5 comments about Professional Design Patterns in VB .NET: Building Adaptable Applications.

1. I purchased this book a long time ago and I have to admit a lot of the information presented went right over my head in the beginning. I felt the book was too hard to understand mostly because I was still very new to .Net in general. Well, after spending a few months working on a real life project, I got the suspension that our architecture could lead to problems in the future. So I started researching design patterns and asking other people on message boards how they approach design. After all of that, I decided to review this book again and I was amazed at how much of the information was sinking in my brain this time of around. I especially love the section on applying design patterns to the data access tier. I still have more to re-read, but that is my favorite section so far. This is a great book for design pattern newbies like myself. The approaches in this book can also work in C# although some minor syntax changes would have to be made. Well worth the price.



2. I am been reading this book. It covers majority of patterns, nicely categorizied. Book is not very length, explains concepts properly.
   I recommend this books for any VB.Net programmer who wants to keep upper hand from thier peers.



3. If you know design patterns well, you make different accross developers! This book is describing each design pattern with an example. Sometimes it is difficult to get everything through one example but I'd recommend this book to everyone. I am good at vb.net so application of design patterns in vb.net is a big plus for me.



4. If you want to get up to speed quickly on OOP practices this is an excellent starting point. I wish more authors would write books like this, both writing style and material. Deborah has an easy to read style that makes the material she covers easy to comprehend.
   
   The book walks the reader through a small and simple project. The downloaded code sample works and the build along instructions are accurate; and if followed will produce the same code as the downloaded version. There were a few time where I got to a point that I thought something was overlooked or wrong; and in each case when I turned the page or read the next 2-3 pages all was explained; this too helped me feel I was getting a good grasp of the material being presented.
   
   So, with all this praise, why did I only give the book 4 stars? In my opinion there should have been another two - three chapters to really complete the material. What is in the book is how to use objects and bind them to Win forms, how to build a three-tier project and how to use the bound forms to edit records. What's missing is the Add & Delete functionality. Using bound objects with the DataGridView you lose the native ability of the grid to do column sorts since the objects being bound to do not implement iSortable (this is mentioned in the book but it would have been nice to have included). There was a nice use of Nullable(of Date) but this too would have been nice to expand (SQL allows for a null date but .NET doesn't allow Date types to be null, this creates some problems that the nullable(of Date) doesn't really overcome.
   
   So, a Great book I highly recommend. It does a great job with the material it does cover; and you get a reusable development framework in the process, I just wish there were a few more chapters to really complete the material covered.



5. I had a little experience with Des.Pat and this book helped me to speed up my knowledge. I encourage people to start DP with this book. This is less theory and a lot of practice. Which is very good. I have seen other books but they are a lot of theory less implementation and they are talking very very academic. So it's hard to understand. But this book brings you up to academic knowledge by given simple examples.

5 comments about Beginning .NET Game Programming in VB .NET.

1. This book may present some theoretical views for beginner level game programming, but do not expect to learn the correct syntax for VB.NET. Actually if you purchase the same authors book for programming in C# you'll find they have the same first chapter (that's as far as I looked). This book was obviously a lazy attempt for these people to make a quick buck. Unfortunately they wait until the end of the book to let you know:
   "Most of the example games leave much room for improvement. Even when we looked back on them after finishing each chapter, we would sometimes look at parts of the code and think, "We can't believe we wrote that." Even worse, some of the things we told you aren't always true." pg 348
   While I was trying to complete the exercises in this book I spent more time with my nose in other books so I could learn the correct way to do it. Do yourself a favor get a different book.



2. Although this book isn't a complete waste of money, don't be fooled. It's not very well written.
   There are countless errors in the code right from the beginning. They also just skip telling you some important pieces about what is going on in every chapter.
   However, you can still squeeze some use from this book. Go to the web site and download all the code from them. For the most part, the code works and can be your reference. You *can* learn from this book and d/l code, but you have to work at it and use a lot of trial and error.
   
   Thank you for reading.



3. My biggest complaint with VB.NET game programming books so far (and I've read a few) has been that they either: A) try to teach elementary VB.NET using game flavored examples (but nothing about actual game development) or B) try to take existing game programming material and shoe-horn it into a VB.NET book. Sadly this book falls squarely into the second category (so far).
   
   It's quite obvious that ALL of the sample code was originally written in C#. No big deal, it's easy enough to convert. However, if you aren't a VB.NET guy, don't you dare write a freaking book with VB.NET in the title. There are more differences between VB.NET and C# than just syntax!! For the love of god, 85% of the code samples (encountered so far) do NOT work as printed in the book. Some have glaring C# syntax still in them, but only in places... often sharing a line with VB.NET syntax. The tech editor should be drawn and quartered, on TV.
   
   To make matters worse, the main author seems somewhat condescending (arrogant?) for someone who's never actually published a game in his/her life, ever (and had to have TWO other people write the book with him... neither of whom have ever published a game either.) This is an actual quote, immediately after some collision detection code that DOES NOT work as printed... If you think this is too much math, this is probably the place where you should take this book back and take up something less mathematically demanding, like nuclear physics! Ok... seriously? That comment would be a lot more impressive if your code ACTUALLY WORKED!
   
   So far I have nothing positive to say about this book, so let me see... ok well, the girl on the back cover is kinda cute (allegedly one of the authors, although I have no idea which sections are written by whom... is that good or bad? You tell me.) Oh yeah, and the price I paid was 40% off, although sadly I still feel ripped off!
   
   FWIW, I did eventually get the collision detection code to work on paper, although NO explanation is made for why the algorithm handles things a certain way, and the reader is told to perform a simple Google search for more info (I kid you not!!). I'm guessing this is because they don't actually know why the code they "borrowed" (from the net?) did things that way either.
   
   At this point, I'm almost considering this book as a possible alternative energy source. I can't believe anyone at one of my favorite publishers actually read this book prior to printing it and selling it for $50 a copy. By the time you rip out the index, table of contents, foreward, introduction, recommended reading and 'about the author' section... it's barely 350 pages. Yes... I know it's not about page count, but when quality is already out the window, what other metric is there?
   
   I'm not going to tell you the name of this book or the publisher (yet), because even though I've managed to work up this much bile and stomach acid over it, I'm only on page 35. God help me, I hope it gets better quickly.
   
   It's funny, every truly good tech book I read makes me less inclined to try writing my own. This book, however, has convinced me that I still have a pretty good chance at getting published.



4. I would hate for people to get the wrong idea about the book from reading the other posts. This really isn't a bad book.
   I am completely new to game programming (although not new to VB), and following along with the examples I was able to get the Tetris, Caterpillar and other games to work.
   This gives a good introduction to game programming, covering both 2D and some 3D graphics.
   
   But the book isn't all about writing the code. It also tells the reader how to plan out a game before coding, and gives good tips on keeping the project on track.
   
   The book isn't perfect though. There are some errors in the code (but only one glaring instance of C# code in the VB code).
   But APress has followed up, and has posted some code corrections on the web-site, and gives the downloadable code which helps a great deal.
   
   I found the text of the book to be very easy to follow. The author has more of a conversational style than lecturing.
   
   I think the book succeeds in being a good introduction to game programming. Getting the Tetris game to work gives you the incentive to keep reading and learning. Plus, it is fun to play your own game!



5. I am halfway through this abomination and only a masochistic bent will force me to continue. I initially thought that I could easily pick up any beginning programming book and breeze through it but I am new to VB.net and have been away from programming for a couple years so the MASSIVE amount of Typo's, random variable names, extraneous nonsense, as well as items that are left as an exercise for the reader -- most of which are anything but trivial -- make this a medication consuming, frustration-fest. I was considering trying to sell it second-hand but I would foist this dead tree turd on my mother-in-law. Not to mention it's poor condition from heaving it out the window numerous times. Don't, I repeat, don't consider this purchase!!! Pitiful, just pitiful!

5 comments about Serious ADO: Universal Data Access with Visual Basic.

1. This is a good book that explains the intimate details of ADO but the format of book leaves a little to be desired. On most pages the 3/4 of the page has the text and the left 1/4 of each page is blank or contains subheadings. There is no clear-cut separation between 1 subject and the next. While reading this book, if you do not pay close attention, the subject will change. The author clearly knows ADO and how to apply it to Visual Basic 6.0 but it appears that he repeats the text in several parts of the book especially in chapter 3 - RecordSets with SQL Data Sources. Maybe it was my imagination but several times I had a sense of Deju-Vu. Didn't I read about this earlier in the book? Chapter 4, 5, and 7 (Explicit Connections, Explicit Commands, and Disconnected RecordSets) are very good and you will want to read these chapters religously. Installation of the files on the CD caused some problems on my PC, which has Windows XP Home Edition. If you like Shakespeare, you'll like the examples in this book. Beware the Index is not in synchronization with the actual page numbers.



2. "Serious ADO" is written by Rob Macdonald, an independent software expert specializing in enterprise system design using Windows, COM(+), ADO, and MTS. The book is based on the authors real world database development experience. It is designed for intermediate to advanced Visual Basic developers. The book teaches how to use ADO to build component-based systems and web applications as well as traditional client server systems.

   The first part of the book is titled "ADO In Depth". It provides detailed coverage of ADO's components and how they work. Real world code examples are provided for better understanding of all concepts. Oracle and SQL Server are covered, including the major non-traditional data sources. Key concepts such as locking, transactions, connection pooling, and marshalling are covered.

   Part two is titled "ADO at Large". It explains how ADO is used in real world scenarios. Topics include advanced user interface creation, binding processes, Data Environment, and Microsoft Transaction Server. It shows how to use ADO to build components that benefit from MTS and COM+.

   If you are an intermediate to experienced Visual Basic database developer, then this book is a must.




3. I attribute this book with solidifying my ADO skills.
   
   It covers the standard topics I have found in other ADO texts as well as an introduction to more advanced concepts with a functional level of depth. So the information is not too cursory, nor too detailed.
   
   There is a good introduction to connecting to and using data warehouses. The coverage of hierarchical recordsets was also good. The coverage of the basics (connection, recordset, command, et. al.) pivoted around the 'devil is in the details' type of information, which, with ADO, is appropriate.
   
   Of all the ADO books I have read, I most highly recommend this one. It is not well suited for the absolute beginner (i.e., you don't know what a recordset is) or high-level expert, but it should be suited for anyone in between. It took me a while to get into this book, but I feel it paid off.



4. I have gone through this book time after time and there is no better ADO book. It covers it all.



5. with one flaw - the index is consistently off by a page or three. (a corrected index is available at apress.com)
   
   And, there is one caveat - this is NOT a book for the VB/database beginner. If you're just starting VB6 database programming, I would recommend Freeze's "Visual Basic 6 Database Programming Bible," instead.
   
   If you can live with the fact that you need to subtract a couple of pages from the page number in the index, then this book provides outstanding technical coverage of ADO. Now, it appears that Rob used ADO v2.5 for the code used in the book, and there have been some improvements to ADO (it is now at v2.8) which make a few of the timing comparisons, within ado now a bit obsolete. (some recordset operations are now more efficient than they were with v2.5, for instance,) but it this book is still my first, and usually only reference that I need to pull off the bookshelf.

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (Core Reference) (Core Reference).

1. Even if I don't use VB Net, I enjoy that book: a "just" view in comparisons between dot-Net and VB6 (not always at 100% in favor of VB.Net), and insight, intelligence, and inner working we don't even see often, if not at all, even in C# books! There are two major weak points: Windows Forms (I recommend Chris Sells' book) and database (I suspect Francesco didn't entirely wrote these chapters, as the style is a little bit different in those chapters than the other parts of the book, anyhow, my impression), again too superficial ( I somehow recommend the MS Press book ADO.NET by Sceppa). Even if I use C#, I often found that Francesco Balena did a much better job than what I find in other of my C# and Managed C++ reference books. NOW, my copy, of the first edition, has indeed a printed page number 1576. So why Amazon annonces 800 pages, I don't know.

   I would have give only four stars, but since I find very hard to find a book of my liking about dot-Net in general, I cannot than praise that book for an extra star.




2. This is the most through book on VB.Net I've ever found. It's a steep read, but if there are any dark corners of VB.Net that haven't had light shed on them, then you aren't useing VB to it's fullest potential, and you haven't read this book.
   
   The current price of this book on Amazon right now (~50.00) makes it more than a steal with the amount of information in it. Espcially compared to the avarage cost of a class in any programming language.
   
   Though the book is written for a programmer who is at least a novice in VB6, certain versions of the book provide a CD with an eBook of the authors VB6 book (with code examples) as well as a PDF of this book. So, if you are just getting into VB.Net you'll have some place to turn when Balena starts refrencing well known VB6 syntax.



3. This book and .NET XML Web Services Step by Step by Adam Freeman and Allen Jones have answered virtually all of my questions about building production distributed database applications using XML Web services. If you're interested, you can download a sample of my working code at www.opointe.com



4. When compared to other books on the subject, even those in the same MSPress series, this book is unmatched. The depth and quality of information is astounding.
   
   Many programming books spend 500+ pages on basic concepts, fail to establish a foundation of knowledge and leave you in a position that prevents you from exploiting the technology. In many cases, you have read 500+ pages and have learned how to make a clock or a simple card game. Not so with this book.
   
   It is obvious that the author is well versed with every nuance of .NET, as he goes deeper than any other source, while keeping his explanations clear and understandable. Every explanation is concise and useful.
   
   Though the author clearly warns that this book is not for beginners, I have chosen to use it to start from the ground up. Surprisingly, his style has allowed me to understand nearly every concept, and will likely allow me to accelerate my proficiency well beyond my experience.
   
   The author claims that the scope and size of this book could have been separated into several books. I could not agree more. This speaks to the dedication of the author to provide more than a text of useless fillers. Each one of the 1,400+ pages provides useful information. A comment in the Forward suggests that this massive book be read from beginning to end. Though I scoffed at such a challenge, I have found myself doing just that.
   
   I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand Visual Basic .NET.
   
   This book easily ranks #1 on my all-time favorites list.



5. My favorite. Well written, understandable, to the point and easy to read. Read sequentially or use as a reference. Covers pretty much everything you need to know.
   
   I prefer referring to his sections on ADO.NET (200 pages) and ASP.NET (330 pages) to using other books on these topics.
   
   A big book that will impress your peers. Can be used for bicep curls and tricep extensions in a pinch.
   
   If this is representative of Francesco Balena's work then I recommend anything he writes.

5 comments about Programming and Customizing the Basic Stamp.

1. This is really good starter book. I liked the way Scott explained the variables and other memory structure stuff. However, there are some mistakes. THis program line for Basic Stamp 2 reads: debug "Go!", cr and there is no explanation what is the purpose of cr. Another line reads: debug DEC dogAge, " dog years" and no explanation on what DEC stands for. Small things like this can be big obstacle for novice.



2. The worse book I have ever read. I cannot believe how some "authors" throw anything on paper".
   First the CD does not include anything really new you can download free and better stuff from Parallax or the internet.
   The book starts with the first sevens chapters explaining some basic electronics that even an elementary school kid will know like how potentiometers and solder-less breadboards work also some very basic programs, after a few mistakes no major problems even though most programs are loops and LED blinkers. But after what the author call the" boot camp chapters" (2) ,the book gets really crazy right away after you finish the "boot camp", which only included some easy basic 4 to 8 lines programs it gets you to 3 pages programs on the next chapter a big leap I think ,also all the projects are practically impossible to build as you will need to spend a fortune in parts available from different vendors and from the author himself, like the $50 (2X16) serial LCD from Mr. Edwards (I got a parallel (4X20) for $10 and a serial kit for $5 from Ebay and made my own) a real headache it is harder to get the parts than to do the projects, then in some of them the author does not give you enough information like with one device (X-10) he uses from Radio Shack that connect the BS2 to a modem and then he provides a phone number for you to call to get the info.



3. this is the worth book i have ever had the pleasure to put in the trash (the only place where it belongs) 3 pages showing a photo of a potentiometer and the constant nagging of buying things from to person who wrote the book (he calls himself an "AUTHOR") he should call himself a salesperson. the book is aimed at the mentally challanged, it has such a slow pace , i felt i was in a movie with slow playback, and most of the crap was not complete.Do your self a favor dont waste your money if you want a sales catalog, just call any electronics vendor and you will get one for free (including shipping)



4. I bought this book because it says it explains both the BS1 and BS2. Only a couple of pages at the beginning are dedicated to explain the Most Basic commands of both BS1 & 2. Almost the rest of the book are complex example programs (projects) with a LOT of commands which were not explained before. I don't recommend this book, specially if you're planning to use other than the BS1.
   It would have been a much better book if the author dedicated more time explaining all the commands and what they do, instead of putting so many examples which are hard to understand without this knowledge.



5. Well writen, easy to follow intor to the basic stamp. I enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to others like myself who wanted an easy intro to the stamps.

2 comments about Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET.

1. As the name indicates, the contents of this book are truly object-oriented.
   It has all the lessons that learners would need in order to comprehend the various options and applications that Visual Basic .NET offers. This book provided exemplary guides, which would encourage learners to endure some self-tests. It anticipates problems and helps provide solutions that programmers can count on. Almost everything about it is positive.
   However, its information are not as detailed as some experts would like them to be. Again, anybody who has poor knowledge of Visual Basic 6.0 will not find this book easy. Its writer assumed that its readers are already familiar with VB 6.0.



2. I purchased this book in order to help me migrate from Visual Foxpro to Visual Basic 2005. Overall, I am very pleased with it. The examples are clear-cut and touch on real-world scenarios. The chapters on object oriented and interface programming are almost worth the price of the book. The remaining chapters are more geared towards objects specific to the .NET framework, not object-oriented programming per se. I would recommend this book to people who already have a fairly good knowledge of VB/VBA or another OO language such as Java.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 in 24 Hours Complete Starter Kit (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. Great beginner book - incorporates a bit a humor throughout to keep things interesting. Nice book to transition from VBA to VB .NET.
   Errata is posted on authors page as well as user forum.
   
   The book also acclimates you to the Visual Studio IDE very well.



2. This is an excellent book and Yes, you can learn to program in Visual Basic.Net in 24 hours. This book gives you the details the other books leave out. The book flows well and builds a solid foundation. This is better then the college text I am using for VB.Net. Buy it, you won't be sorry!



3. The title could rather be given as sams teach yourself VB.NET "for" 8 hours....All what has been presented here can be mastered in just 8 hours. This book lacks essence in conveying the concepts. It does not also cover all parts of VB.NET. The author could have dedicated some more topics on ADO.NET and database programming.
   This book sounds good to novices in VB.NET but a money waste for experienced programmers.



4. I have had many years in IT. I wanted to understand what .net was about and VB (.net) to get through the brochure speak and be able to manage developments in the .net environment effectively.
   
   This book was excellent.
   
   Taking each lesson in turn, the pace and instruction was clear and exact. At the end of the 24 hours I more than satsified my aims. I now have a good grounding in vb.net and understand the .net environment much better.
   
   Well done to James Foxall



5. This book is so well written, if you are just starting out with VB, then this book is a must. Where my tutor does not make sense, James Foxall does. James you are a genius, Thank you.
   
   So this book is a must, you don't need to think about it, just buy it.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Developer's Handbook.

1. The book is full with examples, but a lot of them needs some files from the CD, and very much of them are missing from the CD, poor sybex support for such problems !!!



2. basically good book, but with a lot of references to missing from the CD files, and no support from sybex. there are better books and more supported(e.g. wrox)



3. I have read about half of the book and it has have already answered more questions and given me more insight into Visual Basic than any other book I have read! The coverage of database connectivity and API calls is outstanding as is the section on Programming for the WEB. I found the writing style to be very easy to read. I recommend this book to all Visual Basic developers.



4. This is POORLY written book. Many sample programs do not work or even compile. Many of the variables still use the name "RDO" instead of ADO. Obviously, the author(s) never tested their sample programs, because they do not run. So be careful what book you buy. You could waste $....



5. This is a POORLY written book. The author(s) simply changed their old RDO book to ADO, and sold it as new for VB 6. Many of the samples will not work or compile, because they forgot to change connection/recordset from RDO to ADO.

3 comments about Structured Finance Modeling with Object-Oriented VBA (Wiley Finance).

1. I had been waiting for this book for more than 5 months (preordered since December 2006). The content is excellent, but I expect to see a complete VBA code as a wrap up. It should also help if the code is provided in soft file so that the readers can see how the model actually runs without the need to merge all the examples and manually type the code into the computer first.
   
   Montri



2. This is an outstanding textbook on how to master the intricacies of a structured finance (especially, home-equity ABS) deal. It teaches ABS from several angles: modeling (chapter 1-4), structuring (chatper 5), and ABS analytics (chapter 6).
   
   Although definitions and explanations about any given deal can be readily found from prospectus and prospectus supplements, for practitioners like myself, this book improves one's understanding of what's, how's and why's of any particular feature of a typical RMBS structure. This is a book I wished I had read when I started in this business.
   
   In this book, the process of modeling a RMBS deal was shown step-by-step, with definitions, equations, tables and figures accompanying easy to understand explanations. The equations are written in a way that if is straightforward to be coded into VBA (or any other language) and be implemented.
   
   This is a book about learning about modeling and implementing an ABS. End of chapter programming excercises reinforce the notion of learning by doing. To respond to the prior reviewer's desire of having a complete program to run and test, I believe that the only way one is going to learn a complex structure is to read, follow, implement and experiment with self-written codes. This book provides you with all the tools and explanations you need to get started in this interesting field.
   
   



3. This textbook is interesting. it describe the modeling in programming style and math. It make me easy to catch the relation of math formula and programming pesudo code. It does not only the math concept but pesudo code which is used to describe the concept. It is helpful to me while I met the problems in other finance engineering textbook. I can not link the complexity of math fomula to real world. But this textbook gave me another study viewpoints and help me link to to real world.

5 comments about Visual Basic for Testers.

1. This book is long overdue for too long QA resources have been limited by others and themsleves to not look under the bonnet, so to speak or have payed for inflexible third party tools to do a simple job. I have developed entire smart'newbie' QA technical teams that just couldn't believe how easy it was to use code to test an application. It also adds to there skill set, gets them to really think 'how' best to test the application from a code point of view and even improves their test cases.

   Mary Sweeney's book "Visual Basic for Testers" is the starting point for any Manager who wants to do the same and give his/her team that extra weapon for finding issues.




2. This book is really a primer on Visual Basic for someone who has never programmed before. Testing is just an afterthought.
   If you're a developer trying to improve processes through testing this book is not for you.

   If you're a software tester who knows absolutely nothing about programming, nice to meet you, I didn't know you existed, take a look at this book.




3. I've had several college-level courses now in Testing and this is the only book we used that actually had anything to do with testing and programming. This is an absolute essential text for a college curriculum in testing. I checked out several curricula and found that most of them use it. I wonder about those that don't. In our course we also explored the use of .Net for testing and in my opinion it's a lot easier, more clear and way less expensive to use the techniques in this book. If you're trying to learn it on your own, this is still a good book. It's got exercises and examples.

   My wife's been a tester for many years but didn't do programming and she loved it. She said it gave her a lot of ideas. Maybe if you've already been an automated tester and/or developer for many years, this book isn't going to help, since it has a lot of basics. But if you are trying to learn, where else would you go? I liked the way you could just sit down and read it from cover to cover. It's unpretentious and doesn't talk down to us. It does expect you already know testing terminology and basics, but before you read this, you should.




4. This book is exactly what the title says: an introduction to Visual Basic for testers. It succeeds wonderfully at that.
   It is not a book about testing. If you already know VB and want to know how to test your application, there are a few chapters near the end that you will find useful but this book is not really intended for you.



5. This book neither teaches Software Testing nor programming. And is intented for VB related Programmers/testers who know some VB and Testing. There was a possibility of being little more specific, I mean the early chapters of the book talk about VB projects, creating them and the very basic information about IDE rather than testing. There could have been a possibility of taking up a real project implementation, lets say testing/automating the entire MS Office testing using VB.
   But again, this has been a very serious effort for automation and deserves a lot of appreciation.
   
   Abhinav Vaid