5 comments about Teach Yourself® Visual Basic® 6.

1. If you want to learn visual basic 6 then this book is what you need. It explains everything you need to know about programing and writing code. If I were you i would go buy this book right now.



2. This book did not give enough instructions to complete the projects. Every time I tried to do one of the projects, I had to go to an experienced VB programmer to see what was missing. The programmer confirms that it is not ME!! He says that there is no way the projects could work if you follow the instructions the way they are written in the book. There were always key parts left out.



3. This book is not for beginners. The computer terminology seems to advanced for beginners, but the beginner must decide that. The beginner should read pages 5-8 before buying this book as their introduction of VB.

   The screen shots are helpful, but sometimes they do not match the text descriptions step-by-step. However, I like this book for its breadth of coverage from: Deployment, Internet Applications, OLE, Images, Multimedia, the good old get/put file operations, and more than 1000 screen shots.

   As another reviewer has said, the coverage is not 100% complete, therefore I would not recommend it for beginners, but to get an overview and use for particular programming techniques in BASIC, I would still recommend the book. Also buy Harold Davis' VB6 Book for a better step-by-step approach.

   I have 4 VB6 books and the Hartman book I use as much as any. The MDI ( Multiple documents with the same parent form ) coverage was confusing to me and wasted pages on an example to show that MDI forms can't directly hold buttons and other data input controls.




4. This is a great book for the intermediate to the advanced beginner. There are a lot of programs included and the
   diagrams super helpful. The wide range of topics covered and the numerous links to great sites alone, made this a buy for me. I would suggest, for the absolute beginner (no previous programming
   skills) to start off with an easier "VB for Dummies" type book, and then go for Patricia Hartman's.



5. I have read dozens of books on programming languages and tools and this is the worst that I have ever used. The book is very hard to follow, the examples are incomplete and require significant additional research to completed. I would not recommend this book to a beginner, they will become very frustrated.

No comments about Basic Apple Basic.

5 comments about Beginning Visual Basic 5.

1. This is one of the best Beginner's Teach Yourself type books on a programming language that I've ever read. It's pitched at just the right level for an absolute beginner but at the same time the author manages not to be patronizing. I like the chatty style, and the way only one new concept at a time is introduced so that I wasn't overwhelmed by too much new information at once. I found I could just about read straight through the book without having to flip back and forth looking up things I'd forgotten or didn't understand.

   Although this is not supposed to be a complete reference to the language, it could do with a fuller index. It's a great way to get to grips with the basics (pardon the pun) of the language. I'd recommend it as a means of understanding this sort of event-driven language, particularly for programmers who are familiar with only 'non-visual' languages such as Pascal, C, etc. You'll also need a more comprehensive guide and/or reference manual to become fully conversant in the language.




2. Many errors were not on the publisher's site. If you are going to write a book, please make sure the code works. Try using it! Am I being unreasonable?



3. I'm in a class which uses this book as it's primary text. We have problems in some of the code exercises. Some of the code in the book just doesn't work and it gets really aggrivating dealing with it. Additionally, features and functions are incorporated without first explaining them to the reader. Overall this is not a very good book to learn from. I personally had to purchase additional materials to better learn the material.



4. This is a great book for beginners. I found Peter Wright's easy going style of writing to be refreshing. This book covers a bit more ground than most "beginner books" therefore you will gain a solid understanding of the language.



5. This is the perfect book for self-study and for anyone interested in learning vb with little or no programming experience. The author introduces us to the fundamental concepts of vb and hand guide us to implementing useful vb applications without overwhelming readers with too much information at one time. each concept, each section is written with extreme clarity and gently eases readers to the world of vb. by the end of the book, readers are ready to creating powerful vb applications with a solid understanding of the vb language.Beginning Visual Basic 5 is without a doubt, *the* best introductory book to learning vb. you might want to get Core Visual Basic 5 as your second book for more advanced coverage. good luck!

5 comments about Introduction to Programming Using Visual Basic 5.0, An.

1. I have 4 books , Visual Basic in 24 hours Visual Basic in 21 days,Beginning Visual Basic, Visual Basic night school, non of them teach you at all about programming fundamentals. Thanks to the author David I. Schneider . his book have first 4 chapters about programming fundamentals.And i find its very good for students at any level.



2. I have used this book to teach a Visual Basic class. This book seems to remember that programming with Visual Basic involves more than the graphics. It gives a number of exercises at the end of each chapter which is very useful for an instructor.



3. Contains many good examples while covering moderately complex concepts. Great for the beginner who wants to learn VB easily on their own. I used the book throughout college and now it makes a great reference in the job place.



4. This book is an excellent book for starters, who do not know anything about programming. I learnt a lot from this book. David is an excellent author. The book is very well written in simple english and has plenty and plenty of examples to learn from. I always look for books written by David I. Schneider, unfortunatley he wrote only two or three books so far.



5. This is a great book. It has everything you need to know about VB 5. Currently, I am using it as a reference for the MCP when I get to a term I do not remember or know.

5 comments about Learn to Program Visual Basic Examples (Miscellaneous).

1. I purchased this book and the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6 together as a package deal. These were some of the earliest books that I purchased while I was trying to learn Visual Basic 6.0. Both of these books are good for the beginner or for developers coming from either an earlier version of Visual Basic or another language. This book is made to augment the Learn to Program Visual Basic 6.0 book. You should read most of that book before attempting to read this book. This book targets specific examples of how-to-do things in Visual Basic.



2. Simple to follow and examples of how newbies would do
   something (that didn't work) and what was wrong, and then an example of it
   done correct...

   This book finally made things click...
   REALLY 'THE TURNING POINT' in my self-studies!

   Written as if it were a detailed record of a call-in Visual Basic help show.

   I suggest those trying to learn VB get this and all of John Smiley's books on the subject (I own them all!)

   Tony!




3. This text book is laid out in a very relaxing format, unlike so many text books that leave you tense after studying them.
   The book is a "talk show", question and answer format. John Smiley answers each "callers'" question with detailed examples and references to topics already learned or covered if they relate. I would highly recommend this textbook.



4. The book is basically a dialogue from the author's class on visual basic databases. I found this writing style to be very annoying and not easy to follow. The whole book is centered around one project and presents a narrow viewpoint rather than the more comprehensive approach to database design I was looking for.



5. When I made the decision to get serious about learning Visual Basic I was glad I happened across this book. Although I found the cable T.V. question / answer format a bit much, I had to admit that it was a unique and novel approach to teaching a subject as vanilla as VB programming.
   
   This book is more than wordy. It could have easily been written in half the space. But then again, the author demonstrates a teaching style that is what I consider painfully patient. Although my learning style is more of a "get to the point" bullet point orientation, I acknowledge that many, many people may find his detailed coverage of even the minutest aspect of programming to be extremely valuable.
   
   That said, you do indeed get 100 pretty neat ideas on how to solve some common coding problems that a beginning to intermediate programmer will find helpful. I use his techniques in my own applications for things such as preventing a second instance of my program from running, determining if a file exists, figuring out why executable files won't run on distributed machines, and a number of others.
   
   Many of the code examples were of things I already knew how to do. However, it's always nice to read another approach and possibly discover a more efficient or even more reliable way of accomplishing the same thing.
   
   This book is definitely for the beginner VB6 programmer. If you're just learning and want 100 or so clear-cut examples of how to perform some of the more "basic" tasks in Visual Basic 6, then this is a good place to get a few really good ideas. If you're looking for a more advanced treatment of VB6, then this book is not for you. Otherwise, it's a good investment, but I rate it four stars for wordiness.

No comments about Accelerated VB 2005 (Accelerated).

5 comments about Mastering Database Programming with Visual Basic 6.

1. I am using this book as the selected text for a second course in Visual Basic. I am about half way through the text. The main objections I have to the book are that the author jumps around between SQL server and Access, often without telling you which one ( or even which of several example databases) he is using. As a result, the code often does not work with the DB you are using. Also, most often,the author only gives code for Access or SQL server, not both, so you spend A LOT of time trying to convert code to get things to work. Lots of times, the author leaves code lines out expecting you to have learned it earlier. If you don't have SQL server, you are going to have a hard time with this book (eval copy is supplied on CD but I couldn't get it to install on win 2000 pro - fortunately I have SQL 7 on another NT 4 machine). Despite these complaints, I am learning a fair amount by persevering and the book does cover quite a bit of material...you just have to spend a lot of time figuring out what he is really doing. Finally, you have to plan to use the complete code supplied on the CD to decipher the text. The text leaves out things that only become clear by extensive examination (and, many times, modification) of the code on the CD. In conclusion, I am finding the book useful and I am learning how to use ADO (author skips DAO etc. as being outdated) but it is more painful than I would like.



2. I would recommend this book to those who want to understand the db development environment without being bogged down in too much detail.
   However, once you need to get to lower level work for real development this book cannot substitute for more specialised volumes.

   Overall recommended.

   dan




3. I am an experienced programmer, and needed a book to enable me to understand ADO database programming in VB. I bought this book, and have regretted it. The examples are incomplete and miss important stages out. Its approach is confused and confusing. Having now done what I set out to do in VB/ADO, I can honestly say that very little of the contents of this book can be applied without extensive tinkering.

   Oh, and by the way, the examples on the CD are fiddly to get running as well.




4. This book was not written with teaching in mind. It is a great reference book but if you are not familiar with coding in VB then you definitely need to buy another book! This book gives you great reference to what objects do but doesn't clarify at all on how to do them. It will tell you what you need to do to update a database's records but not how to code them.

   I've seen better books written for teaching. THis is not a teaching book.




5. Don't expect you'll become the master of VB6 database programming by buying this book!!

5 comments about Developer to Designer: GUI Design for the Busy Developer.

1. Just finished reading the book and I must say that this book is lacking good technical content. It focused more on trivial things and explained them too in-depthly. Plus, it seems that windows based design was the focus and web based design was brought in as an afterthought. It doesn't nearly have as much content or good design recommendations. Also, don't even get me started on the introduction of "Avalon" into the book. This chapter was completely out of place in this book. The lackluster chapter described something thats a year or more off, not to mention stuff that is going to change. Not anywhere in this chapter did it explain good design patterns for Avalon, as currently there are none. This chapter seemed more of an "intro to avalon" chapter - which is why I thought it was out of place.



2. The fact is, most developers are not great User Interface (UI) designers. I look at user interfaces designed by most developers and I cringe. Even my own user interfaces are, frankly, not that great, and I have been at this for a long time (most often doing server-side development - in part because of my lacking design skills). After reading this book, I think I have at least some hope of doing a better job, because it made me think about things that I do not often think about. The reality is that even the best developer will generally not be working on a team that has a separate user interface design team, and so anything that can get a developer at least thinking about issues involving user interfaces is a good thing.



3. Mike Gunderloy has put together a nice book to follow up his Coder to Developer, this time covering the basics of UI design and concepts. A good book, but not perfect. What's good: he systematically describes in detail all the major components making up the modern Windows user interface. Don't do Windows? That's okay, a lot (if not all) of the components have their equivalents in other operating systems/UI shells. If you've never done UI design, either by choice or you've never had to, this is a good place to start. I've not found a book yet that covers the UI basics, without being wrapped up in a particular language or technology. The author's premise is a sound one; rare is the project that has the luxury of a dedicated UI specialist. Most business applications are done by developers that are typically not trained in User Experience or the like. So if you think that a good UI is easy and you just drag some of them white boxes on to the form, with a bunch of buttons too, this is a good book for you. I also appreciate his coverage of the web browser based application. There has been a lot of work in standard UI styles that got tossed out the window when the web based app hit. Mike does a good job dealing with that too. What's not so good: I thought that the chapter spent on Avalon, Microsoft's future UI was wasted, as it is inconsistent with the premise of the book. We'll need the new version of the book in a couple of years, once Avalon/Longhorn have shipped. I would have preferred the space used for more details on the current UI styles. My other issue is that this is a book for beginners. If you follow what Tog or Jef Raskin are doing in UI design, this isn't the book for you. If you feel challenged by Alan Cooper's ideas, then keep looking, this is a beginner's book and you are not going to find what you're looking for here. And this is not a criticism, merely an admission that this book is for a particular skill level, just like other development books. I'm glad to see Sybex and Mike Gunderloy giving the User Interface it's due and hopefully making developers realize that there is a little more to UI design.



4. Resources on how to use each of the UI controls and dialog styles in which circumstance are scattered throughout the MSDN library and articles. This book does a great job of bringing all of that information together into one place and, as such, is a reasonable first reference manual on how to put together a UI application.
   
   However, this book didn't cover what I expected to see: how do you design a good UI? Given a set of three activities to do, how do you map that into a flow across the application? How do you do simple usability studies using a friend or family? I was sorely disappointed, as those techniques are what turn a UI from a set of controls that a developer slapped together into an application that feels like it was designed to be used for a purpose.
   
   Also, don't think that this goes into all of the details. Given the depth he went into on control use, I was expecting to see some of the Windows Logo guidelines in there, perhaps as an appendix - buttons will be such and such dialog units from the corner, etc. Instead, there are intro chapters on *forming* Avalon and HTML. This seemed out of place given that there was no intro chapter on using the Visual Studio .NET design surfaces and they read more like there was a page target for the book than that the content was part of an overall plan for the reader.



5. I think Lars and M. Hawley's reviews are right on. I was pretty disappointed with this book. Most of it seemed to be pretty much common sense. Don't get me wrong I did learn some from this book. The first few chapters had some decent content but as the chapters went on I was hoping it would focus more on design and technical aspects. If you're looking for the basics then this book is good but if you're an experienced (even moderately) developer then I think you will be disappointed.

No comments about Visual Basic .NET Tips & Techniques.

5 comments about Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the .NET Framework Class Library (Kaleidoscope).

1. I found this book to be a handy 2nd book to have on .NET programming... it doesn't have much content to help you make the transition to .NET (I'd have to recommend Gary Cornell's Programming VB .NET: A Guide for Experienced Programmers for that task), but it does do a great job of helping you find the right class libraries and write code with them once you are up and running with your language of choice.

   Each chapter is focused on a namespace. The authors then spend a few pages bringing people up to speed on the spotlight technology (I am new to XML and particularly liked the intro to XML piece). Then they dive right into the details of using the .NET classes to achieve your desired end-result. The class library that ships with .NET is huge, and I found it helpful to use this book as a guide to highlight the classes I should worry about to get 80-90% of my programming work done.

   Now for the cons: the sample applications could have been a bit more in-depth, and I really think they should have spent the time to make the book "bi-lingual" by providing some C# code as well - but overall, a great addition to your .NET bookshelf.




2. Because of a project, I needed to finally make the jump from VB6 to VB.NET. After reviewig several books, I grabbed the book by Powers and Snell. It helped tremendously on the key pieces of my project. What I really like are the numerous code examples - worth the price of the book alone! I even contacted the authors to get their thoughts on something and ask a few questions. Not only did they reply with great answers, but their indepth knowledge of .NET helped finalize an important part of my project architecture. Looking forward to more titles by Powers and Snell. Thanks again guys!



3. The challenge for a reference book like this is to be better the documentation that Microsoft provide - MSDN and the .Net framework SDK. My experience is that this book certainly achieves that.

   For example, today I needed to show the "save file" dialog and then write the contents of a text box to a text file. I know how to do that in VB6, but I hadn't done it in VB.Net before. I searched MSDN which gave me accurate descriptions of the menthods and properties of at least four classes for writing data to files, but I still had no idea which one(s) I needed to use.

   I am sure the sample code I needed is somewhere in MSDN, but I hadn't found it after 20 minutes searching when I gave up and referred to this book. In five minutes I had found what I was after, my code worked and I was able to get on with my next task. That is what this book is for. If you want to learn about the new programming features in VB.Net (like polymorphism, delegates etc) this is not your book. But if you want help getting your .Net program to talk to anything (files, printers, active directory, browsers, TCP/IP Sockets, XML/XSLT or whatever) This book will be a valuable resource.

   Just note that while this book covers ASP.Net and ADO.Net, if you work with these a lot you might want more depth than is provided here. I will be considering the Wrox "ASP.Net Namespace Reference" when it is released.




4. Visual Basic experts Lars Powers and Mike Snell effective collaborate in the Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the .NET Framework Class Library to instruct intermediat to advanced level users on a full range of issues including: delineating and define the pieces of .NET; explaining how/why .NET was conceived and what this means to VB6/Windows DNA developers; how to execute Windows programming using the .NET namespaces; position the .NET namespaces within the context of the reader's project; how to make architecture decisions when using .NET namespaces; as well as details about the construction of Web Services and how they programmatically communicate with each other. Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the .NET Framework Class Library is enhanced further with call-outs and highlighted sections will illustrate concepts by relating previous VB6/Windows DNA best practices with the new .NET approach. 1152 pages. User Level: Intermediate-Advanced. Highly Recommended.



5. BUt why do VB when c# is just as easy and you can write unmanaged within it. Its just a no brainer with all the limitations of VB still.