5 comments about Visual Basic(r) 6.0 Internet Programming.

1. The book gave a great backgroung to FTP, "user-unfriendly" terms, buzzwords. Unfortunately, if you are looking for code that will assist you in developing your own application this may NOT be for you...



2. Not what I expected at all. The first part of the book was okay - the history and building of the internet. The rest of the book - including sample code - was a discussion of how to use the control the writer created. If you want to spend another $300+ to be able to do your own FTP application, this is the book for you. That's what it costs to buy the software that will allow the sample code to run.



3. I want to learn REAL internet programming. This book relies too much on the dolphin systems dll. It is like telling someone you are going to teach them how to write a browser program, and then having your instruction be "go to microsoft and download IE6. Voila! you have a browser!".



4. I always heard alot about Winsock programming but never got the big picture until I read Gary Frankin's book. If I wanted to write Winsock applications from scratch, and had a lot of time to work on it, I might trying writing them using Windows API's...

   But, I don't want to make a career out of Winsock programming. My primary goal was to have two computers communicate over a facilities Ethernet network. This book showed me how to do that. I can even do it over the Internet now. I think that's great stuff.

   So, yes, Gary does teach the use of a third party ocx: dsSocket TCP/IP Custom Control by Dolphin Systems at a cost of $99 http://www.dolphinsys.com/dssocket.htm . But there are others equally expensive: Socket/x by Mabry Software at a cost of $179. https://www.mabry.com/socketx/index.htm . As a programmer, if using a third party ocx saves me 3 hours of programming time, it's worth it... And, these ocx's will save you more time than that.

   This book isn't about ASP & website programming like so many others are, here you'll learn how to get computers to communicate on networks. I recommend this book if this is what you are looking for...




5. Visual Basic(r) 6.0 Internet Programming by Carl Franklin was published in 1998, so while it does not cover all the latest technology since 1998, it still remains completly applicable to it's target audience: VisualBasic 6 developers and Programmers. If you have already moved on to C-Sharp or VB.NET, then this book is not for you. (You might get a little jealous of the lean-and-mean code in there.)

   I found this book to be very easy to read and all samples were well documented. While the samples in this book used the Dolphin Winsock OCX, the applications on the included CD-ROM also include versions for the Microsoft Winsock OCX that shipped with VisualBasic PROFESSIONAL and ENTERPRISE versions. For Visual Basic Programmers who only have the BEGINNER Version or the (Free) CCE Edition, a third party Winsock OCX makes perfect sense and the code is easily ported to any similar control with minimal effort. (The free Catalyst Socketwrench Winsock control, for example.)

   This book also provides a very nice explanation (with working samples) of the common Internet Protocols (FTP, HTTP, NTP, NNTP, POP3, SMTP) directly into terms for a Visualbasic Programmer, as well as how to do basic CGI in VisualBasic for any Windows Server and how to marry VisualBasic to the (still current) Microsoft IIS Servers.

   I can certainly recommend this book to Visualbasic 5 and 6 Programmers at the Intermediete level or higher. Even an expert will enjoy this book.

No comments about Visual Basic Developer's Toolkit.

3 comments about Visual Basic 5 Training Guide (Training Guide Series).

1. The authors of this book did not write this well. The first 4 chapters are excellent, but Chapter 5 throws information that doesn't make sence at you. Then you can't read the rest of the book. An example sentence in Chapter 5 is "Before a variable is used, its data type must be declared with either the Dim or the Global or Static modifier." It gives the defenitions for those words later on, makng everything confusing. Don't expect anything good from te CD-ROM - it only has the very basic parts of Visual Basic. I recommend that nobody should read this book.



2. On the rear of this book it says "If you are a beginning programmer, new to Visual Basic.... you've found just what you need.' If what I needed was a lesson on how NOT to produce a Training Guide then Mr Murry and Mr Pappas gave it to me. The first four chapters were pretty good explaining about forms and properties etc. As an Access 2/97 trainer most of this was already familiar. However, as soon as you get into the 'Programming' area it begins making assumptions about your level of knowledge. It provides few step by step examples and little explanation of more complicated concepts. The CD was quite useful but concentrated on the areas the book covered quite well and did not touch on anything more complicated at all. This book is by no stretch of the imagingation 'A Training Guide'



3. I thought this book was complete and thorough in its examples and teachings, the programming section was especially impressive. I recommend this book to anyone who would like to start programming in Visual Basic. I only wished the book hadn't ended the capabilities of VB5 are almost endless!!

No comments about Visual Basic 6 Interactive Training Course.

No comments about Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6.

No comments about Do It Yourself Visual Basic.

No comments about Aprenda Visual Basic 5.0 YA.

No comments about Go with Visual Basic.Net.

1 comments about Special Edition Using Visual Basic 4 (Using ... (Que)).

1. I needed to know lots more about VB 4, just having upgraded from VB 3, so I went out in search of an appropriate textbook to ponder. My eye caught the ad in the upper-left corner of the cover page, "The Most Complete Reference". Ooh, great! I picked it up right away. It is with less enthusiasm with which I offer this review. If you are looking to implement VB 4 and databases, or wish to learn about OLE, this book offers comprehensive discussions on those topics. In fact, disappointingly, more than half of the book has been devoted to them. Another one-fourth of the book discusses "integrating VB 4 with MS Office", which is mostly about getting VB to talk to Excel. The remaining material about VB 4 is sparse by comparison, and the companion CD-ROM does NOT contain the code examples. Rather, it is the VB-CD quarterly from Fawcett Publications. Ah well, the search for a better book is on...especially since I've now upgraded VB to 5.0! - Ken Robertson

No comments about Teach Yourself...Visual Basic 4.0 for Windows 95.