5 comments about Microsoft® Excel 2000 Power Programming with VBA.

1. Even though I bought this book in 2000, its proved to be an invaluable resource to constantly go back to. Much of the coding still works for Excel 2003.
   
   Definitly a book of reference for me because it breaks down what I want to know about without droning on. There's also code snippets that are very helpful too.
   
   The book is also easily searchable by topic which I like because there are times I want to know something really fast and not have to sit there and leaf through loads and loads of pages.
   
   I'll agree that it dosen't cover charts as much, and if thats the focus you probably won't find what you want here.
   
   Initally I had looked for an updated book when I got Office 2003 but found I really didn't need to because the info is still relevant.



2. I have just started using Excel at work for more than just listing data in a spreadsheet. This book is very good for getting you started writing code behind the surface of Excel. It takes you step by step. It is layed out in a logical sequence for writing VBA code. I have a background in programming, so that may help in following the examples given in this book. I am a Mainframe programmer starting to crossover into the world of client/server. I use this book as my main reference along with "help" in Excel.



3. Good book, very accurate and easy to use.
   It was exactly what I was looking for and it is helping me a lot to make quite complicated macro.



4. I bought this book in 2001 and it is still my #1 reference when I develop Excel Apps. I own several books on topic but still find this one the easiest to use. It gets to the point without a lot of excess baggage. Even though it was written for Excel 2000, I still use it to program Excel 2003. Highly recommend.



5. This book is one of my very favorites and should be worn to nothing by now as it's my go-to reference book for power Excel VBA programming. I owe Walkenbach (who actually answered an email question once or twice to my amazement) for great successes on projects that have won me national attention. Using this book, you can conquer very serious projects that use Excel VBA to the nth degree. I've found information here that I've been unable to find anywhere else.
   
   Keep them coming, John!

2 comments about Basic Statistics Using SAS Enterprise Guide: A Primer.

1. A good book on the basics. I was hoping for examples with more application to typical market research uses, but was left having to make this leap myself.



2. As an author ("SAS for Dummies"), I am always surprised when people criticize a book for what it doesn't cover (typically a niche) when the title itself doesn't imply that it will cover their pet topic!
   
   That said, this book does an excellent job at providing an overview via examples of some key statistical techniques available with SAS Enterprise Guide in a mere 200 pages! While it doesn't cover quality control/six sigma or forecasting/time series, it does a nice job at taking the reader through classic statistical techniques like t-tests, chi-quare, regression, ANOVA, multiple regression, logistic regression, and survival analysis.
   
   It is important to note that this is very much learning by example and light on theory on the various methods, but that's why I like it since there are so many books on the various topics that can easily supplement with all the details for each method.
   
   The chapters are:
   Chapter 1 Introduction to SAS Enterprise Guide
   Chapter 2 Data Description and Simple Inference
   Chapter 3 Dealing with Categorical Data
   Chapter 4 Dealing with Bivariate Data
   Chapter 5 Analysis of Variance
   Chapter 6 Multiple Linear Regression
   Chapter 7 Logistic Regression
   Chapter 8 Survival Analysis

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Training Guide (70-305): Developing and Implementing Web Applications with Visual Basic.NET and Visual Studio.NET (Training Guide).

1. Very good. I recd. the book on time and condition the book was excellent...



2. This is a valuable book, it explained topics which were missing in some other books. In the other hand, the previous reviews did not mention some shortcomings in this book. The OOP part of this book is not good. The language in many parts of this book is ambiguous, it lures people to read these parts again and again, but after that the meaning is still not clear, while this repeated reading of such a big book wastes time. The sample code in this book is not available for download, although they are in the CD, but the CD is made in a mean way that the "copy" function is disabled, so this book is not good for busy people.



3. I have read plenty of programming books... ok skimmed. I really wish there was a training guide out there that would show real world scenarios. I didn't care for the examples in this book. I learn best by doing. When I do the work I really wish I could relate using the code in my job. That would assist me in learning it more. The whole cram the book then take the test doesn't work for me.



4. This book is very well organized, has good examples, and is based very closely on the exam objectives. I had co-workers who used the Microsoft (red) books and didn't like them who switched to this one and were much happier. Studying this book and using a Transcender practice test enabled me to pass the 305 exam. Recommended.



5. To start with, this is the only book i read for the exam.
   The objective questions at the end of each chapter, are exactly in the format that they appear in the exam. It helps you a lot in having the right mind-set, when you actually face it.
   The exam covers exactly the same topics, that are emphasized in the book.

5 comments about Designing Highly Useable Software.

1. If you've read Alan Cooper's excellent "The Inmates are Running the
   Asylum", you're familiar with the format of "Designing Highly Useable
   Software": the main text talks about broad useability issues, while
   entertaining (or frightening) sidebars pillory the flaws in the design
   of everyday things. But whereas I sympathized with Cooper, I had
   trouble identifying with Jeff Cogswell. The sidebars, meant to be
   amusing, are mostly distracting: they are rarely relevant to the main
   topic being discussed on the same page. Worse, Cogswell goes much too
   far in complaining about the difficulty of living in the world around
   him; the reasonable reader won't recognize himself in these vignettes.
   Worse still, whenever this book steps away from abstract useability
   discussions and into coding specifics, technical errors appear that
   shake the reader's confidence.

   I had high hopes for this book. Perversely, I expect slimmer books to
   be better than fatter ones. At a relatively slim 300+ pages, I looked
   forward to a good read packed with useful advice. Instead, the book
   dragged on. The last five or six chapters (on such topics as dynamic
   libraries, OOP, management, and training -- all with a heavy emphasis
   on an outdated, waterfall-like development methodology) feel precisely
   like padding. The first half-dozen alone, with more specific
   useability advice and fewer suggested implementation details, might
   have formed the basis of a far better book. But as it stands, I can't
   recommend this book.




2. I finally finished reading this book, and I have to say, in time it will give the other usability books a run for their money. This book is written for programmers, and the goal of the book is to help us programmers step into the shoes of the users. The other reviewer couldn't relate to the stories, but I sure could. The author fills the book with funny stories about strange things he's encountered over the years that have frustrated him. These stories show what it's like to be a user. When you take this knowledge and apply it to programming, you start to understand how to build software for the user. Also, unlike other usability books, this one actually gets into some programming, with real-live code samples in C++! This guy really *is* a programmer. He even talks about design patterns, and methodologies like the Rational Unified Process. Get this book, read it, and start making great software.



3. If you're looking for a book on general software design, this book won't help you much. This book is about creating usable software, not software in general. It's very hard to pinpoint what makes something usable, but Jeff does an outstanding job. I liked the fact that he often augmented a technical lesson using stories that make learning the details fun. The manner of presentation is interesting because Jeff doesn't rely on just one technique to present the information. The details are often illustrated using several methods, so it's easier to understand precisely what Jeff means. Unlike many theory type books, this one has source code examples--something that every developer can relate to.
   
   The chapters that I liked best appear at the end of the book. They discuss topics that many developers really don't know about, but should. For example, Jeff takes time to point out a need for online help and tells you why training is important. Of course, someone could make an argument that developers do very little training, but if they don't understand what makes software easy to teach to users, the software will never become usable.
   
   No, this won't be the only software design book on your shelf, but you owe it to yourself to make this book part of your collection. This is the book that every developer should read after reading a general software design book. The world could certainly use more usable software and Jeff shows you how.



4. I definitely recommend the book to all programmers who want to make their software more useable to the end users, which hopefully is the goal of every programmer :). The tone of the book is casual yet informative making it very easy to read unlike the hoards of other books on the market. Best of all, the author is a real programmer, probably the reason why the content is very pertinent to situations encountered by programmers and the decisions that they have to make routinely. This book provides them the tangible points to consider while making those decisions as topics ranging from User Interface design to exception handling to libraries are discussed. The author uses various practical examples and humor to drive the point home. This book is a must read for any programmer!



5. This volume covers valuable topics in a readable manner. It should be useful to anyone who develops applications, interfaces, and documentation. 
   
   But how in the world can the author justify both "useable" and "usability" in the same book? Good style requires consistency in spelling. If "usability" is the noun, then "usable" is the adjective (see the Microsoft Computer Dictionary as well as many other dictionaries and technical style manuals).
   
   Something this sloppy should have been taken care of in editing, especially when one of the words is in the book title!! Doh...

2 comments about Visual Basic .NET All in One Desk Reference for Dummies.

1. hi
   well I have tons of "for dummies" books(from spiritual to graphics and programming and the like) and this is the first that isn't good.

   problems:
   just some i'll like to mention.
   -the author writes code for you to copy and doesnt include the "_" between the lines (other manuals/tutorials/books at least tell u to put "_" , since they dont have space to write the full code in one line), so if you go by his code format you will keep getting errors.
   -on one hand the author seems to write nothing about certain vb.net code and on the other hand he writes tons about the difference between vb6 and vb.net.
   he devotes tons of the book on stuff that is new to vb.net compared to vb6, while not actaully describing vb.net stuff in the first place.

   in conclusion:
   if your coming from vb6, this is a great guide/reference for u. if your not, using the help(references/tutorials/info that u can get on controls/commands) that actaully comes with vb2003.net is far more effective.




2. Please do not torture yourself by buying this book. The title of Visual Basic.Net for Dummies would indicate that this book is appropriate for somebody who wishes to learn this computer language. It is a horrible learning tool.
   
   Twenty-five years after engineering school, I wanted to refresh my computer programming skills which were very good. However much has changed and I needed a guide. The frustration that I encounter with this book is greater than I ever experienced in Engineering school. Remember, engineering school is designed to be very challenging. I told my wife that I thought that I was smart, but my brain must have degenerated since my high honor college days.
   
   Then, I read Murach's Beginning Visual Basic.Net. What was difficult was now clear. Buy Murach's book if you want to learn this subject. Thank goodness for Murach. He showed me that I still had a functioning brain. I was not stupid. Visual Basic.Net for Dummies is very stupid.

2 comments about Visual Basic 2005: The Complete Reference (Complete Reference Series).

1. This is an exhaustive and well put-together reference for VB 2005 programmers. It's not a step-by-step manual, nor a book of sample code. It's all about documenting the features, classes, operators, and syntax of the VB 2005 language.
   
   I'm a huge fan of McGraw Hill's Complete Reference Series, and used my ASP.NET Complete Reference (for 1.0) until recently when I started migrating to 2.0. At 850+ pages this is a tome to sit on your bookshelf until .NET 3.0 hits the scene.



2. After thirty-five years or so in software development, including a stint with a software company as a Java web developer, I thought this would be a good volume to get me up to speed on the latest version of VB. If you already know everything that's in the book, go ahead and buy it. But if you need to learn anything from it, forget it. The author assumes you already know what you're reading about before you read it. For instance, he begins talking about Classes without explaining what a Class is. And when he does get around to defining "Class", he uses the term itself in the definition. So if you didn't already know what a Class is, you would never figure it out from his definition. Obviously, I already knew what a class is from having programmed in other Object Oriented languages. This is just one really obvious and glaring example. Having gotten up to page 22 I'm going to set this book aside and go find one that explains what I want to know in plain english.

1 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: RELOADED, Advanced.

1. I am a systems development manager with 30 years programming experience. An acquaintance is taking a beginning VB programming course, using this text, and has asked me to review some of his assignments. I was dismayed to see an example of a Circle Class presented in this book in which a Radius property has public getters and setters and the abstract parent class has a public Area property getter. In the constructor for the Circle class, radius is a required argument. On instantiation, Area is immediately calculated and stored as part of the class instance. The Circle class also allows the radius to be modified but area is only calculated on instantiation. Therefore, a consumer of this class, without prior knowledge of this very odd design, could easily change the radius then ask for the area. They would receive the area based on the radius at initial instantiation, not the correct area based on the modified radius!
   
   With all due respect to the authors, this is terrible programming and has no place in a textbook. It teaches bad programming to students that will eventually enter the workforce. It does them and their eventual employers a disservice.
   
   It would have been valuable for the authors to follow up this example code with a critique and point out its flaws to readers; however, I saw no such follow-up. I would not recommend this text for a programming class.

5 comments about Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6.

1. Let me begin by saying that I'm the author, so let's get that out of the way.

   I'm posting here to point out that the book has a tremendous amount of support materials that have never been advertised. Each of my books has a support page containing a current list of errata, downloadable files (completed exercises from the book), extra links to extra materials I have written and my email address in the event you have problems. I also run a series of online classes so that if you would like to learn with me in a more structured setting, you can do that also. You can access those materials via this link

   http://www.johnsmiley.com/books.htm

   I should also say that this book isn't for everyone---and you can read through some of the other reviews posted here to see why and why not.

   I wrote this book for beginner level programmers, and the book is written in a unique style.

   You (and I) can thank the now defunct Wrox Publishing house for the style of the book that some people absolutely love and others (primarily hotshot programmers with lots of experience) hate. The book is written as if you are participating in an actual classroom---many people, particularly those learning on their own or in an Independent study setting find comforting.

   My thanks to the many people who have written to me to tell me how much they've enjoyed my books and how they have helped them achieve their goals of learning to program.

   John Smiley




2. I'm a hobbyist, not an IT professional, and have been programming in BASIC since I bought my first PC in the 70's. When I decided to tackle Visual Basic to write programs for Windows, I purchased five "how-to" books on the subject. Unfortunately for me, John Smiley's book was the last one I bought. If I had ordered "Learn to Program" first, I could have saved more than $100. This is a clear, concise, and sure-fire way for the beginner or experienced BASIC programmer to transition to the powerful yet simple language of Visual Basic. John Smiley's book easily allows the reader to understand the concepts of event driven programming and the differences from procedural driven programming. Consider it a "must have" for the novice with little or no programming experience.



3. If you are a busy person, you work a lot with programmers and you need a general understanding of programming, this is not the book for you.
   If you have time on your hands, and you want to learn VB, this could be the book for you.
   After I bought this book I realised I was fooled by the title. It should be called 'Programming in Visual Basic for beginners'. The point of this book is to teach you to program in VB6, not to teach you the basics of programming using VB as an example language. While I can understand that the verbose classroom approach may appeal to some, I found it patronising and time wasting. I eventually bought 'Sams Teach Yourself Beginning Programming in 24 Hours' by Greg Perry which gives a concise summary of programming basics, an overview of the most common languages, and exercises to drive home the lessons. Exactly what I was after.



4. After programming in various languages, such as C and Perl, and using the Win32 API to write Windows applications, my company bought the rights to a product built on VB and ActiveX. The Visual Basic language, which in my mind was relegated to "script kiddies" and fly-by-night vendors, had found its way into our hallowed halls.
   
   I found this book enlightening and very informative. John's treatment of the SDLC was very brief, yet helpful. Wheras most techical manuals border on mundane, this book was anything but boring. The "classroom" setting was a great medium to keep my attention page after page. It catered to the beginner in me, which was a relief.
   
   Some books will just gloss over functional parts of development tools. Not only does this book come with a working version of Visual Basic 6.0, John goes to great lengths to walk through the menu system, debugging functions, and certain control parameters.
   
   Each section in each chapter contains a discussion (this is the "classroom" converation part) about the exercises. I found that each exercise works as written in the book. At the end of each chapter is a Summary and a Quiz. The Quiz answers can be found at the back of the book, however, I found that some of the Quiz answers were wrong, but was glad I had enough knowledge from John's writing to recognize a wrong answer.
   
   If you have a desire to learn how to program, have some knowledge of windows operating system, and enjoy good stories, then this book is for you. Keep in mind that John only covers the tip of the iceberg. You will truly need another book to actually do anything more than create simple forms and process the "Click" event (read the book to see what I mean).



5. I have worked through the first 7 chapters of "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6" written by John Smiley and published by Active Path with the latest reprint September 2001. I will finish the remaining 8 chapters in a few days.
   
   This is a good book to work through the uses of the basic VB6 controls.
   
   But the book is nearly useless for providing a quick way to understand VB6 code syntax. The VB6 program provided with the book has the HELP disabled. So, one is always "googling" to get syntax and examples. Plus, the program will not produce executable runtime VB applications.
   
   The cover states about the software "...including a fully working version of Microsoft Visual Basic..." I consider runtime and HELP to be an integral part of a *fully* working version.
   
   As to the title of this review, one should be be careful with which Smiley "Learn to Program..." book one is buying.
   
   But, I would buy again. Just wanted to let you know what you were getting.

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.

1 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 Unleashed.

1. "Visual Basic .NET 2003" is a wonderfully organized, concise (despite its more than 1000 pages) book that acts both as a reference and an introduction to this fascinating area of programming. Through clear writing and thoughtful organization and layout, the authors clarify the foundations of the .NET framework and provide numerous illuminating code examples offering practical ways to use it.
   
   I investigated this book because I enjoyed other books in the "Unleashed" series. I found the reviewed volume helpful from its discussion of basic Windows forms, controls and events to its examination of COM interoperability, remoting and threads.
   
   If you are getting started in Visual Basic .NET and want to gain an overview of it and proficiency in it, this is the book to get.