2 comments about AS/400 Client/Server Programming with Visual Basic 5.0.

1. In Part One the author wastes pages teaching VB. Many other publications and the VB online help do much better. In Part Two, the author covers ODBC, Data Queues, and APPC. But ODBC is covered poorly and in connection with DAO - not RDO. Using ODBC with DAO as opposed to RDO is specifically discouraged by both IBM and Microsoft (see their Web pages). ADO is only mentioned in the appendix. If you are interested in APPC (WinAPPC API) this book might be helpful. Same for Data Queues. Do not get this book if you are trying to improve ODBC coding in VB or want a generic SQL client. The author also misguides programmers. He should have noted that IBM is openly more committed to TCP/IP than SNA communications. SNA (and thus APPC) is fast becoming a legacy. Thus, coding to SNA in particular and coding to a non-generic model would not be advisable for most companies. I was looking for a book with up to date and thorough details. This book is dated, lacks complexity, and misses important details.



2. This book is excellent for people just learning Visual Basic. It assumes no prior knowledge and teaches you VB using analogies that relate the new material to concepts familiar to the AS/400 Programmer.

No comments about Flowcharting.

No comments about How to Use the Ti-99/4A.

2 comments about Effective Visual Basic: How to Improve Your VB/COM+ Applications.

1. If any of you are familiar with Developmentor you'll understand why this is an excellent book - all of the authors work there. This isn't a book for beginners, but once you get past the fundamentals this book has numerous best practices that will save you a lot of time (ie. if you had to figure them out on your own). This is real world stuff that works - not theory. By the way, the other books I've read in this series are also very good.



2. This book is a somewhat condensed version of Transactional COM+ by Tim Ewald. However, this book is much better in summarizing (and reinforcing) the important issues when developing VB/COM+/IIS applications as compared to Transactional COM+ which does indulge in gratuitous details too often. Effective Visual Basic is definitely not for beginners, rather, it makes sense only if you've repeatedly wondered why COM+ works the way it does. Rule 3-4 also gives a good understanding of why stateless objects aren't always good. If you ever wondered why Singletons are not good in the COM+ world (or why you cannot stick COM object references into the ASP Session Object) then Rule 3-2 explains it all. This book is a must for anyone designs and implements scaleable COM+ applications. Many of the generic COM+ concepts apply whether you plan to use C++ or VB.

No comments about The Computer Challenge: Technology, Applications, and Social Implications : With Basic and Pascal.

No comments about PC Programming Techniques: Creative Basic Skills for IBM Personal Computers.

No comments about Joy of Basic for the IBM PCJR.

No comments about Symantec C++ for Windows: The Basics/Book and Disk.

5 comments about MCSD: Visual Basic 6 Desktop Applications Study Guide.

1. I took the VB6 Desktop exam yesterday and passed with a score of over 900. I aportion about 20% of this success to this book.

   Together with lack of detailed information, there were far too many errors in the book. For example: False information is given about Unattended Execution, the Call Stack, and the Stop statement! There are even some cases where text has obviously been copied directly from Sybex's VB5 study guide: Page 473 has a reference to using VB5.exe to start the development environment!

   I found that I had to use other resources to gain more information about VCM, P&D Wizard, The Project Properties and Options dialog boxes, the Data Bindings collection, Callback functions, and Ambient and Extender properties.

   In summary, the book was good for providing a foundation from which to study from, but only at a basic level. The information had to be "fleshed out" with references to MSDN and of course Transcender.

   Good luck in the exam!

   Footnote: The chapter on ActiveX Controls was good though!




2. The cover of this book says "Everything You need to Prepare for - and Pass - Exam 70-176". It doesn't come close ! The book contains a large number of errors, but its worst failing is that it is far too simple. I got halfway through the book and in my frustration decided to check what else was on offer through Amazon. It wasn't a great surprise to see all the other poor reviews of this book, but I also fortunately read many recommendations for the New Riders book for VB 6. I bought it and can wholeheartedly recommend it (it covers both 70-175 and 70-176).



3. This book is OK for reading and learning the basics. The depth of Exam objectives cover by this book isn't enough. VSS is almost forgotten in this book. P&D was too far simplistic never got into the real exam questions scenarios. Use this one as a starter practice with transcender to get 20% more knowledge. The key to this exam is experience, actual programming scenarios. If you are new to VB, it might take you a while to get certified.



4. I am now Certified with a score 857/1000. I found this book very good in debugging,Classes, ActiveX, and Databases and ADO. To be certified you must read from MSDN and read the Books that accompany the training course in VB -if you have it-. Some exam questions came from this book. I printed the Package and deployment wizard,visual component manager and Source safe from the MSDN and read it since the book was weak in covering this aspect. I found one mistake in the book which is corrected here "The recordset object has only the find method it doesnt have findfirst,findnext ....".

   I wish this was the first book i read when i started learning VB. lastly ....... Michael Mckelvy thanQ very much.




5. Please don't buy this book!... The author seems to have forgotten that he is writing a book to prepare the readers for the exams. The book covers the basics of Visual Basic and the questions that are provided don't even come close to the real exam. The book's contents are misleading -- the reader will think that the author will have covered the topic in depth. However, the author will just give you the basics of it. Furthermore, the main areas such as Package and Deployment and Visual Source Safe are barely covered.

   I used "MCSD in a nutshell" book from O'Reilly publications along with Transcender exams to clear the test.

2 comments about Kids and the Amiga.

1. This book is a tutorial on the Microsoft written AmigaBasic, which broke at version 1.3 of the operating system due to extremely poor programming practices of Microsoft. As almost nobody can use the Amiga operating system below 2.04, this book was obsolete when it was published. The local library bought multiple copies of this publishing obscenity, all of which are still on the shelves as no-one cares even enough about this tome to steal it



2. This book was obsolete when it was published, as it is a tutorial on the poorly written AmigaBasic programmed by Microsoft. Almost nobody uses AmigaDOS 1.3, which is the latest OS that this program works. The local library recently bought multiple copies of this book, all of which collect dust on the shelves