5 comments about Visual Basic(R) .NET Power Coding.

1. There are endless books for beginners trying to learn .NET. This book is for people yearning for more. His discussing on Asynchronous operations is worth the price of the book alone. So is his discussion on No touch deployment. If you want to take your VB.NET knowledge up a level, this is the book for you.



2. As a professional programmer with almost 2 years experience with the .NET framework, this book is a breath of fresh air. Finally, a book on .NET that goes beyond the basics and shows some of the more advanced and interesting capabilities of the framework.

   Highlights for me include a discussion on value and reference types, delegates for multithreading, reflection, attributes, COM interop, remoting, custom components (including UITypeEditor) and implementing Extender Provider controls (like the ToolTip control).

   I discovered many details of the framework that had eluded me. For example, did you know that all value types inherit from the ValueType class? how to add custom properties to all controls on a form? or how to use COM interop to provide a smooth path for the migration of VB6 application to .NET?

   On the down side, the chapters dealing with the subject of ADO.NET, which is itself in need of a few advanced books, only describe the more basics aspects of the technology. Also, there is no chapter on XML.

   Overall though, Kimmel does an excellent job of putting together a wealth of advanced subjects in a compact package.




3. To start this book review I can only say one thing ... this book is AWESOME! I actually sat
   down and read the whole book in just over a week. I couldn't put it down. The way Mr. Kimmel
   writes will keep your attention GLUED to each page as you read and learn about Visual Basic
   .NET programming advanced topics. His sense of humor comes shining through in his examples and
   writing. It is a book that I could just not put down. I'd come home from work, grab a bite to
   eat and it was off to the reading room for me. I spent many a night this past week staying up
   late because I didn't want to close the book for another night.
   
   Mr. Kimmel did what a lot of books have tried to do, but in my opinion have come up short on
   all too many occasions. He started out in Chapter 1 explaining the differences between Visual
   Basic 6.0 and the new, improved Visual Basic .NET programming languages. He drilled down into
   the changes more than any other book I have read and made it so easy to understand the
   differences. This is also something that he did throughout the text. This was to give the
   reader a look back at the Visual Basic 6.0 language and then explain how it works now in the
   .NET world. That is something that many books have tried to do, but in my opinion, Mr. Kimmel
   NAILED the explanations to the barn door. He made is so easy to understand the VB.NET language
   now and the advanced features that are available to us as developers.
   
   I have spent the past three years teaching at the Community College of Aurora as an Adjunct
   Instructor in the Computer Sciences Division. I have had the opportunity to teach Visual Basic
   6.0, Advanced Visual Basic 6.0, and Java programming languages. I have read and used many
   different textbooks in my tenure. Going forward, I'm going to be telling my Visual Basic .NET
   programming class students that this is the book they need to read after they have finished
   their Advanced VB.NET book. The textbooks that are available for instructors are all fine, but
   I believe that Mr. Kimmel's book will be a much higher benefit to my students who are serious
   about learning VB.NET and the power that it now has. I have already contacted some of my
   previous students who are Visual Basic .NET developers and have advised them to get their own
   copy of this book.
   
   My favorite chapters are 10 & 11, ADO.NET and Advanced ADO.NET. In my years of developing
   projects I have done A LOT of database programming, as most of us have. I found that ADO.NET
   is a subject that has MANY, MANY different books written about it. Most are very intricate and
   very technical, which is good for some people. For the rest of the folks out there, it's best
   to get a GOOD grounding in the basics before moving on to the heavy technical stuff. I believe
   that Mr. Kimmel found the secret of how to give us that understanding of ADO.NET that we can
   now go forth and build upon.
   
   That is how I feel about the entire book. There is enough technical expertise to keep the hard
   core developers interested, but at the same time there is a good balance of information for
   folks who are just stepping out of a college level advanced VB.NET course who are looking for
   a good reference book to help them get a better understanding of VB.NET. Mr. Kimmel covers
   Visual Basic .NET like no other author I have found yet. Very concise information is shared in
   the pages of his book. There is no "fluff" that you find in some books. No, not in this book.
   He drills into Visual Basic .NET like no other author that I've read thus far. I feel very
   enriched by having had the opportunity to read this book and plan on having this located on my
   bookshelf within EASY reach while I'm developing projects.
   
   I feel fortunate in that I have been extended a hand by what I believe to be that of a
   gentleman who is a person I consider to be extremely knowledgeable in both the technologies
   and helping others understand the technologies. I received an e-mail from Mr. Kimmel just a
   short time after sending a thank you note to the publisher's representative who donated this
   book to the Denver Visual Studio User Group, Denver, Colorado, where I selected this book for
   a review. I was shocked when I opened my e-mail and I saw the address being Mr. Kimmel's. When
   I opened the e-mail what I found was a gentleman who can only be described as an individual
   that I hope to keep in contact for years to come. He had a genuine interest in me as a person
   and a developer. We have shared a few e-mails since then and I sincerely hope that he will
   consider revising his book and writing a 2nd Edition for Visual Basic 2005. I know that there
   are going to be many upgrades, changes, additions, subtractions, etc. that are accomplished by
   Microsoft and I would really appreciate it if Mr. Kimmel could be the one to lead the charge
   as the new technologies are released. He has such a tremendous understanding of the
   technologies and how to put them into words that makes it easier for us developers to
   understand and then use the knowledge that he shares with us to help build our foundation on
   which we build our empires of knowledge.
   
   Thank you to Mr. Paul Kimmel for writing such a true work of art for those of us who are mere
   students of Visual Basic .NET and who seek the wisdom of the Masters! I truly believe that
   this book could be considered a book written by a Master of Visual Basic for the Ages!



4. This book covers a grab bag of topics around the .NET platform. Topics range in obscurity from reflection (which it starts with) to just above basic, using ADO.NET with stored procedures. Threading, which is always a difficult topic to explain, was covered in a well written fashion, but lacked illustrations, which I think would have brought a lot of clarity to the subject. Other topics were given some illustrations, but overall the book used screenshots for most of the graphics. Remoting was another area that could have used illustrations.
   
   Overall well written, but could have been better organized and illustrated. Definitely worth a look over if you find that it covers topics of interest.



5. This book is awesome. It is exactly what I have been looking for.
   
   I have been coding in VB.Net for a couple years now and I'm comfortable with the standard features of VB.Net and Visual Studio.Net. I needed a book that would take my skills to the next level and help me take full advantage of the more powerful capabilites of the .Net programming environment.
   
   Make no mistake, this is not a beginner's book. It does not rehash the same old instructions on how to do the basics. What it does, and does very well, is take you straight into the advanced topics of interfaces, delegates, reflection, attributes, multithreading, COM Interop, remoting, custom components, smart clients, web services, and much more. I can see how this information will help me build awesome applications that I would not have otherwise been able to do.
   
   Paul Kimmel's writing style is concise yet friendly. The examples truly help clarify the lesson at hand. The size of the book is small enough, 700 pages, that you can take your time to understand the material and still expect to complete the book in a reasonable amount of time.
   
   I know that I will be writing and delivering better software as a result of reading this book. It is exactly what I was looking for in a "Level 2" book. I don't know if there is a "Level 3" book or not, but I can only hope that if there isn't one, that Paul Kimmel is in the processing of writing it.

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.

No comments about Visual Basic 6 Brief Course.

5 comments about An Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming with Visual Basic .NET.

1. To me "introduction" books are always an interesting venture. Some
   are great experiences, and others are nightmares. Overall this book
   was a pretty good experience, although there was a major bump in the
   road (and a couple of minor ones). In the chapter summary below I will
   go into a little more detail on the positive and negative points.

   Chapter Summary:

   Chapter 1: Overview of Object Oriented Programming
   This chapter starts with a very brief overview of the history of OOP.

   Brief is good. It also has brief definitions of OOP characteristics;
   Objects, Abstraction, Encapsulation, Polymorphism, Inheritance, and
   Aggregation. It ends with a blurb about the history of VB.

   Chapter 2: Designing OOP Solutions: Identifying the Class Structure &
   Chapter 3: Designing OOP Solutions: Modeling the Object Interaction
   These chapters go into UML and things like Use Cases, Class Diagrams,
   Sequence Diagrams, Collaboration Diagrams, and Activity diagrams. This
   seemed exciting to me because I never really get into anything like
   this on the job, and I wanted to know a little more about it. Well,
   while interesting this ended up being a bump in the road for me.

   The Author says to either do the exercises with a UML Modeler you can
   download from the net, or creating the diagram by hand. I wanted
   to try the tool he used in the examples so I downloaded it. At this
   point just let me say that you should be prepared to spend a lot of
   time figuring out the tool if you decide to try it. It is not easy.
   The directions for doing the exercises don't quite flow with actually
   using the tool either. The author does state that it is pretty tricky
   to use, but I really feel that the directions for these exercises
   should have been better. I managed to get through some of the examples
   in chapters 2 and 3 after a couple of hours.
   
   Chapter 4: Designing OOP Solutions: A Case Study
   This chapter talks about the process by which one would design an OOP
   solution with a case study. The Author goes into good detail about the
   actual steps needed, and does a good job explaining the methodology by
   which this is accomplished. He also gives some good advice on how to
   avoid some of the more common pitfalls of designing an OOP solution.

   Chapter 5: Introducing VB .NET
   This chapter gives an overview of VB.Net as well as the .Net
   Framework. After the overview it gives you a hands on tour of the
   Visual Studio .Net IDE. Of course, you will need to have the IDE to do
   the tour. This tour shows you many of the screens, option settings,
   and menus of Visual Studio .Net. The second exercise shows you the
   debugging features of VS .Net. At his point you will need files that
   you can download from the Apress web site. I may have missed it, but I
   never saw any mention that downloading files was needed for the
   exercises. It certainly was not at the beginning of this exercise, and I
   think their should be some kind of direction about it present.

   Chapter 6: Creating Classes
   This chapter is all about classes. How to restrict them, access to
   them, creating methods, overloading methods, using constructors to
   name some topics. This chapter too has exercises you complete with VS
   .Net. They all seemed to work fine for me, and were very easy to
   follow.

   Chapter 7: Creating Class Hierarchies &
   Chapter 8: Implementing Object Collaboration
   These chapters discuss things like inheritance, polymorphism,
   interfaces, delegation, error handling, shared properties and methods
   to new a few. These two chapters also have multiple hands-on
   activities so you can continue to learn how to operate VS .Net as well
   as learn more concepts of OOP. These activities are well documented,
   and I had no problems completing them all without incident.

   Chapter 9: OSO Application Revisited: Implementing the Business Logic
   This chapter helps bring together all the ideas you were introduced to
   in chapter 4. From there it goes into data access by talking about
   stored procedures, ADO.net, sqlclient namespace, and many other
   details. In order to do the examples you will have to have SQL Server.

   Chapter 10: Developing Windows Applications
   This is a fun chapter that talks about windows forms, event handlers,
   dialog boxes and different types of bound controls. This chapter is
   full of hands on activities that are well done.

   Chapter 11: Developing Web Applications
   This long chapter deals with web forms, server controls, server
   control inheritance, server-side event processing, ASP.net, state, and
   many other things. It is all about designing an application for the
   web. The activities are easy to follow, and work.

   Chapter 12: Wrapping Up and Reviewing
   A quick summation of what the book covers and some tips on where to
   focus next.

   Appendix A: Fundamental Programming Concepts
   This appendix is basically a primer for beginning programmers.

   Appendix B: Exception Handling in VB .NET
   A quick 4-page explanation of how exceptions are handled in VB.Net

   After finishing this book I had a hard time deciding what grade to
   give it. I ended up giving it a 7 out of 10. The many problems I had
   with the UML activities using the UML modeler were just too painful
   and frustrating to give it higher than a 7.

   I will admit that the rest of the book was great and would be very
   useful to a beginner trying to become more familiar with VB.Net and
   VS.net. The VS.net activities were flawless, and gave good hands-on
   experience that beginners would love. The UML material was actually
   good as well, but the problems with the modeling tool activities
   really influenced my final judging of the book.

   In summation, this book is without doubt a beginner's book. Do not buy
   this if you already basically familiar with VS .net or UML. If you are a
   beginner and do the UML activities with pen and paper I believe it will
   be a great learning experience.




2. This book is very well written. The material is organized well and the information is presented in easily digestable pieces.
   The book gives a nice overall background of OOP then shows how to implment it (on a very basic level) in VB.NET.

   I highly recommend this book for VB programmers who have never incorporated OOP in their programs.




3. I have several OOP books that I put aside because they became fustrating and/or clumsy. This book has made it possible to pickup those once forgotten books.

   A big plus for this book is that all the examples work and you can download the chapter examples from Apress! The user friendly analogies make it an easy read. The only resistance I experienced was the free personal UML modeler that was referenced in the first part of the book. The first pass through these chapters I followed along by creating the diagrams by hand. After reading the rest of the book, I spent half a day learning the software and completing the chapter examples.

   For me, this author paints a pretty good big picture of OOP! My other books are now helping with the details;)




4. If you are trying to learn the concept of OOP with VB.NET, this is a good book to start with. If you are trying to learn how to program OOP in VB.NET, I would look else where. I found the book to be full of errors. You can download a list of errata from Apress, but don't expect to be able to fix all of the errors with this. I spent more time trying to figure out why the code did not work than I did learning OOP. I know fixing errors will help you learn what the code does, but that is not why I bought this book. If I could do all over again, I wouldn't buy this book.



5. This book is excellent for beginners. If you've never programmed with OOP before, this will give you a good overview of the project, including planning, from start to finish. It was this book that gave me the basic overview i have today. I wish i know of something that went even more in depth. If you already know VB.NET, UML, and OOP this book is for the very beginner. But as a starter, it is excellent. I also liked Sams Teach Yourself Object Oriented Programming in 21 days. It is also great. It explains OOP concepts in more detail. This book teaches you how to do the programming, the Sams book teaches you the reason for OOP. If you are beginner these two books would be great to start with. Don't pay attention to the Java in the Sams book. It is not really a java book. It really is an OOP book.

5 comments about Real World XML Web Services: For VB and VB .NET Developers (Developmentor Series (Dm)).

1. This is a good book but suffers from bad writing style.
   The author uses many "and/or" clauses one is forced to
   pause to understand what he is really attempting to say.
   He also asks questions in the middle of an explanation.

   For example on page 38 section 2.4.7 he says:
   "An element doesn't need to have content;it may be empty. An empty element is an element that has no text content and no child elements. Would such an element be of complex or simple type? it depends; if the element has attributes it is of complex type. Note that attributes are not considered part of an element's content, therefore whether or not an element has attributes has nothing to do with whether or not the element is empty: an empty element may nor may not have attributes."

   Does the author have to use 108+ words to tell us that an empty element is just that. Empty!
   For example read his last sentence and see whether you understand what he is talking about.

   He could simply state the last part: "an empty element may or may not have attributes" for us to understand. Where "therefore whether or not an element has attributes has nothing to do with whether or not the element is empty:" came from I have no idea!

   I am not sure whether the author is affected by English as a second language or whether he bothered to understand what he was writing. In an attempt to simplify the content he ends up in verbosity and ruins what would have been a good book.

   Overall if one can put up with long winded paragraphs it is a good book.




2. Web Services. I can't believe there is anyone left alive in the technology sector that hasn't heard these two words. Everywhere you look there are articles, books, and web sites that talk about this technology. Do a book search for "Web Services" on amazon.com and you will be quite amazed how many Web Services books there are. With so many available picking one buy may seem overwhelming. The good news is it just got a little easier to do.

   Real World XML Web Services is an absolute "must have" for anyone who wants to learn more about XML Web Services. Even if you are not a VB/VB.net developer you will find great value in this book. It goes into extensive detail, and will surely teach even more savvy Web Services folks a thing or two.

   Because of the books detail level, I don't think that it is a first-read on the subject though. I think that someone who really doesn't know much about Web Services will be drowned in the detail (which is incredible). A person can get more out of this book by doing some tutorials, and experimenting with Web Services first. Then, after having a good base of understanding is when this book should be cracked.

   Summary

   Chapter 1. Introduction to Web Services.
   This is a brief intro chapter that gives some history and background info about Web Services. Some of the overview consists of typical Web Service architecture, and when to use (and NOT to use) Web Services.

   Chapter 2. XSD: The Web Services Type System.
   Great chapter. Goes into the concepts of XSD. Topics include the XSD Type System, XSD and XML namespaces, authoring XSD Schemas, and a ton of information about XML Serialization.
   .
   Chapter 3. SOAP: Invoking Web Services.
   This chapter covers what SOAP is, SOAP architecture, SOAP message formats, RPC with SOAP, and also covers error handling.

   Chapter 4. Describing Web Services.
   A chapter all about the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which is the language used to describe Web Service interfaces. I liked this chapter a lot because Yasser does a great job of really illustrating and explaining it well. Clear, easy to follow examples are used to drive concepts home.

   Chapter 5. The Microsoft SOAP Toolkit.
   As you might have guessed, this chapter is all about using the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit to invoke and expose Web Services. If you would like to know more about the toolkit you will like this chapter. Exposing and invoking Web Services via the high and low-level API's is covered, as well as using header handlers to invoke and expose.

   Chapter 6. .NET Web Services.
   This chapter discusses creating .Net Web Services with Visual Studio .Net, as well as customizing the WSDL of the Web Service to meet your needs.

   Chapter 7. SOAP Header and Fault.
   All about SOAP headers and SOAP Fault. There is some great information about communicating errors in a common way so that any platform can get to it.

   Chapter 8. Interface-Based Web Service Development.

   Explains about Interfaces and the .Net Web Services world. Defining interfaces, implementing multiple interfaces, and programming against interfaces are some of the topics covered.

   Chapter 9. Handling Data IN.NET Web Services.
   This is a chapter that shows how to take data from many different types of sources and be able to manipulate it using XML Schemas, ADO.Net, and the XML Framework. Typed Datasets are also covered.

   Chapter 10. Reusable Infrastructure with Soap Extensions.
   This chapter teaches how to built a flexible and reusable infrastructure using SOAP extensions.

   Chapter 11. UDDI: A Web Service.
   This huge chapter pretty much tells us everything about UDDI that you could want to know. The chapter starts with an explanation of what it is and what it is made of. Then the chapter goes into different usage scenarios and various other UDDI topics. Programming, querying, and publishing Web Services with UDDI are just some of the other topics covered. This is an excellent chapter.

   Chapter 12. Other SOAP Toolkits.
   This chapter talks about Web Services Interop . Different clients are discussed including JAVA clients, VB 6 clients, and NET clients.

   Chapter 13. A Web Service Walkthrough.
   This chapter wraps up the book by walking the reader through building a Web Service. This is a great way to end the book as it ties together all the things that were discussed.

   Appendix A: Data Type Mappings
   Appendix B: .NET Web Services Tips and Tricks.

   Two good appendixes that give us more information, as well as tips and tricks.
   
   I give this book a 10 out of 10. Yasser did a fantastic job on it. Again, although I do not think this is a "first read" book on Web Services, I believe it is a "must have" Web Services book. Any developer that works with, or wants to work with Web Services will find it valuable.




3. Web Services. I can't believe there is anyone left alive in the technology sector that hasn't heard these two words. Everywhere you look there are articles, books, and web sites that talk about this technology. Do a book search for "Web Services" on amazon.com and you will be quite amazed how many Web Services books there are. With so many available picking one buy may seem overwhelming. The good news is it just got a little easier to do.

   Real World XML Web Services is an absolute "must have" for anyone who wants to learn more about XML Web Services. Even if you are not a VB/VB.net developer you will find great value in this book. It goes into extensive detail, and will surely teach even more savvy Web Services folks a thing or two.

   Because of the books detail level, I don't think that it is a first-read on the subject though. I think that someone who really doesn't know much about Web Services will be drowned in the detail (which is incredible). A person can get more out of this book by doing some tutorials, and experimenting with Web Services first. Then, after having a good base of understanding is when this book should be cracked.

   Summary

   Chapter 1. Introduction to Web Services.
   This is a brief intro chapter that gives some history and background info about Web Services. Some of the overview consists of typical Web Service architecture, and when to use (and NOT to use) Web Services.

   Chapter 2. XSD: The Web Services Type System.
   Great chapter. Goes into the concepts of XSD. Topics include the XSD Type System, XSD and XML namespaces, authoring XSD Schemas, and a ton of information about XML Serialization.
   .
   Chapter 3. SOAP: Invoking Web Services.
   This chapter covers what SOAP is, SOAP architecture, SOAP message formats, RPC with SOAP, and also covers error handling.

   Chapter 4. Describing Web Services.
   A chapter all about the Web Services Description Language (WSDL), which is the language used to describe Web Service interfaces. I liked this chapter a lot because Yasser does a great job of really illustrating and explaining it well. Clear, easy to follow examples are used to drive concepts home.

   Chapter 5. The Microsoft SOAP Toolkit.
   As you might have guessed, this chapter is all about using the Microsoft SOAP Toolkit to invoke and expose Web Services. If you would like to know more about the toolkit you will like this chapter. Exposing and invoking Web Services via the high and low-level API's is covered, as well as using header handlers to invoke and expose.

   Chapter 6. .NET Web Services.
   This chapter discusses creating .Net Web Services with Visual Studio .Net, as well as customizing the WSDL of the Web Service to meet your needs.

   Chapter 7. SOAP Header and Fault.
   All about SOAP headers and SOAP Fault. There is some great information about communicating errors in a common way so that any platform can get to it.

   Chapter 8. Interface-Based Web Service Development.

   Explains about Interfaces and the .Net Web Services world. Defining interfaces, implementing multiple interfaces, and programming against interfaces are some of the topics covered.

   Chapter 9. Handling Data IN.NET Web Services.
   This is a chapter that shows how to take data from many different types of sources and be able to manipulate it using XML Schemas, ADO.Net, and the XML Framework. Typed Datasets are also covered.

   Chapter 10. Reusable Infrastructure with Soap Extensions.
   This chapter teaches how to built a flexible and reusable infrastructure using SOAP extensions.

   Chapter 11. UDDI: A Web Service.
   This huge chapter pretty much tells us everything about UDDI that you could want to know. The chapter starts with an explanation of what it is and what it is made of. Then the chapter goes into different usage scenarios and various other UDDI topics. Programming, querying, and publishing Web Services with UDDI are just some of the other topics covered. This is an excellent chapter.

   Chapter 12. Other SOAP Toolkits.
   This chapter talks about Web Services Interop . Different clients are discussed including JAVA clients, VB 6 clients, and NET clients.

   Chapter 13. A Web Service Walkthrough.
   This chapter wraps up the book by walking the reader through building a Web Service. This is a great way to end the book as it ties together all the things that were discussed.

   Appendix A: Data Type Mappings
   Appendix B: .NET Web Services Tips and Tricks.

   Two good appendixes that give us more information, as well as tips and tricks.
   
   I give this book a 10 out of 10. Yasser did a fantastic job on it. Again, although I do not think this is a "first read" book on Web Services, I believe it is a "must have" Web Services book. Any developer that works with, or wants to work with Web Services will find it valuable.




4. I need not say more. Its the best book I have read on web services.



5. I purchased this book from Amazon mainly relying upon the reviews written by other people. As it turns out I can only assume that the other reviews were paid for either by the author or by the press.

   The book is REALLY HARD TO READ, we are talking as dry as the sphinx's arm pit. The CD rom that comes with it contains the examples, however these are a mish-mash of VB6 and some .Net neither of which run easily. The .Net versions require updating in Visual Studio and can have some odd results. Some examples are even written with the server component in VB6 and the client in .Net - confusing to say the least.

   If you want to learn how to practically implement a Web Service using VB then you should NOT look at this book. Most of the first 4 chapters are all about XML schemas and what they mean - with no "Real World" examples of how to create them in VB just the code of the schemas already created.

   And another thing there is a large chunk of information about a "Real World" authentication and encryption implementation, however and I quote "I recommend that you use off-the shelf security implementations" - The author wouldn't even use this code! Microsoft has a Web services extension designed for authentication which the author doesn't mention anywhere.

   Very disappointment to have spent good dollars on this book. I will be trying desperately to get my money back from Amazon.

5 comments about Beginning ASP.NET 1.0 with VB.NET.

1. I have been a fan of wrox books in the past, but this is not one if their better ones. The writing was poor overall, and there were times where I read the infomration three times before I eventually started to search the internet for a better explaination. The chapters on xml were useful, but could have gone into a little more detail with simple ways to data bind instead of focusing on datagrids as a single solution. As a resource, the index is useless and no glossary to organize key concepts to reference was a disapointment.



2. The book is well outdated (as of mid-2004).

   I'm just finishing the Begining ASP.NET with VB.NET 2003. This was Wrox's suggestion as the follow-on book to really understand website database development. A real waste. The Begining ASP.NET provided the same level of detail.

   The book did use SQL Server -- a plus -- which the Begining ASP.NET book lightly covered. But, not enough to justify the expense of buying the book and even more importantly the time to wade through it.




3. This book does not look like from Wrox, it got only the bad side of Wrox books - put code on dark background to damage readers' vision.
   
   The usefulness of this book are the examples, while the explanations are not all good. There are 13 authors for this book, the quality of each part of this book differ a lot. Unfortunately, the most importance parts for me: the OOP part and Control part, got the lowest quality. The technology used in these two parts is: put some words there but no real explanation on many important points; simply repeat the sample code to fill out the pages. This is more damaging because of readers' trust on Wrox books, I invested lots of time on this book without questioning, then I found I wasn't going anywhere.



4. I have read almost all the chapters of this book. I have been programming with intermediate ASP for past 5 years. The reason I picked up the book was for the easy transition from ASP to ASP.Net and this book help me do that. The book explains ASP.Net 1.0 at the novice level. For serious developers this book can serve as an introductory book for ASP.Net. I have now moved on to Professional ASP.Net book by wrox and many times I have to go back to this book to look into introductory details of the new features of ASP.Net.



5. The book was an excellent book for beginners. I found that it walks through each section step by step with excellent examples. You start out with the basics and proceed into more complicated designs such as using xml and databases. I would definitely recommend this book for someone who is starting out with asp.net as it gives you a good footing into the language.

No comments about Fun Programming With Visual Basic/Book and Disk (Programming series).

No comments about BASIC Programming for Chemists: An Introduction.

5 comments about Visual Studio .NET: The .NET Framework Black Book.

1. If you want to know how to use the .NET framework this is a great book for you - particularly if you are using VB.NET since the examples are all in VB.NET instead of C. The layout is great and make sure to look at the in-depth sections - that's where all the meat is. I had used 3 other books but threw them away after I got this one.



2. The comments about the VB.net bias and the fairly sparse IDE examples are correct (though you do get a modest share of C#, and a smidgen of managed C++). Fortunately, I approached this book as a newcomer to Windows programming who's just bought VB.Net Standard, installed the dotNet SDK, and wants to know what can be done with it. As such, this is a great resource. And as a proponent of actually knowing how to code as opposed to knowing how to use a GUI, the "notepad development" tendency was right up my alley. ... I found this book for a steep discount, but after reading it I would have paid full price--bearing in mind my situation/desires.



3. Having read (most of) Beginning VB.NET Second Edition from Wrox, I find myself having a good grounding in VB.NET (just so you know, I have been learning VB.NET for 3 weeks (with no prior vb experience whatsoever)). My first recommendation is go and buy that book, its worth every penny. Once you have read that book and trust me, you will have learnt more than you thought possible, then go and buy this one.

   What I like about this book is that is really in a way expands on everything I learnt in the first one. Now that I have some experience and know what I am looking for, I find myself thinking, 'how can I add this feature to my app, or how can I achieve this task'.

   This book has vast snippets of how to use the additional controls and features not discussed in the Wrox book. I wouldn't recommend starting with this book as the Wrox book is much better to start with.

   I find the writing style in this book quite good, but after only 3 weeks of programming I don't really need my hand to be held anymore, I just need a brief explanation of how do something - this book delivers.

   I particularly like the way the book is divided into Framework sections. I have found many snippets from other books that deliver a section of code, tell you how it works, but neglect to mention that you need to import a particular namespace...so the code just doesn't work...

   Enough said. If you have the Wrox one, then buy this one next.




4. I have little to no prior experience to vb.net so I didn't want to get a book that didn't go in to any details or did not explain why things work the way they do because the author may assume that you know what's going on. This is by far the best .Net book I've read so far and I'm only on Chapter 4. If you want to learn VB.net, order this book!



5. This is a 'must have' for any VB.Net or C# programmer. Extensive .net background and excellent examples.

5 comments about Learn Word 2000 VBA Document Automation.

1. Alright, there isn't a 3.5 and I feel like being nice. I agree with all of the reviews on this page in some way.

   If you are looking for a 'WORD' book, look elsewhere, this book is for programmers.

   That said, if you are looking for a 'VBA' book, this isn't a good one either - unless you are looking for advanced-specific project information.

   What the book covers it covers very well. Like some others, I bought it thinking it might cover something different, but.... There are some very ingenious code snippets in here, and if you're deep into Word, you might find some answers here.

   This book just tries to be too advanced. If it were longer and covered some of the basics it could be great. Instead, they chose to offer a book for people who were already VBA/Word experts. It's well worth the money if this is what you are looking for.




2. This book is a disappointment to me. Much of the material is glossed-over. Very few complete examples. I wouldn't bother with this. The Word 2000 help file is more useful.



3. First off, I think this book could've went through a more extensive revision process. I think there are places where information is glossed over that a careful editor would have had the author expand on.

   That said, I found this book very useful. It doesn't give any "Full Blown" projects to steal and modify, but there are tons of useful snippets in here. More than anything it introduces you to a different, creative way of using Word.

   Sometimes, however, I think he may be pushing the envelope too far. For instance, using the Windows API. I'd be very apprehensive to use the Windows API extensively in any Office/VBA project - however, the book talked about it and the code did in fact work? Your option here.

   Looking forward to seeing more info on VBA and Word 2002 by this guy and Steven Roman. Roman's books are good too. Very concise, but great references.




4. As far as I know, I have read every book written on VBA for Microsoft Word. As a technical writer who likes to produce customized time savers and solutions for Word, I rely heavily on macros in my daily work.

   Because there are so few books on the subject of writing Word macros, and because none of the available books on the market has complete coverage, I was delighted to find the Driza book in a bookstore. I bought it in spite of its hefty price (which I consider downright unreasonable, now that I have used this book in detail).

   I was attracted to this book because it seemed to cover advanced topics I could not find well-documented in Windows Help or in other books (e.g., class module implementation, Windows API calls, and custom collections). While this book contains lengthy explanations of many of these concepts, it fails miserably at providing what counts: useful examples. Where examples are provided, they are mostly--as another reviewer called them--snippets.

   In other cases, the examples are either non-existent (e.g., custom collections) or useless. Who needs to know how to create a class called "dogname"? This book lacks real-world, practical applications.

   This may be the ONLY computer book I have ever read that actually sent me running to the Word VBA Help files. The explanation of document variables was so poor that I went searching through Help, where I found some code that I copied and tweaked until it did what I needed. THEN I really understood the concept.

   This book passes as an idea book. But the key word in the title is "Learn." It's NOT a good tutorial, nor a good reference. My advice: don't waste your money. Buy Steven Roman's Writing Word Macros or Guy Hart-Davis's Word 2000 Developer's Handbook.




5. Well, I like many of the other people writing reviews here bought this book because frankly there are not a lot of Word VBA book out in the market. I have to say first that the way the book is organized and written was well done. That's why I gave 3 stars. However, I would've liked to have seen more descriptions on many of the methods the book glosses over. In short, it's a good reference but really the help file is just as good.