5 comments about Home Automation Basics - Practical Applications Using Visual Basic 6 (Sams Technical Publishing Connectivity Series).

1. I've read a lot of books on VB and PLC's but the book that I think about most and use as handy reference is Tom Leonik's --Home Automation Basics - Pratical apps using VB6. This book is fun and to the point. The example of a home monitor is cool and the material presented in the book can easily be applied to many different applications.

   The one reviewer who stated that you needed PLC software... obviously did not read the book. PLC software is only needed to program the PLC. The PLC in this application performs conditioning of inputs and stores key information in non-volatile ram. The book creates a driver to communicate with the PLC in VB no other software is required. This is an amazing task and it works.




2. This book will leave you scratching your head. Do not pay too much for it and you won't be disappointed. When it gets right down to it you might as well look for a plc with o.e. software because that's what you will need. Nice discussions on electrical basics and interfacing but just not practical or user friendly.There are just too many different devices to chase down and no real guidance as to where to get them. Writers should have non-technical people read their material before they publish.



3. After reading the authors review I bought this book. It has nothing just a copy of DF1 protocol for Allen Bradley PLC (Unprotected Reads and Write). This book is a basic book not for advanced users.



4. The general intent of the author is interesting but he blows it by writing the book based on the AB PLC which is expensive and not generally popular with Hobbyists and DIY folks.
   The book will certainly have a lot more appeal had it been written based on PIC's or Basic stamp microcontrollers. However, I found the chapters on RS232 interfacing very useful and am keeping it for that reason.



5. Mr. Leonik is correct in his feeling with regard to the title given to his book, it is in fact not representative of the material inside. I can't imagine someone just getting involved with home automation (or wanting to learn about the subject) choosing this book as a starting point. Visual Basic is a huge programming language that takes years to develop a proficiency in. Writing effective communication protocol software in any language is no easy task and it is only a small part of VB capability. As a Vb programmer I had heard about Mr. Leonik's book through the "VB Grapevine". I had been searching for a book that covered this subject for a Modbus project I was working on. Of the 50 or so VB books in my library none of them covered this subject, so when I learned about this book and after reading Mr. Leonik's writeup I knew this was a book that I had to have in my library. I was not disappointed -- the information and program contained in Chapter 5 was well worth every penny (just the algorithm for CRC computation was enormously helpful). This book filled a void (no pun intended) in my arsenal of VB knowledge (and my library). Thanks, Mr. Leonik, from myself and my fellow VB programmers for the useful knowledge.

5 comments about Mastering Regular Expressions, Second Edition.

1. An incredible book. Absolutely incredible. It will take 200 lines of your code and reduce it to 1 or 2 lines. It will open your mind to search and replace possibilities. Your life will change (just kidding). It's a great deep book.
   
   However, I agree with the comment that one should not begin learning regex with this book. it's a little too advanced. Go on the internet, get an introduction. Or else, buy one of the introductory books on the subject first. But definitely get around to buying this book!



2. How deep down the rabbit hole do you really NEED to go? I had a serious need to get on top of regular expressions to solve one particular problem. I looked at several online tutorials which didn't take me where I needed to go, so I ordered Mastering Regular Expressions after reading the Amazon reviews. I always look at the negative reviews first. In spite of the negative reviews I ordered the book with an open mind.
   When the book arrived I began reading it with enthusiasm. In the preface there is a small section on "How to Read This Book". I bought into the author's suggestion to read the book's first six chapters first. I was captivated through the first three chapters, and then somewhere in chapter 4 I began to get very weary with information overload. After putting the book down for a couple of days I decided to skip the rest and use what I needed to write the one regular expression I had need of. The book did successfully help me accomplish this, so I gave it 3 stars. Not only did it give me the information I needed that the online tutorials didn't, it also gave me the confidence I needed. For that, which I am grateful, I would have liked to have given it more stars. I think many of those in need of learning about regular expression could be well served by a "lite-edition" of this book. Perhaps someday when I have the time and the need I may try to wade through the rest of the book, but as it is now Mastering Regular Expressions took me far farther down the rabbit hole than I really needed or wanted to go.
   If you need to get on top of Regular Expressions, I would recommend this book, however just be ready to be taken far deeper than the average coder probably needs to go.



3. Quite a comprehensive guide to regular expressions. Gets very detailed in the areas that it covers. However, definitely not a 'beginner's guide'. I highly recommend that you are already comfortable with the basis of regular expressions before picking up this book. You will get way more out of it if this is not your first introduction to it. Comfort and proficiency with Perl would also be a big help. Title is correct though, this is a guide to 'mastering' regular expressions, not learning them from the beginning.



4. I went through several books and online tutorials and never found anything that did a good comprehensive job of explaining regular expressions. This book does. If you are having trouble "getting it", I highly encourage reading this book. You will be extremely enlightened even after the first few chapters.



5. The book is robust and goes into alot detail. I liked the comparing and contrasting between the various RegEx implementations. I had a difficult time digesting some of the detail. In particular, the analogies confused me and I felt the author went overboard with them. Many times, I had to backtrack to understand what was being discussed. However, regular expressions is a complex topic and the author did a good job easing into the concepts. An additional plus was with inline page citation - this helped to find the page corresponding to the topic being discussed.
   I would have liked shorter chapters with chapter summaries and more diagrams in place of analogies. Ultimately, Mastering Regular Expressions is a good book referencing a complex topic.

1 comments about Microsoft VBScript Professional Projects.

1. There just are not that many really good VBScript books out there. And there are even fewer well written VBScript books that target power users, system admins and advanced readers. Well, this book is one of them. It provides a quick review of VBScript (for those that need a primer or a quick overview) and then procedes to demonstrate how to use VBScript to tackle several different projects. This approach provides a great balance between theory and practical hands-on application.

5 comments about The Beginner's Guide to Visual Basic 4.0 (Beginner's Guides).

1. This is an excellent book for beginners. It got me going on a language that promised only confusion at first. The "Try It" sections are sometimes advanced , but they are for interesting projects and the search adds to their interest. As he suggests files - rather than databases - are out of fashion - but more on their mechanics would have interested me. BUT well worth the cost



2. This book does a wonderful job of teaching the essentials of Visual Basic. It does not cover some more advanced topics, but as a beginner's book, it shouldn't! Excellent place to start for VB



3. This book starts off very slow and gradually eases the reader into VB4. The book does a great job of explaining the fundamentals of VB4. If you want to know the how and why part of programming this book will defineately answer your questions.

   My only complaint is that the book is written much like other programming books and it is rather boring in places. Chapters one and two are also directed at the beginner. So if you have any previous knowledge of this language those two chapters don't teach you anything new.




4. This book does what it says it will. It will teach you VB 4. The first two chapters can be skipped if you're familiar with other programming languages but the rest of the chapters are simple great.

   The information is conveyed in an easy to use manner and the way it is presented makes it easy for even a computer block head to understand. The "Why not try..." sections are kind of hard but they make you see how you can put to use what you just learned.




5. This review is a little too late because VB4 has long been sent to oblivion by all the developers. But this is really a great book for beginners to learn VB. Very few books touches DAO (of course, it is obsolete nowadays, but sometimes it is still good for building Access frontends).

   I think the only thing that VB4 does not serve well is in terms of building user's own classes. But that is somewhat an advanced topic. so if you dont know VB at all, this is still the book to get.

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Training Guide (70-306): Developing and Implementing Windows-Based Applications with Visual Basic.NET and Visual Studio.NET (Training Guide).

1. This book has quite a few examples. It's obvious that the author cut-and-pasted them, and no one checked 'em. I'd say 85% of the exercises work. Many are flawed by obvious typos, missing, or superflous code, such as declaring variables twice in different scopes. Overall, not a bad book, but not a great one. Ironically the 70-310 book by the same author and editor is much better, though it's a bit weak on ADO.Net.



2. It thought this book worked very well as both exam preparation and as a practical learning tool. I liked the way it walks you through a bunch of applications, then gets you to write something yourself to test your understanding. Also, reading the "Fast Facts" section the morning of the exam was a great memory-jogger.



3. this product is awesome,but ull need extra help to get cert.
   you can get more help in this link
   (getcert's POST)
   
   http://www.mcse.ms/message2132798.html
   
   thanks



4. Yes, the exam covers all the chapters described in the book. So, take your time, do not rush into the end, pay extra careful attention to the details and, certainly, it will be of great help during the test taking. This book really prepares you to suceed in the exam and also to improve your actual programming techniques. Good luck!



5. Although this book is 'ok' compared to other 70-306 books it fails at teaching at a level that is good for either beginners or for experienced programmers.
   
   For starters it was written back in 2003. In my experience most VB.Net code written for Visual Studio 2003 in these books are less than great in Visual Studio 2005. If there was a CD that contained the code at least you could tell whether it compiles or not. Since they didn't, you will have to spend the time entering the code and debugging it yourself. There are a ton of programming books out there where you have to worry about a typo, poor directions or code, or a single mistake will cause the program to never to work without alot of effort debugging and this is one of them.
   
   If you get this book get it only for skim reading on the objectives for 70-306 and for some idea on what is on the test. If you wish to find good sample code(included on a CD) and learn VB.Net, find another book that was written at least in 2005.
   
   In any case you will need other books to know enough to pass 70-306 and or learn VB.Net.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. I have been struggling to learn VB 6.0 with this book, and I will tell you, it is terrible. The book starts out great, with a very thorough explanation and it doesn't overwhelm you. But, all the details it tells you not to worry about come back to haunt you as you progress. They don't just come back to haunt you; they slam you hard. This book goes from a snail's pace to WAYYYYY too fast, in a matter of pages. The book leaves out a ton of details. In one instance, you are asked to create a form with option buttons (radio buttons) that respond to the user clicking them with messages; well, they never even tell you how to write the code for an option button in the section that was supposed to cover it!!!!!! Horrible stuff here, people. To make matters worse, the book is strewn with a ton of errors! The very first problem they have you code has a mistake in it, that only a more advanced programmer would pick up on. The errors continue thoroughout the book and, in some cases, the whole program is completely out of wack. Not only this, but there are not many good sample problems to solve and the examples they give are incomplete, which only adds to the confusion. Simply do not buy this book if you are a true beginner and if you are not, then why would you need this book anyway???? I cannot recommend this at all, and am only giving it 2 stars based on the fact that it has a decent introduction to the VB world, but the substance is flawed. This book almost made me hate VB. Please stay away everybody:(



2. Hmm this is weird, I am the only one who is writing a good review on this book. Whats up with that. Maybe the people who wrote the reviews are not actually programmers but confused minds. Please accept my apologies. I think this book is a very good source on VB 6.0. I used this during my Master's Program, during my Internship and in my professional life. I dont know what people are expecting, but this is a good medium level fast paced source on VB 6.0. If you have to write a quick VB App, and dont have much time on your hands, pick up this book. If you want to be a VB guru then this is not what you want. But for starters and quick reference people who use VB 6.0 from time to time, I would highly recomment this one.



3. I bought this book because I got my start in computer science by learning ASP with a Sams book. Since that time I have earned my associates degree and am about to complete my BS in computer science.
   As everyone else has already stated the book has many type errors. The most basic and obvious concepts are repeted over and over while the most complex issues are glossed over completely. My final and ultimate dissapointment in the book can in chapter 19, Connecting to the internet. The book has the reader do this in the very begining with a small paragraph explaining how you select 'yes' for the internet browser option while using the VB Aplication Wizard. So why devote an entire chapter explaining the same thing? Oh, the author does tell you about two other very important types of internet connections you can make using VB but it is just a mention. He does tell you what HTML is and show an example. HTML? give me a break I want the VB! Finally the chapter is concluded with a note, "This chapter is a high level overveiw of internet connectivity using VB. for a compete understanding buy another book." I would say by "high level overveiw" he means from far, far away, glossed over. Chapter 19 should never been put in print. I don't think the author thinks his readers are up to the task of comprehending the more complex programming issues. Or, he thinks we are just going to run out and buy another book in hope of finding the rest of the details. Well, he is correct I will be getting another book but it will not be one of his, and I don't know if I can ever trust Sams Publishing again.
   This book should be re-named "Sams Give Yourself a breif Introduction to Some of Visual Basic's Easy Concepts."



4. the author did post his errata online and this book isn't really all that bad for those who'd like a decent intro to Visual Basic unlike what the book's haters would like to have you believe.



5. At first I was completely put off by the other reviewers bashing this book. Then a friend of mine bought it and I got a chance to finally hold it in the flesh. I agree with most reviews, but I think that this badly organized book has its place. For anyone willing to put up with the horribly layout of the book, some hidden gems can be found. For example, I've never found any other author outlaying the basic for printing from VB6 as easily and clear as stated in this book. Also, you can find a couple of useful excerpts (not full chapters, mind you) for the young programmer.
   
   I think that many of the VB6 crowd (well, programmers in general) are a bit harsh: some are completely newbies regarding programming skills and some are know-it-all geeks. For them this book is almost completely useless. But for me, having a 15+ years plus in programming (BASIC and FORTRAN) this book is worth the money (barely), specially a used one.
   
   I'd give it 1 stars for the many examples, 1 for the print section, 1 for the hand-holding and half a star for many funny moments throughout the book.

5 comments about Learn to Program Visual Basic Objects (Learn to Program).

1. Like other books of Learn to Program Visual Basic series, Learn to Program Visual Basic Objects is about teaching readers how to program with VB in a classroom set of environment. The university course is ten weeks long, and the class meets once a week on every Saturday morning. Instead of showing readers pure technical information, Professor John Smiley records the whole class conversation on paper. Readers who follow along the content will feel like sitting in the classroom watching the class. Here is a short description of each chapter:

   Chapter One The Return of the China Shop Continuing from the original China Shop program, Joe Bullina, the owner of Bullina China Shop, requests some new modifications after he and his staff happily using the program to increase the store revenue. By considering frequent modifications and limited budget, Professor Smiley recommends Mr. Bullina to have the program object-oriented in his up-coming VB Objects course. The author explains the general concept of object-oriented programming to his wife Linda Simley, which is worth reading, and will prepare novice readers for the following chapters.

   Chapter Two Visual Basic Objects in Action Starting with the controls the class is already familiar to, Professor Smiley explains the characteristics of control objects and the relationship with their class templates. Based on the new knowledge, the collection objects are introduced. The author uses variable-array and object-collection comparison to bring readers one-step toward to the object-oriented land.

   Chapter Three Visual Basic System Objects As the chapter title indicates, three system objects are introduced: including the App object, the Clipboard object, and the Screen object. Other four system objects including the Forms collection, the Licenses collection, the Printer object, and Fonts collection are also shortly described.

   Chapter Four Objects ¨C the Inside Story The class is introduced to the characteristics of objects again. By adding a custom property and a custom method into a Form, the class starts realizing the power of objects. In the second half of the class period, the Use-Case methodology is shown to the class. Professor Smiley starts a scenario to go through the object-oriented design process. These twelve pages of the design methodology help me tremendously on the system design.

   Chapter Five Creating Your Own Objects This chapter is where the real coding starts; the class will create an object and create properties for it. For demonstration purpose, a mini project called Student Grades is brought in. Before applying the new skills into the China Shop project, the class sees how they work in the mini project, which helps students nicely.

   Chapter Six Adding Methods and Events As chapter five, the Student Grades program is continued been developed before the China Shop program. Object Methods and Events are well covered in this chapter. What I like here is a complete project shows me how to add objects, not just partial code. And I am reading the most common solution by using objects, not overwhelmed by every detail.

   Chapter Seven Collection Objects This is the last chapter on creating classes, and I think it is by far the most thorough coverage on collection classes I¡¯ve ever read. Here readers will learn how to create collection classes for particular objects. After reading this chapter, I was able to organize objects programmatically and conceptually. I think readers will appreciate the concept of object encapsulation more after reading this chapter.

   Chapter Eight Excel and Word ¨C by Remote Control! The idea of the ActiveX components is introduced in this chapter. By referencing object libraries, Professor Smiley shows his class how to use the power of Microsoft Word and Excel in their projects. Instead of writing complex code for a report writer, programmers can use the functionalities of Word and Excel to achieve the same result. Not too much details on using Word and Excel objects programming; after all, they deserve a book of each own.

   Chapter Nine Creating Your Own ActiveX Components Continuing from chapter eight, ActiveX DLL and ActiveX EXE are covered in this chapter. By compiling components, code reuse can be true. The differences between ActiveX DLL and Active EXE are also covered as well as when to use them. ActiveX Documents and ActiveX Controls are not included in this chapter, but the author mentions ActiveX Documents will be fully covered in the new VB Web book.

   Chapter Ten Troubleshooting, Testing, and a Ticker-tape Parade This is a short chapter. Several minor details on ActiveX components are mentioned. After that, A celebration takes place in Joe Bullina¡¯s store to end this interesting technical novel.

   In this book, Professor Smiley reinforces (or as other readers said: pummels or hammers) the fundamental concept of object-oriented programming with VB 6. In other words, if a person as like me can get it, no one can¡¯t. After reading Learn to Program Visual Basic Objects, readers should have a solid ground on VB objects, which will allow them to go into VB components in no time.

   The absence of database makes me rate this well-written book a four-stars. After all, this is continuing episode of Learn to Program Visual Basic Database, or at least I think so. Before I bought this book, I could not wait to see how the author object-orients the database version of the China Shop program. I have to admit there was a big disappointment after I got the book.

   However, with the knowledge I¡¯ve learned from this book, I think it is a good weekend project to object-orient my own database version of the China Shop program. Like Professor Smiley always says, ¡°nothing can replace practice.¡±

   Overall, I love this book, and I do recommend my friends getting it. By the way, for people who are seeking quick answers, this is not the book for you. Because it is like slow cooked beef soup, it does deserve readers spend time for it, and the reward is worth ten times of the price. The purpose of this book is to take things slowly in order to let the concept sink in deeply. With the author¡¯s unique writing style, frankly, I do not only learn VB objects programming, but also daily conversation of English!




2. Anyone who has tried it knows that that book is wordy- and so is this one. The author uses a fictional programming class to set the stage for what he is trying to teach- with fictional students, and lots of fictional dialogue, as well. This results in a very LONG read for little information. I just couldn't get through it, a shame, because the guy probably knows what he is talking about.

   I prefer a text that you can get the information without trudging through lots of extra garbage. Smiley's style of writing is not for me. 2 stars is generous.




3. This book should be the 3rd or 4th book in a series of books from John Smiley. Start with the "Learn to Program Visual Basic 6" and then follow it up with either "Learn to Program Visual Basic 6.0 Examples" or the "Learn to Program Visual Basic Databases and finally this book. After you have read all 4 books, you will have a solid foundation to building more sophisticated applications. These 4 books by John Smiley help me get a solid knowledge base.



4. John Smiley has written a great book for beginning to intermediate VB programmers wishing to learn how to use VB to create their own objects and object models. This book would not be a good book for someone looking for quick and dirty answers. If you are willing to invest a little time, you will be creating your own objects and object models that will make your programs more robust and maintainable. Overall I thought that his virtual classroom approach is a great idea for beginning programmers reading this book, as it had questions posed from the virtual students that most likely are asked in any programming course. I'm sure that more experienced programmers don't like this approach since it inflates the size of the book, but there are some invaluable bits of info that the beginner will get from this approach. I'm sure that will raise their level of confidence as well knowing that their questions as to why something does/doesn't work in a particualr situation is explained. I also had an issue with the way Smiley used an error handling routine and e-mailed him my solution (which I thought was better) and he e-mailed me back a few days later with a courteous note explaing his why he chose his method, but liked my solution and was glad that it worked. I really appreciated the fact that he took the time to read over my question and then replied...I'm sure not too many people care enough to follow up their works. One final note: I'd follow-up Smiley's book by also getting a copy of "The Visual Basic Object and Component Handbook" by Peter Vogel. These two books combined will make anyone VB object masters.



5. 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

No comments about Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: An Object-Oriented Approach.

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.

5 comments about Visual Basic® 6 in Plain English.

1. I picked up the package and opened VB6 In Plain English at 6:00. It was 2:00 A.M. when I had to put it down. The title says it all - "...In Plain English..." I learned stuff I'd been fretting over for days !

   Plan to keep it around for a long time.




2. This book is very good if you are just starting out. However, you'll quickly outgrow it and be looking for an intermediate book. It covers all the standard tools well and touches on ActiveX and database programming.



3. This is a great beginners book. It's written in an easy to understand manner. It doesn't use the "I've been doing this type of thing for eons so I assume you have even though your a beginner" techno-geek speek. If your a beginner, get this book.



4. The book makes a very good reference. That's about it. Don't rely on it as a tutorial because its not. There are not many sample problems to work on and most of them are very simple (not real world examples). One needs to have the full version of VB in order to build the ActiveX controls. The book serves as a good introduction, so you have to get a more advanced book (Visual Basic 6 from Scratch) to get some hands on, create useful applications, and really learn. The book had a few coding errors.



5. this has honestly got to be one of the best vb references i have ever read. it has almost everything in vb that you could wish to do as well as some examples so that you are not typing and trying. i consider this my vb bible i read it all the time when i need help.