a VB project, type in code, execute and that's it!!



4. This book is fantastic. It doesn't spend to much time on any one topic and it doesn't go off and take 20 pages to explain what a string is. This book tells you what your are doing, why, and how to put what you have learned into a real life program. It quickly moves through the material but it doesn't move so fast that you can't understand. In about a week you start producing some great programs. In another week or so you will be making games, learning about sprites, 3D worlds, polygons, how to incoorporate music into your programs and so on. This book actually teaches you how to make games.



5. I was recently asked to write a program in VB 6.0 for a desktop database app. And it's been a couple of years since I've used VB, as most of the apps I now write are Internet based and use PHP and MySQL (UNIX is still king of the Internet world).
   
   So, I am glad I kept this primer on VB 4.0! The VB 6.0 interface has been certainly improved, along with the language. But if you don't mind a somewhat dated book, the Gurewich brothers write one like no other. They just know how to write books, period.
   
   Never mind the critics here saying that the book is too basic, for that is exactly what the book is designed to be. The clear examples will have you up and running with Visual Basic apps in just a short time. And for old hands like me, who have suddenly plunged back into the desktop VB world, it's been a very good refresher. And I've retained enough knowledge that I can cover 4 or 5 chapters per day. So, by the end of the week I'll be back up to snuff with this marvelous language and VB dev environment, thanks to this great book.
   
   I also still have my old Visual C++ 2.0 book by the same Gurewich Bros. And their writing style is just as good for that volume too. So, I've learned to buy books by the author(s) and not by content. Take it from me. These guys know how to write programming books!