5 comments about Professional .NET 2.0 Generics (Programmer to Programmer).

1. I wanted to understand everything on Generics and finished the book with only a few new concepts...



2. You'll need a good understanding of Programming concepts in general before you start on this book. After that however this is a good way to figure out what Generics are and what they can do for you. Highly recommended for those needing to simplify quite a few repetitive programming tasks...



3. This book sucks, the author seems to have written this book without first getting a thorough understanding of Generics himself.
   I read 3 chapters, this book was so frustrating that I stopped after 3 chapters. You are better off reading a C# reference that does a couple of chapters on Generics. You'd learn more than what this book teaches you.



4. I have 3 books on my bookshelf at work. "Writing Secure Code", An O'Reilly XSLT Reference and this one. I love it. The style is light and reads very well (unlike most technical books). It's filled with practical examples that do well at both exemplifying the topic at hand and providing a snippet for my own use. The chapters are well laid out and follow the natural order of learning/mastering generics, and they're also strong enough to stand alone for reference when needed. If you work with .NET 2.0 or 3.0, you need this book.



5. .NET generics are very valuable addition to .NET framework with 2.0 and this book provides detailed information about generics and container issues. As a long time STL user, typed containers brought a lot of value to the framework .I started to be aware of Power Collections library after this book and used in some projects. I would suggest this book to anyone without hesitation.

5 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0: Deluxe Learning.

1. I was fortunate enough to have my company pay for this book for me. After finding it here for a very low price and then the rebate for owning MS Office kicked the final price down considerably.

   I am about halfway through the tutorial segment and so far, I am pleased. Although it gets a bit dry at times, once you suffer through it, it does give you very useful information.

   It starts off by explaining the environment of Windows and then moves into the program, itself. It introduces all the tools and windows inside of the program. It walks you through the entire process of building three programs. If you show a large desktop (I used 1024x768) and reduce both windows to be shown simultaneously, you can watch the tutorial for what to do, pause it, and then go over to VB6.0 and do it! What can be more simple than that? You get to learn by doing. That's one thing that scored this program big points with me! Later on, more advanced topics (advanced for a beginner, anyway) are introduced.

   Also, since you have all of the tools you need to start programming right away, it is very useful, indeed. There are some features in the Professional and Enterprise editions that are not available in this edition, but I believe there is an upgrade rebate to move from this version to those.

   Finally, this set includes the Visual Basic 6.0 Programmer's Guide, which is essentially the Bible of the Visual Basic language. It discusses a majority of topics useful in programming in VB.

   All of these components add up for a great investment that is well worth any price mentioned! I started from scratch and purchased this and three other books to get my feet on the ground and this one definitely helped to get me there!

   Thank you for your time in reading this review.

   --Daniel




2. Although finding and reading a good Visual Basic book is an excellent start to ones Visual Basic career, I cannot over emphasize how important it is to get ones hands on a copy of the Visual Basic compiler. With both the book and the compiler you can quickly become comfortable with the Visual Basic Development Environment by typing in some of the source code in the book and test running it for yourself. Eventually, when you feel comfortable with your knowledge of Visual Basic you can begin writing and running your own programs. Visual Basic Deluxe Learning Edition will allow you to do just that.

   A highly recommended set of materials!




3. I found this book extremely helpful. I am a professor at Houghton College and purchased this book to write software for the genetics course that I teach. I had no prior experience in Visual Basic, although I have just taken a course in C++. The Step by Step guide is very helpful to orient users toward the visual basic environment, and has chapters on the syntax of the language itself, which is something I really needed. There are numerous helpful programs that come on the CDs, and I found the book extremely readable. In short, I highly recommend this book for its clarity and thoroughness.



4. This package has EVERYTHING that you will need to learn V.B. 6.0 and compile executable programs on your own. The step-by-step manual goes at a good pace for someone with little programming experience. The programmer's guide book and MSDN Help Library have the information necessary for those going beyond the 'Basic'.



5. Surprise! I'm reviewing Amazon. Your reviews for Microsoft Visual Basic 6 Learning Edition discuss the compiler that comes with the books, so people would naturally assume the compiler is included with the used books you're selling. It is NOT INCLUDED. Site visitors must click on details to learn that. Look, I know you don't have nearly enough billions yet to satisfy you, but play fair. Tell visitors on the review page that the compiler, the most important element in the reviews, is NOT part of the package.

5 comments about Programming in Visual Basic 6.0 Update Edition with CD.

1. I was lucky to stumble across this book in Amazon.com and didn't really know what I was getting. Once reading through the first chapters and trying some of the exercises I realize this is great. The book teaches you the correct way to program in simple descriptive language. I have now leant what I need to start my own small projects and have ordered the Advanced VB6 from the same authors, looking forward to getting it. The book also comes with the learning VB6.0 CD which gets you started.



2. Concise, precise and with hands-on examples of entire projects. This book is scattered with coloured screenshots to illustrate their instructions so you never have to guess what the authors mean. Targetted at the absolute beginner (in programming) but as it is a breeze to read, the more advanced reader is sure to pick up a few VB gems on his stroll through it.



3. the book was received in a good, timely manner at a cheap price
   at a fraction of the cost of a new book, i am doing all my assignments and learning more about vb
   the only thing that would need improvement is packaging
   a cd came along with this book but since the packaging was done in an envelope it was broken in half which has prevented me from doing work at home
   otherwise, this is a good seller and would deal with them again if they improve their packaging
   thanks



4. I NEVER ordered this book but you sent it and charged me for it anyway. I returned it upon its arrival but had to go to extreme hastles to communicate with you people. Have you re-embursed my account yet? That's the first time I've ever had a problem with Amazon, but I still love you.



5. good book as a classroom study, not so good as a self learner. lot's of info missing that you would get in an interactive environment, such as the exercise answers. and no website available for more info as many others provide. as a class text this is understandable as the students normally wouldn't have all the answers available to them except thru the teacher.

3 comments about Learning to Program with VISUAL BASIC.Net.

1. The author of this book speaks from his worldwide experience with the .NET framework and E-commerce. He takes lectures and conducts seminars throughout the world and disperses his knowledge freely to those he teaches. I was fortunate to be present for one of his courses in Auckland, New Zealand and the information I have received at that 6-day seminar, as backed up in his book is currently enabling me to better my career in IT by providing me with an extra edge to my technical skill set. Great book! I highly recommend you read it.



2. This is a well structured text with a blend of tutorial, informational, quiz and project material.
   It suffers, however, from a large number of errors (the companion web site lists 7 A4 pages of errors for the 2nd printing - Errata) and the use of 'old style' constructs MsgBox and not MessageBox.Show; Instr and not .Substring; UCase() and not .ToUpper etc.
   Unfortunately, the comprehensive style and content of the text is affected by the above.
   It looks like a book, based on a VB6 offering, that was rushed out to meet the .Net market.
   An update to the existing content with newer style constructs and some effective proof reading would make it an excellent text.



3. This was the textbook for a beginning VB class I'm enrolled in. I have never seen a worse textbook in my life. It jumps all over, changes topics frequently and gives terrible examples. Most computer textbooks have a "case" that you follow throughout the book, adding to the project as you learn. Although there is a case followed throughout the book, in each chapter he invents a new case to show examples and then only uses part of the chapter material in the main case. The result is very disjointed information. In the beginning, he displays all new code used in that chapter together in one spot but he stops doing this halfway through the book. I spent more time thumbing back and forth in the book trying to find information I needed than I spent writing code. Looking in the glossary tells it all; look at validation and you'll be referred to 4 different chapters. Not to mention all the typos. Do not buy this book to use in a classroom, it's a mess.

5 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Deluxe Learning Edition--Version 2003 (Pro-Developer).

1. I purchased the Deluxe Learning Edition and am very pleased with what I got. I was a little nervous ordering it at first because of the previous reviews stating that the bundle did not include all of the disks.

   My package did contain ALL the necessary disks. My box contained 6 disks:
   1) Visual Basic.Net Standard Disk
   2) Visual Studio.Net Development Environment Disk
   3) Complete MSDN Library 3-Disk Set
   4) Visual Basic.Net Step by Step Sample Disk from the Book
   5) 'Visual Basic.Net Step by Step' Book.

   I am a beginner VB programmer and find the book very easy to follow. For those of you that may have learned Visual Basic 6, the author starts out each chapter by describing the general changes between VB6 and VB.Net.

   Overall, I find this Deluxe Learning Edition to be an excellent value. Let's just hope Microsoft now has their packaging right!




2. Great book but the software is not very easy to load to a laptop or other computer if you have a combination drive for both DVD and CD. I wasted many hours trying to load the MSDN library software with this dual drive. I contacted Microsoft but their technical support only caused more frustration. In an effort to salvage the install after a fourth failed attempt,I used an auxillary CD drive, with connection to a USB port, to install the software. I did not have a problem or get any error messages using the CD drive. My advice is to not try a combo drive for installing the software - go the CD drive route to stay sane.



3. all disks in my copy
   no installation issues at all
   looks like a great beginning book, cover all the basics.



4. Not bad, but definitely for absolute beginners, and some materials not truly oop oriented. Very little coverage of database applications or web applications; out of step with current development.



5. You screwed me up. I ordered a book not a CD version of it.

2 comments about Beginning Access 2007 VBA (Beginning).

1. This book has begun off terribly and really just STUNK up understanding the VBA language. Of course there's useful things here and there, yet this book is done in such a stream-of-consciousness style that it lacks proper communication skills and you really have to read deeply into this book to get what the author is talking about. Only buy this book if you have a good mind, otherwise, pick a different book, or use this one on your hind-side after some super spicy tacos.



2. I bought this book to review VBA and learn how to connect Access to Microsoft SQL Server. The code for connecting Access to SQL is wrong, and there is no trouble shooting guide. I'm ready to throw this book away, and start over.

5 comments about Visual Basic 2005 Express Edition For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. Buy this book
   If you are
   1) VB6 users
   2) VB enthusiasts
   3) old age VB fanatics
   4) never care for C/C++ or Java and want to stick to Visual Basic only
   
   Else
   not recommended....
   
   If you simply want to learn the new user interface of VB8 (Visual Studio 2005 version) and see what you can do with the upgraded ToolBox items, I recommend Visual Basic 2005 Express: Now Playing (Book and CD edition) Wallace Wang explains much better about what VB2005 version can do without unnecessary information.



2. The author is mainly interested in slamming Microsoft and object-oriented programming. Unfortunately, he never gets off this soapbox and gets around to teaching anyone how to write a complete program using VB Express. A complete and disappointing waste of time and money. I will most certainly avoid works by this author in the future.



3. The book is great a explaining the items, but there are no examples to practice what you learn. I have always liked for dummies books, but this one lost my respect.



4. You know when you find a book with only very high and very low reviews that you are likely to love it or hate it. Most programming books are very detail/left brain oriented. Not surprising as the majority of programmers are as well. A few are right brain/big picture based. Either can be written at an introductory or advanced level. The problem is that if a left brain person reads a right brain type book they will hate it and vice versa. This book is one of the big picture/just what you need at the moment right brain books. This had also been the orientation and market positioning of VB since it's inception until .net and had made it the most used programming language going. Along the way the author does take many pot shots at Microsoft moving VB so far away from it's roots with .net. This move has indeed caused VB to lose ground in the market. Programmer thinking would appear to be "If the new VB is this hard to learn, I might as well work in another language that pays more." If shots at Microsoft bother you, you will have a problem with this book. The author feels that Microsoft has moved VB back towards it's roots with the Express edition. This would appear to be true.
   One major slam this book has gotten is the lack of full blown line by line projects. Given the orientation of the book, this is probably a valid complaint. A right brainer might be oriented towards "Just give me the main building blocks, let me put them together the way I want, and discover the others later when I need them." This approach would likely leave everyone else stuck.
   As someone who taught programming for over 10 years and now works in industry building data mining tools (primarily using MS products), I am very impressed with the content that WAS included in this book.
   I believe that the addition of a couple more short end to end examples early on and a bit of moderation of the MS bashing (though justified) would have greatly expanded the position of this book as a mainstream "one stop shopping" introductory text. As it is, it is a great suppliment to one of the more dry "cookbook" type offerings that are out there everywhere.
   
   Bruce Kirkpatrick
   MCSE, MCSD, MCDBA, OCP, ...



5. The most incoherent, slapped together, piece of garbage ever to be called a book. This guy sholdn't be allowed to write anything anymore, including his name.

2 comments about Programming Windows Services with Microsoft Visual Basic 2008.

1. Excellent book. Well written. Covers main topics needed to write services for IT automation. Highly recommended.



2. I'm only on chapter 2 and there has already been many errors in the written code. I can't imagine how bad the other chapters will be.

5 comments about Doing Objects in Visual Basic 2005 (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series).

1. I have totally enjoyed this book. So much so that in my leisure I have opted to work through it a second time. Being a .Net programmer and just beginning to leverage the power object programming: I found the book exhilrating.
   I never knew how she was going to pull together: like replacing hard-coded item for database tables.
   My only disappointment was that the book ended a little too soon. I would have like to have to have seen somewhat more of a data-entry application.
   
   Stephan Onisick; VB/SQL Consultant



2. **** 4 Stars for Deborah Kurata ****
   
   This book accomplishes a few useful things:
   
   First of all, this book teaches you Object-Oriented development concepts, such as what Object-Oriented programming is, the basic elements of Object-Oriented architecture, and the benefits of using an Object-Oriented approach.
   
   It also teaches you how to design software using the GUIDS Methodology: Goal-centered design (includes use cases, scenarios, business object identification, and domain model), User Interface design, Implementation-Centered design, Data design, and Strategies for construction.
   
   Additionally, this book teaches you how to implement N-Tier architecture in an application, and explains its benefits. The N-Tier approach in this book is comprised of a Presentation Layer, Business Layer and a Data Access Layer.
   
   A downside to this book is that it leaves you short of having a fully functional application, supporting record sorting and filtering, which, in my opinion, is a fundamental element of data presentation.
   
   
   Additional Comments:
   
   Being an ADO.NET proponent, and competent in extending ADO.NET, I found the OOP approach demonstrated in this book to be (frankly) a lot of work. A lot of the code that goes into this approach can be significantly reduced using ADO.NET. Furthermore, ADO.NET requires much less time to become proficient in, and faster to develop.
   
   Here's a simple example that creates a Customer Class:
   
   Public Class Customer
   
   
   Public Sub New(ByVal customerName As String)
   
   Me.Name = customerName
   
   End Sub
   
   
   Private m_Name As String
   Public Property Name() As String
   
   Get
   
   Return m_Name
   
   End Get
   
   Set(ByVal value As String)
   
   m_Name = value
   
   End Set
   
   End Property
   
   
   End Class
   
   
   A customer can be created like this:
   
   Dim c As New Customer("Chili's Grill & Bar")
   
   
   Now, how do you get a list of Customers? You have to use List(Of Type):
   
   'Create a list
   Dim customerList As New List(Of Customer)
   
   'Add Customers
   customerList.Add(New Customer("Chili's Grill & Bar"))
   customerList.Add(New Customer("Dickey's BBQ Pit"))
   customerList.Add(New Customer("La Hacienda Ranch"))
   
   
   My Next question is, How do you handle sorting in a List(Of Type)? You may be tempted to, Well, Sort() of course!
   
   customerList.Sort()
   
   However, if you did not implement the IComparable interface in the Customer class, then you cannot use the Sort method... Any other ideas?
   
   
   Now, what about filtering? How do you filter a List(Of Type)?
   
   ...
   
   
   Put it this way, if you want to be able to bind the list to a control, like a DataGridView, and then have the list sorted when a DataGridViewColumn header is clicked, then you need to do some programming to implement the IBindingList interface. And then what if you want to do advanced sorting and filtering? You need to implement the IBindingListView... That's quite a bit of programming!
   
   
   But life is MUCH easier with ADO.NET!
   
   'ADO.NET (Create a Customer table and add a Name column)
   Dim table As New DataTable("Customer")
   table.Columns.Add("Name")
   
   'Add 3 customers to the table
   table.Rows.Add("La Hacienda Ranch")
   table.Rows.Add("Chili's Grill & Bar")
   table.Rows.Add("Dickey's BBQ Pit")
   
   'What about Sorting?
   Dim view As DataView = table.DefaultView
   view.Sort = "Name ASC"
   
   'What about filtering?
   view.RowFilter = "Name='La Hacienda Ranch'"
   
   
   Another example is, How do you handle the IDataErrorInfo interface? You have to do a bit of work with OOP, but with ADO.NET... You don't have to do anything, because it's already implemented in a DataTable... Sweet!
   
   What about all of the other concerns about data validation? Create a Strongly-Typed DataSet, add a Customers DataTable to it, Double-Click on it to create the ColumnChanging event, and then validate away!
   
   
   Overall, it's a pretty good book. And it's definitely worth reading, even if you don't end up using the OOP concepts presented, because there are quite a few things you can learn that will help you as a developer.
   
   In the end, the path to OOP architechture or ADO.NET architecture is up to, but hopefully I've provided you with a few helpful thoughts.
   
   
   Gary Lima
   aka VBRocks
   2008 Microsoft Visual Basic MVP
   VisualBasicRocks.com



3. After searching long and hard for a book about business objects and databinding, I stumbled across this one. It gives you a good starting point and makes you think in a Object Orientated way. Lots of reuseable code and the presentation was good. I like a book that you can read and do a project at the same time.
   
   However, I thought the book ended abruptly and left things a little undone. Furthermore, I would of liked it to go into more detail on sorting and filter business objects since this is a major issue.
   
   In all, this was a great buy and I'll be referencing it for a while.



4. I have been using Ms. Kurata's book at work in making the transition from VB 6.0 to Visual Basic 2005. I find her explanations easy to understand and her examples immediately relevant to the work I am doing. I have a library of reference books on the subject, but lately I have found myself regularly referring to this book to quickly jog my memory on topics such as creating property statements and custom event handlers. This book packs a lot of knowledge into a well-written concise package.
   
   Ms. Kurata's book is similar to Tim Patrick's book, which is another of my recent favorites that I also recommend.
   Start-to-Finish Visual Basic 2005: Learn Visual Basic 2005 as You Design and Develop a Complete Application (The Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series)



5. I give this book 5 stars for the methodology (GUIDS) used alone. I think I can use that in my work. The chapter on interface layer is also good, but might confuse a beginner vb.net programmer. Overall the book is great, however, the chapter on business layer is not what i have expected. It delved on interfaces and state management of object for most of the chapter, but seems to be getting nowhere with the sample. I will have to read the chapter again to understand it fully, as I got lost in the process. I was actually expecting object collaboration on this chapter, but that was left out, so what's really the purpose of business layer chapter then? I will not recommend this book to novice programmers. For a much better discussion on object-oriented approach with clear explanation on 3-tier from the ground up, I highly recommend Dan Clark's Beginning Object-Oriented Programming using VB2005 book.

5 comments about Murach's Beginning Visual Basic .NET.

1. This book is very well written, and the facing page style of instruction is a great method.
   
   I found no errors; there was no evidence of "author fatigue" towards the mid-end of the book; and Ms. Prince is able to anticipate and address the logical questions that come next in the student's mind.
   
   Beginning with the basics, this book then progresses (very logically) to more difficult concepts such as multi-dimensional arrays, structures and collections, and parsing and reading/writing data to/from files; including xml. The final six chapters deal with databases and web projects.
   
   I highly recommend this book... but be ready to work because the chapter exercises, though sometimes difficult, really drive home the concepts.



2. If you're an absolute beginner, you might find this book helpful. Otherwise find another book. If you've worked with VB6, almost everything covered in this book (with the exception of the very brief coverage of ADO Net) is almost intuitive.
   
   What irritates me most is the poor grammar. Practically every paragraph has a sentence starting like "Then, ...". The "Then" phrase is not needed and the comma is erroneous.
   
   I do use it, however, for a quick reference regarding file IO.
   
   If you want to know how to write a (useful) class, generate and handle events, and other slightly more advanced concepts, this book won't help you.



3. What this book is, and I think it does a very good job of it, is a book for the absolute beginner. The person how has never coded in a windows environment and needs a place to start. The author introduces a project that grows and as new topics are added or expanded upon the project grows likewise - so you see the code and your thought process develop.
   
   What this book is not, is a reference to help experienced VB6 developers make the leap to .NET If you are an experienced windows developer, trust me this is not for you. I purchased the book several months ago to tackle my fist .NET application. Granted the application I choose to undertake was far too sophisticated for a fist .NET experience, but all the same, even if it was much simpler, I still seriously doubt that the book would have been of any relevant value.
   
   As we all know authors use the word introduction / beginning for more marketing value than to reflect content. In this case the author calls it for what it is - If you are an absolute beginner, this is the right, can't go wrong choice.
   
   Hope this helps,
   HabWorks



4. All the negative things that have been pointed out in other reviews are true. The writing is bad, the format leaves something to be desired, the explanation of difficult concepts is just not there, etc.
   
   However, this book is much better than other books I have seen on the subject - this includes the SAMS books, the For Dummies Books, and WROX books.
   
   Whereas, the instruction doesn't pour off the page, you can actually learn VB.Net from this book. You may have to reread a page 3 or 4 times -due to the poor explanations, but once you do you can learn from this book.
   
   If anyone knows of a better book on the subject, please let others know.
   
   To summarize, this book is not great, but it is the best book I found on the subject.



5. The format of the book is unique, left page for explanation and right page for coding. This might be great for programmers who prefer coding than reading, since the explanation is brief and direct to the point. This is very different from the Deitels book that explains things over and over again in many pages - the reason for the bulkiness.
   
   I've read 4 chapters now and excited to write this feedback, since i've learned a lot from the book, unlike any other. The book is not trying to spoon feed the reader but just enough hand holding is done so as not to make the beginning programmer rely solely on the book and not use his own logic. There are quite a number of good vb.net books out there but this one will be sitting right beside my computer for quick learning and easy reference. I plan of supplementing my learning with another good book as suggested by colleagues, the mastering book by petroutsos and the step by step book my halvorson.