5 comments about Inside Microsoft Visual Basic: Scripting Edition (Microsoft Programming Series).

1. As I have developed my expertise in this area, I put the book down and use other resources. I end up coming back to it at a higher level.
   Eg First I was interested specifically in scripting syntax, then the object model (IE3). Now I'm making sense of oleisapi servers etc through the book.



2. As a programmer I have purchased dozens of books on computer languages, and this book is one of the best. I just got the book yestarday(!) and my pages are already

   FILLED

   with interactivity. I now have the countrol over my sites that I have always wanted. Soooo much better then my JavaScript book.



3. I've had this book for an entire year here at Microsoft and have yet to use it to any satisfaction. Currently it is making a good door-stop. Instead I have found much more support for vbscript in my web pages from books like Professional Active Server Pages (both 1st and 2nd versions).



4. Maybe I was looking for the wrong type of book, but as soon as I looked through it, I realized this book wouldn't be very helpful at all and promptly returned it. This isn'y for you if you want to do ASP.



5. This book was printed in 1996. Just the foreward talks about the "recent release of Visual InterDev 1.0." The language syntax and the scripts used in the book are still valid, but there are many books that are much more recent which cover today's topics. This book is defenitely out-of-date!

No comments about Visual Basic .NET Serialization Handbook.

3 comments about Visual Basic .NET! I Didn't Know You Could Do That....

1. I have a little exposure with VB6 (3 weeks last year). I do mostly C++.
   This book is the best I found so far in terms of examples and cost. If you need a book to learn the differences between VB6 and VB .NET in a week with plenty of practical intermediate/advanced examples, this is the book. With the information I get from this book, I can understand the material from Microsoft's .NET jumpstart course with ease.

   The examples in this book are really remarkable and don't expect toy programs. If only WROX books are like this book, I will not need to spend so much time reading!




2. Is this cover along the lines of Wrox where the author/s are featured on the cover.

   I don't mind the look of this author, although he does look rather intense and he could do with a shave.




3. This book shouldn't be sold anymore because its based on the beta version of Visual Studio.NET (which the authors states in the introduction) - so some samples won't run without small modifications which is very confusing for beginners. And putting an ape on the cover isn't very approiate either.

   I like the authors other books 99 code samples for Visual Basic.NET much better.

No comments about The Waite Group's Qbasic Primer Plus (The Waite Group).

5 comments about Hands On Visual Basic 6.

1. I found this a great book for beginners who want to actually DO something with the language once they understand something about it.



2. This book has been reviewed at VB Techniques (vbtechniques.com). The book takes a unique approach to teaching VB while at the same time showing how to build realistic applications. The user will be able to take skills from both tasks to future projects.



3. If you are beginning Visual Basic then I highly recommend this book. Ms. Podlin presents basic Visual Basic in a way that is light and fun . The flow of the projects are very good, with a real-life small project feel. The book gives the fundamentals of the language and Environment in a clear and hands-on manner, and then gives the reader a taste for a number of different ways in which VB 6 can be used: automation with Office apps, objects, and database access. From these projects, you can decide which was the most fun or intriguing for you and pursue that usage of the language. The downside of the book, as mentioned by another reviewer, is the need for more explanation on the integration with Excel and Word. I guess, though, that this gives more insight into the intricacies of the language.



4. Based on the title and content, this appears to be aimed at beginners (to VB, or programming in general).

   I have quite a bit of programming experience, but not in VB. I found the book useful, but other books would definitely need to accompany this one to get a sense of the possibilities with VB6.

   There was barely a reference to the rich function library VB6 has, and v. little emphasis on reusability (controls) and developing components vs. implementing them - understandable for a beginner's book. Knowing more about the capabilities of VB6 than the book revealed, I found it was a little "lite." However, my perspective is as an IT professional so perhaps I'm being unfair.

   I would have rated the book with a 4 had it not been for the following shortcomings:

   1. The projects, though useful, did not go far enough. Again, they didn't leverage many built-in functions (or show how to browse them), and the discussion of the ADO model was v. high level. Didn't get down to fields/items levels which any real application would need to do.

   2. Project 2 (even the solution on the CD) had run time errors when adding and deleting records. This is because the authors had not taken into consideration the child recordset. In other words, adding and deleting parent records gave no consideration to the impact on the associated child recordset. Just testing each option would have quickly revealed the problem, and it would have been a GREAT example had the authors included what it takes to sync. parent and child recordsets.

   Definitely a worthwhile introduction, and the hands-on approach was beneficial.




5. Overall good book after a slow start. The book claims to be intended for "Intermediate to Advanced" users but is too simple for anyone with any experience. It's five chapters before the reader launches Visual Basic and then continues to move fairly slowly. I didn't expect so much hand holding in a "hands on" "intermediate to advanced" book. Author occasionally meanders during tutorials when the meandering material would have been better served in an appendix. There are some good tips and the author points out good programming practices/conventions but inconsistently follows them. There are some misspellings, omissions and inaccuracies between the text and the CDROM but nothing that should preclude the reader from finishing the tutorial projects. Overall a good primer.

No comments about User's manual for level 1 Radio Shack TRS-80 microcomputer system.

No comments about Mobile Device Game Development (Game Development Series).

2 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Professional Projects.

1. Be sure that there is nothing professional about this book. It is certainly one of the worst out there. The applications you build in the book are based on code of the lowest quality. Nothing object oriented here. It has nothing to offer to the intermediate user and above and will introduce the beginner to some very bad programming habbits.

   Don't be fooled that it 'll let you build a full video kiosk application. The intermediate could do with no effort and the beginner won't understand what and why, simply because it just throws totally basic code and explains nothing. Not even the SQL.

   Then half of the content is of (the much ridiculus) style: "Now that we learned this, let's go and learn this"(end of section), next section: "in the previous section we learnd this, now let's go and learn this", or,"figure X shows ..." (figure) "as shown in figure X...". Irritating the least. I just adopts a "tell it to a ten years old" manner but actually says nothing usefull.

   Bottom line: just don't buy.




2. This book does a fair job of covering most aspects of VB.NET in a simple and easy to understand text. Book does lack professional coding examples, Object-oriented chapter is about 18 pages while chapter on .NET family servers is over 20 pages, there is no CD in the book. Overall this book is for newbees. I personally like the Visual Basic .NET from Francesco Balena.

5 comments about VB.net Developer's Guide (With CD-ROM).

1. This book, although it doesn't include enough code, is the best VB .NET book I've come across so far. Well written, easy to understand, and concise. Enough said.



2. Ok, it's a nice book. But it lacks in code examples, (i.e., lots of methods and properties, but not codes). It really shows you the new features of the .Net Framework, but sometimes the book is boring... Instead of teaching you what things are used for, it just shows you other informations, in a deep manner, but not the code by itself.
   Anyways, it's on my reference library, but if you want to learn .Net by other ways, like practicing with codes, I suggest you to look for other books.



3. Unless they have come out with a new edition that throws out 80% of the original edition, this book is so badly written and has so many egregious errors that it might take you weeks to unlearn all the wrong stuff it teaches you.

   It was written by many authors, and it shows. A few parts have good content and actually teach worthwhile stuff. But for the most part the chapters either (a) just echo the online documentaion, telling you that you can change the font by applying the font property [doh!], (b) attempt to explain a complex topic in a dozen paragraphs, and so you learn nothing useful, or (c) are just plain flat wrong.

   I don't have time to go into all the errors I found. The book is so bad that I couldn't even consider donating it to any charitable drive. It's now being used for starting fires in our fireplace. Come to think of it, that might be the best use for it.




4. I would not give this book 1 (one) star as Bill/Beverly did but I understand their frustration. I woudl give it 2.5 stars but they don't allow for 1/2 stars. I agree more with J Michalany this book lacks content.

   My view is the authors were too stingy with the explanations and comments. The book would have been much better if the explanations following the sample code truly explained the sample code. Or if the sample code had sufficient comments.

   The authors spent 20 page on programming fundamentals. This could have been covered in one chart/table (i.e. List the programming function and tell us how it has changed in .Net). I wish they had spent those pages on some of the newer concepts. For instance the GET and Return and how that effects the processing in the properties.

   The authors also introduce new items and then they fail to explain them. They also do not inform you that they will be explained later (i.e. the Imports keyword) in the book. This leaves you scratching you head trying to understand an under commented abbreviated slip of code.

   However they have the most comprehensive index I have ever seen in a textbook. More textbooks should take note of this.




5. I'm new to VB, whereas this book intends to explain VB.NET to developers who were familiar with earlier versions of VB. Even though that probably retards my learning, I'm still convinced this book fails. Imagine, nothing but brief code fragments, and no hands-on exercizes, until page 219?? Actually, there are no hands-on exercises even at that point, just source code for some apps on a small CD.

   Every chapter is skimpy, every chapter leaves something out. This book is too clumsy to help beginners and too incomplete to help competent developers.

   I learned some VB.NET, and I'm continuing to learn it, but not with this book - with the MSDN documentation on the web. That's not how it should be when you buy a book.

2 comments about Visual Basic 6 Database Programming Bible (Bible (Wiley)).

1. If you are new to databases and know you are going to use VB, Access, Active X, and ADO, then this is a good book for you. Otherwise beware. This book sets you up for learning the how to use the Microsoft endorsed tools for db programming. For that purpose this is a good book.

   Where this book falls apart is trying to teach you Oracle stored procedures and programming. You are better off getting a book specific to Oracle 8i. The SQL also is not Oracle friendly. If you want a good understanding of SQL, there are a number of books I would recommend over this one.

   By no means is this a bad book, it is just tailored more towards the Microsoft way of life than the Amazon review would lead you to believe. It is definately worth the expense to any VB scribe.




2. I am still trying to work my way through this book, but may return it. In case it makes a difference to you, this book isn't as much a tutorial as it is "this is how this works". In other words, there aren't any "now try this" examples. The coverage seems to be good, but I'm a bit disappointed with how it's presented. A step-by-step approach is easier to understand and follow, in my opinion.

   Another thing to beware of: the CD leaves some room for improvement, at least as far as the databases go. There's scripts for SQL Server and Oracle to create tables, etc. but not a script to import the data. The data files are in CSV format, and to import them into the database takes a bit of work. If you don't know what you're doing, it's definitely a struggle, with no documentation on how to do it...

   Overall, this book may cover lots of great areas, but who can tell when it takes so much effort to get through it? Again, it looks like the coverage and topics are well covered, but the format makes it somewhat difficult reading. I'm hoping it'll pay off for me and anyone else who buys it.