5 comments about Teach Yourself Database Programming With Visual Basic 5 in 21 Days (Teach Yourself in 21 Days).

1. This is the second book I've bought on VB, the first one being an introductory book on everything I need to know about the basics of VB. But since I wanted to focus on database programming, I bought this book and read through it, confused most of the time. Running the sample codes didn't help either. I thought it was only my inexperience with the language that is causing the trouble, thank goodness I found that the other more experienced readers of the book also had similar experiences. I tried swallowing the text up until Chapter 10 and then I finally gave up. If you ask me how I would describe the writing and organization of this book, frustrating would come to mind. I finally gave up and bought another book!



2. I don't know why other reviewers don't like the book. Actually, I bought all three editions of the book, from VB 4 to VB 6. The book covered most important contents for building VB DB apps, with a lot of useful warnings and tips. Though I have done some VB DB programming before, I found useful info in every chapter which clarifies some issues or teaches some tricks. Give one example, I have tried to use MaskedEdit as a bound control but encountered abnormality when updating records. I spent several hours trying to bypass the error with coding without any luck. Later I happened to find (in this book) that all I need to do is to set the "PromptInclude" property to False. That tip alone already worths the price to me.

   Aside from the goodies, I found the VisData chapter not so interesting. That's not quite related to programming. Also I'd like to see a chapter talking about VB/VBA DB programming, differences and relations.




3. This was simply the best resource I've ever seen concerning Visual Basic 5. Keep up the good work.



4. I found this book to be a very good source for database programming, especially for beginners. I not only went through all 21 days of lessons but also return to the book frequently as a help resource.



5. When I read a book, I capture grammatical errors to send to the editors for the 'next edition'. I collected quite a few early on and decided to send what I had collected so far.

   The email addresses listed as publisher contacts for this book came back as 'unknown'. I began to wonder: Did they have so many complaint emails they canceled the email accounts?

   I pushed on through the book to discover coding errors in the examples as well.

   I give this book a `thumbs down' and will avoid buying SAMS publishing books in the future.

   (If I had known about Amazon's rating system at the time I purchased the book, I would have avoided this loss of good $)

2 comments about Visual Basic for Network Applications.

1. This book just touches a little bit on different network area. Typically, it just tells you to use 3rd party controls for TCP/IP, NetBIOS, etc. Cover some windows API on network side which you can find better material elsewhere(like on the web) I browsed it once and I don't know when I will open that book again.



2. I bought this book some time ago, along with Dan Appleman's API book for VB (the 16-bit book, I believe no longer available). This book is rather thin, but decent content.

   This book touches on the common APIs for network connections, such as WNetAddConnection. Great beginning for network apps where you want to connect network shares (\\server\service) to drive letters. (I even suggested this book on SourceVault).

   The only thing I didn't like was that most of the functions were 16-bit, not the Win32 calls. HOWEVER, not many other books cover networking APIs (aside from buying an MSDN subscription from Microsoft)!

   FYI - I know that the prior verison of Dan Appleman's VB Win32 API guide (white cover) also does not contain any "WNET" functions.

No comments about Visual Basic 6 Curso Iniciacion.

5 comments about MCSD Visual Basic 6 Desktop Exam Prep (Exam: 70-176).

1. On page xix, it says "Solution Files Contain possible solutions to all the problems you are asked to create or modify in the chapters and cases." PROBLEM: the CD that came with my book does not include solutions to all the problems, or hands-on projects, at the ends of the chapters. For instance, in Chapter Two, the CD has answers, in the form of commented VB code, for Project 1, but not for Projects 2,3, or 4. The remainder of the chapters shortchange you similarly. My efforts over the last two months to obtain customer service, or effective support to solve this problem have been fruitless. Basically, I have been given the run-around, by being passed on from one person to another, until the 4th person passed me back to the first. Customer service at Coriolis can't even find Michael Ekedahl, the author. He has moved, leaving no forwarding address. There are plenty other competing VB books out on the market. Buy one of them, not this one.



2. I read this book and worked through the Transcender sample tests and passed the exam with a 957. I don't think I would have gotten that score without the Transcenders though. This book does cover data environment designer or data report designer. It does a poor job covering threading models and instancing behaviour of Classes. With the Transcender tests though I think you'll cover everything you need to. The Howard Hawhee book is a better choice IMHO; but this book is a 2nd or 3rd runner up.



3. This book goes into details to cover MCSD exam #70-176. Maybe it is not for VB beginners, if you are, you may need to read "New Rider's VB 70-176 and 70-175" first. The contents ia good, but the presentation is not as good as the New Rider's book. There are 2 set of VB #70-176 tests on CD-ROM, I like them.

   Answer to the "No Answer" review message:You can find the answers to the questions of each chapters on CD-ROM. You need to install Adobe 4.0 fron the CD-ROM to you machine to read/print this answers.




4. Chapter 5 contains a program using the tree view and list view. The program does not work correctly. There were no corrections or FAQ's for this book online, and it took me two weeks to get the author to write back and agree with me that the program does not work correctly. He said he will re-design it for the next version. Sorry, but that is not good enough! I can't wait until the next version to take the exam. To date, I have not received an answer from Coriolis - the publisher - as to why there are no corrections for this book online. Although the book is helpful, and covers the material I need to know, I will stick to O'Reilly and Microsoft Press in the future. They are better about providing corrections to programs that were found after printing. I am actually quite surprised the book was even published with this mistake. Just opening the program and using it for a couple of minutes would have shown that it just doesn't work.



5. This book is one of the only certification books that covers the actual Visual Basic language and how to write code. All other books focuse almost entirely on the specifics of the product and the intrinsic controls. This book is definately meant for those with previous coding experience as the Summary on this page says "Assuming a familiarity with Visual Basic...." The section on object-oriented programming (OOP) is indeed interesting since this is the only certification book that address this topic. OOP is how VB is written in the real world of software.

   To summarize, this book addresses real world topics that real developers use all the time. Other guides focus on irrelevant topics that are nover used in a production setting. It seems funny how this book is better than any of the other "Microsoft Certified Professional Approved Study Guides", yet this book does not have that label. perhaps the authors cared less about that label because they knew they were writing a book for real developers, rather than people looking for a quick way to get an MCP title.

No comments about Aprenda Visual Basic 6.0 Ya.

No comments about Simply Visual Basic .Net 2003.

No comments about Show Me MS-DOS 6: A Visual Guide to the Basics (Show Me).

No comments about Visual Reference Basics Internet Explorer 4.0 (Visual Reference Basics Series).

No comments about Programacion Avanzada En Visual Basic 5.0.

5 comments about Teach Yourself Visual Basic 4 in 21 Days (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. This book is ridiculously lousy and sloppy. It is concise, but to the point where valuble information is squeezed out dry. The reference card is ridiculously designed (instead of making a reference card of commands and methods and tools, they put in name conventions for controls and color codes). Another thing is when you read this book, you have to go VERY CAREFULLY so that you don't miss any commands or methods. Some books provide neat features like a shaded box entry in the chapters, with the listing of commands and what they do. This book is: Start a project, run it, look at the code, good...next!. I highly do not advise anyone to pick up this book. Such a big book for such little information.



2. My first steps in Visual Basic programming were taken with this book. Actually it gave me the basics about controls, forms,VB code, multimedia programming, file access code and other features. At that time this book was enough for me. But after some years I feel a lack about VB. So I tell you: this is not the best book about VB basics, mainly if you are a programmer.



3. The book is not recommended for serious VB programmers. It does not deal with real-world projects. You learn only a tiny fraction of VB with this book. The only good thing that you will learn from this book is the ability to create a VB project, type in code, execute and that's it!!



4. This book is fantastic. It doesn't spend to much time on any one topic and it doesn't go off and take 20 pages to explain what a string is. This book tells you what your are doing, why, and how to put what you have learned into a real life program. It quickly moves through the material but it doesn't move so fast that you can't understand. In about a week you start producing some great programs. In another week or so you will be making games, learning about sprites, 3D worlds, polygons, how to incoorporate music into your programs and so on. This book actually teaches you how to make games.



5. I was recently asked to write a program in VB 6.0 for a desktop database app. And it's been a couple of years since I've used VB, as most of the apps I now write are Internet based and use PHP and MySQL (UNIX is still king of the Internet world).
   
   So, I am glad I kept this primer on VB 4.0! The VB 6.0 interface has been certainly improved, along with the language. But if you don't mind a somewhat dated book, the Gurewich brothers write one like no other. They just know how to write books, period.
   
   Never mind the critics here saying that the book is too basic, for that is exactly what the book is designed to be. The clear examples will have you up and running with Visual Basic apps in just a short time. And for old hands like me, who have suddenly plunged back into the desktop VB world, it's been a very good refresher. And I've retained enough knowledge that I can cover 4 or 5 chapters per day. So, by the end of the week I'll be back up to snuff with this marvelous language and VB dev environment, thanks to this great book.
   
   I also still have my old Visual C++ 2.0 book by the same Gurewich Bros. And their writing style is just as good for that volume too. So, I've learned to buy books by the author(s) and not by content. Take it from me. These guys know how to write programming books!