5 comments about Moving to VB .NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code, Second Edition.

1. This book was all I expected and more. It not only teaches VB .Net by example, but also positions VB .Net with VB 6 and explains Microsoft's reasons for dumping COM to go with CLR (Common Language Runtime). Issues of deployment and productivity are explained in a candid way, unlike the shill-like explanations that come out of MS Press. I'm on the Dan Appleman-as-a-guru bandwagon.



2. There are a lot of books out there for transitioning to VB.NET from VB6. However, before you grab any other book, I strongly suggest "Moving to VB.NET: Strategies, Concepts, and Code" by Dan Appleman. Written from an in-the-trenches, "I've been there" point of view, Dan introduces the reader to .NET using the single best possible approach: from the ground up. Due to the steep learning curve associated with .NET, approaching this subject is tricky, but I feel Dan has done a truly excellent job. Up front, this book is in my opinion the first book a VB6 person should read on the subject. It also helps that it is structured in such a way that it could be easily broken down for a classroom environment, getting a company up to speed.

   One thing Dan really stresses is for the reader to familiarize themselves with the MSDN library. That point cannot be stressed enough. Unlike previous versions, MSDN for .NET was written with the VB.NET developer in mind, and is completely VB-friendly. Also, in the rare cases where Dan fails to explain an item right off the bat, such as the `Shared' operator (he does get to it), or the really cool `IntPtr' variable type, just quickly look them up in MSDN. The wealth of available information found there is fantastic.

   When you crack Dan's book, please be sure to download the example files (and any errata updates) from the site location he suggests. Being able to view, run, and hack complete listing is an invaluable tool in comprehending the points he is making regarding each subject (I like them just so I can add expository comments once I understand a technique -comments are sparse, but just to keep space tight because much of the code, broken into blocks, is also in the book).

   Though easy to read, this book is definitely not one to skip chapters on. If you do not fully understand everything in a previous chapter, the next chapter can be more difficult to digest. I was surprised that often a chapter would require only a second re-read to fully comprehend everything covered. Making reference notes and clarifications in the broad margins as "Notes-To-Self" is also a great help when you finally place this book in your reference library - and it WILL find itself there. This book is loaded with very powerful techniques that you will want to refer back to again and again.

   This book has also crushed my habit of harkening back to the glory days of VB6, and of calling VB.NET by derogatory names such as Visual Fred and VB.NOT. Not only does the book explain the differences in structure between VB6 and VB.NET, but in the process it completely turned me on to the VB.NET philosophy and the much more powerful, and most-often much simpler methods of doing them in .NET. Every point I had once griped about, such as, for example, the `lack' of fixed-length strings and arrays in user-defined types was shown to be completely unfounded. Things that I complained that were missing have been in fact replaced by something much better and more powerful.

   With this book as a launching point, in a day I can now develop applications under VB.NET that are just as powerful, and run just as fast as the C++ applications I used to develop over several weeks under Visual Studio 6. The book's author has shown me the way toward being comfortable with the.NET environment, and made me excited in my transition to it.

   All things considered, after reading Dan Appleman's book, I now wish Microsoft had come out with .NET after VB5.




3. As I have come to expect from any text by Dan Appleman, Moving to VB .NET gives a thorough discussion of the topic, including tips for evaluating how/when/whether to deploy .NET for your organization based on your particular business needs. Mr. Appleman combines impressive technical knowledge with a sharp sense of humor to make this book as readable as it is informative. I recommend it to any experienced VB programmer looking to make the transition to .NET.



4. Appleman's Developing ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 5.0 was so good that I bought Developing COM/ActiveX Components with Visual Basic 6.0 when it came out. Both of these were among the very best VB books of all time. Unfortunately, Moving to VB.NET is not in the same camp. The book tries to introduce VB6ers into VB.NET, but does a very bad job of getting from A to B. Most developers can understand most of .NET after discovering that it's 80% Java with keywords changed. Instead of starting with this foundation, the book wastes a lot of space explaining prinicples that are new to only the most hardcore Microsoft zealots. In Appleman's defense, this book was first published when .NET was still in beta and was likely rushed to press. Don't get me wrong, there is some great technical content here as Appleman is still a great technician and good at explaining the "internals" of things. The COM Interop and Accessing the Win32 API chapter is particularly good and helped me get through a VB6/VB.NET integration project. If you're totally new to VB.NET and find this book on sale, buy it; otherwise, don't bother.



5. So many .NET books are a rehash of the documentation, or say the same things as a million other books, at best in a slightly different way. This one isn't like that at all. It's full of real-world practical perspective and reality checks such as (to paraphrase) "it will be years before .NET is really being used in production", and "dont use inheritance or threading unless you really know what you're doing". Besides that, its outstandingly well written and oozes attention to detail on every page. One criticism I might level is that its really not all that VB specific - a chunk in the middle is, but much of it applies equally to the other .NET languages. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I am honestly baffled that so many folks gave this book a negative review. Dan, please keep it up!

2 comments about Microsoft Excel/Visual Basic: Step by Step (Step By Step Series).

1. I would recommend this book to anyone who is reasonably accomplished with Excel (or similar) and needs/wants to get more out of the spreadsheet program. For me, it has also proven to be an excellent way to grasp more of the fundamentals of Visual Basic at a quicker pace than the VB3 / VB4 books I have. Mr. Jacobsen (Jacobson?) uses some occasional light humor and rarely uses computer jargon in his book. I really appreciate the emphasis he places on using the macro recorder when convenient to substitute for extensive typing. He also demonstrates that if you don't know how to code something, you can use the macro recorder (which records in Visual Basic code) and then read the generated code. We just began the upgrade to Office 97 at work; when it gets to my machine I'll purchase the next edition of this book so I can keep one copy at home and one at work



2. This is one of the best computer books I have ever read. I hesitated to buy a "tutorial" type book, but the Excel/Visual Basic book that came with MS Office was not sufficient. Reed Jacobson's writing style was excellant! He made good use of analogies between real world events and Excel/Visual Basic. His use of the Macro Recorder was a clever way to familiarize the reader to the Visual Basic language. Although meant to be a "tutuorial" type book, this book provided the best explanations of objects, procedures and methods that I have found in any book. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who would like to increase their efficiency in Excel through customization (i.e., programming w/ Visual Basic)

5 comments about MCAD/MCSD Visual Basic(r) .NET(tm) Windows(r) Applications Study Guide (Exam 70-306).

1. It's obvious why this book was the first VB.NET book available. The book was obviously rushed, has many typos, pieces of code that doesn't work, and questions with wrong answers. The content of this title isn't anywhere near the quality of the study guide by Gunderloy. This book is a decent start for beginners, but if you really want to learn and pass the test, look elsewhere.



2. This is an excellent book to be used for your certification. It comes loaded with examples, exercises, exams, and plenty of explanations on the answers to the Self-tests on why they are correct AND why they were incorrect!

   One bad thing: You will need to watch the syntax on some of the exam watches and self-test question and answers. I highly recommend downloading the errata for this book before you start from [a website]. I have found a handful of important editing errors but they were pretty obvious.

   Other than the printing errors, which are very few IMO, this is a better cert book than [certain other] books!




3. This book is alright, but it does not take into consideration all OS's on which the code might be running (xp users beware on the globalization chapter) and some of the end of chapter questions don't even seem to be based on data discussed in the chapter. That all being said, there aren't many other options exam prep books for 70-306 and this one is at least easy to follow along with although I don't think it is in depth enough for the exam.



4. This book is chalk full of errors. I am not at all convinced that anyone went back through and actually tried to reproduce the examples and assignments found in this book. If you like a challenge and enjoy debugging someone else's code, this is the book for you. If, however, you feel that your time is better spent actually studying for the exam I would skip this book.



5. If you are new to Visual Basic.Net then this book is great for getting a basic understanding of the language. If you are using it to introduce yourself to the language then I would highly recommend it. However, this book miserably fails its' title in preparing for the 70-306 exam.

   The best thing the book does is to provide you an outline of what to study for the exam but you will need to do further research on the topics with MSDN. Plus, as other reviewers have stated, there are a few errors throughout the book most notably on the practice tests. But, for an intro study I would not let the errors turn you away from it.

   The bottom line is the book is not detailed enough for the exam but a good introduction, especially, for college students taking a VB.Net course.

5 comments about Visual Basic .NET and the .NET Platform: An Advanced Guide.

1. I bought this book based on all the 5 star ratings and I was a little disappointed. A better VB.NET book can be written and I'm sure one will if there hasn't been already.

   On the plus side:
   What the book does well is give its readers a detailed understanding of the .NET framework and what all the files that go with the .NET applications are about. It is definitely enough to get you started programming in VB.NET with confidence.

   On the negative side:
   Long chapters (approx 70 pages) that aren't broken up very well. I thought this book was boring even for a programming book. I prefer shorter chapters with more detailed end of chapter summaries and maybe exercises / examples at the end.

   On the cover they claim to teach oop. I think if you teach this subject you have to point out why and your code is oop rather than having one chapter that gives the same basic explanation you can read anywhere and then have no follow up discussion what-so-ever.

   The cover also claims to have no toy code. I'm not sure what they mean by that but if toy code is a simple useless program that you find in programming books to teach some concept then this has the same one repeated in different forms in most of the chapters. Basically its about a car that blows up if it goes to fast. It teaches the concepts fine but don't be fooled by the marketing on the cover.

   On the neutral side:
   I don't remember reading anything about printing and many of the subjects you may be writing programs for databases etc, leave it up to you to learn on your own. I didn't have a problem with this as that is what online help and online resources are for.




2. Overall this is a pretty good book but unfortunately it falls apart at the end. The first 2/3 of this book are very detailed and complete with most things shown from both the command line as well as from the IDE, but, I can only guess that the author got tired (the book is over 1,000 pages) and got a little sloppy for the last 1/3. Unfortunately, the last 1/3 has important topics like ADO.NET and ASP.NET. These are not covered nearly as well as the earlier topics. In addition, the author puts things like parameters in the code that he never bothers to explain. Perhaps he figures that by this point you should be knowledgeable enough to figure things out by yourself but I think he just got tired. Also, unfortunately, the number of errors goes up considerably in the last 1/3 of the book. Most frustrating is the fact that I took time to send the problems and corrections to the author and despite the fact that the publisher claims he will get errors corrected on the web site within 48 hours, none of my corrections ever appeared. Some were very blatant like a C# listing that should have been in VB.NET. Of course, it was pretty obvious that this was the VB version of his original C# text given this and many other smaller but similar errors.

   Still, overall, its a pretty good book but authors should keep their errata up to date and the editor should have caught many of these mistakes if they put any effort into the proof reading.

   I also think many of these early authors and publishers spent so much time figuring out how to do things prior to the release of the VS IDE that they feel compelled to tell you about things that took them a long time to figure out from the command line even though the IDE makes it so much simpler now. This exercise is insightful for teaching you more about how .NET really works but it gets tedious after a while. I would rather they spent the time making sure the book was correct and complete.

   Again, it is a pretty good book but if the author could have persevered until the end and if he would keep his errata up to date it would have been really excellent.




3. Overall, I think the book does a very good job helping those who come from the non-OO background (especially VB 6) into understanding the OO facets of VB.NET. I think that is where this book is the most solid. The first seven chapters or so you'll think it's a 4-5 star book, however it falls off after that. My reasoning for this is that coverage on debugging and deploying .NET applications is basically non-existent. Although the coverage on tracing was a little better, it could have been stronger and far from made up for the missing coverage of former items. Also, the ADO.NET coverage was waaaaaaaaaay too brief. For such a critical part of what MOST developers are will be using for the systems they develop (unless of course you're a game developer), I thought it was pretty bad to only have a pretty short chapter on a technology that is so critical and has been totally revamped. One could say that you should consult other books for that coverage, but I disagree because these items are critical to any VB.NET application. If that was the case, they could have just cut out almost half of this book. If you've taken any of the good practice tests, you how important MSFT thinks the stuff this book is missing is. A better overall book is the core reference, but I still give this one three stars because the coverage for the first 7-8 chapters if very good.



4. This is a good book for the intermediate-to-advanced programmers making the switch to Visual Basic.Net from Visual Basic 6. Please NOTE: This is not a beginner book. The book provides a good overall coverage of most of the Visual Basic.Net topics but this book needs to be augmented with books that are more specific to the programming needs of the developer. For example, if the developer is going to develop Web forms in ASP.NET using Visual Basic.Net, they should buy a books that specifically written for that purpose. Overall,this is a 4-star book and I liked it well enough that I am going to buy Troelsen's "C# and the .Net Platform, Second Edition".

   A couple of minor issues with this book.
   1. Andrew Troelsen wrote "C# and the .Net Platform" first and it appears that he used the manuscript for that book to write this book. Several times in the book, the examples are in C#, not Visual Basic! See page 107. The editors failed to catch these errors.

   2. Not including the index, this book is 1017 pages and that is divided up into 16 chapters. The average chapter is about 63 or 64 pages long. It seems that some of the chapters drag on and on and on.

   3. There is very little cohesiveness between the examples in the chapters. In Chapter 4 (Object-Oriented Programming with VB.Net), each example does not build off of the previous example. Troelsen starts with an Employee example but finishes the chapter with a Car example. If you trying to follow along with his examples, you end up with several "Solutions" or "Projects" that are not related.




5. examples are not great.
   they need to be more practical.
   book seems to be written for people with COM experience.
   lingo used throughout the book assumes you have been "OOP-ing" in another language.
   C++ coders wanting to transition to VB.NET would appreciate this book.

3 comments about Visual Basic for Applications.

1. I bought this book based on a previous review. The book was everything the review stated. However, what I found out the hard way is the book is written for Microsoft Office 2000. Also, the exercises required either a data disk (not included) or downloading the files from the Internet. However, being an owner of Microsoft Office 97, I was out of luck.
   In summary, if you have Microsoft Office 2000 and a fast enough Internet connection to download the data files needed, the book is excellent. I, unfortunately, had to return it.



2. Reads like a very, very long, but well written, email. Next to impossible to use as any sort of reference; I find that I cannot even locate material that I've already read. Much better to follow a format like the Visual QuickStart guides, which give you BOTH (slimmed-down) step-by-step instructions AND are grouped into short lessons that are suitable for use as a reference (you don't necessarily need to read those books cover-to-cover, in sequence).

   Another problem w/the Zak book: I generally find that I'm not quite sure why I'm doing the steps that she's asked me to do. Surprisingly, the QuickStart guides provide some context.

   The Zak book is generally well-written and has relatively few errors, and it has a lot of screen shots, which can be helpful. One other plus: the book works around examples that you can download, making it suitable for use as a text.




3. This book seems to be well written and is very helpful in learning VBA, but, without the CD which the book is written around it makes the examples and problems at the end of each chapter a frustrating experience. That would not be so bad if somewhere in the book there was some indication of where you could obtain the CD for a price or for free. I do not recommend purchase of this book without the CD, which may not be possible.

2 comments about Professional ADO.NET with VB.NET.

1. This book is typical Wrox: it offers a comprehensive coverage of the subject in a very easy to follow fashion. It starts with several chapters covering the core ADO.NET classes - DataReaders, DataAdapters, DataSets. As the ADO.NET DataSet is a class with very rich features, this book discusses each facet of it - from the ADO Recordset-like generic disconnected in-memory data presentation with constraints, relationships to strongly typed DataSet, and finally to the built-in support of XML. The later chapters then introduces advanced features such as web services, SQL Server XML support, Performance, Security, etc.

   A minor inconsistency is that some examples in the book use Console Application interface, while most others use Windows Application, perhaps reflecting the fact of this being a multi-author book. But as far as learning ADO.NET is concerned, this is really not a issue.

   Oh, if you already owns its predecessor - Professional ADO.NET, which is written with C#, you might want to keep it and skip this one because it's mostly the same contents in different language (VB.NET). But if you haven't got either, it's definitely worth a very close look at this title.




2. This is one book that combined it well! "Professional ADO.NET with VB.NET" is the text to grab, if you are a .NET programmer who wants to learn more about .NET data access technology.
   The book has a consistent practical approach to issues. It is full of grounded information, which would ensure that programmers execute their tasks with unflinching confidence.
   This book has a result-oriented outlook. Its authoritative analyses of cross-platform programming issues are flawless. All the important classes, (DataSets, DataAdapters, e.t.c.), which constitute ADO.NET received generous attention. However, all these expanded ADO.NET tutorials came at the expense of VB.NET, whose underlying parameters received little attention. Still, this is a valuable book to have.

4 comments about Beginning Visual Web Programming in VB .NET: From Novice to Professional.

1. The title says "beginning" but the authors actually take you to very important topics that are at the forefront of much Internet activity. Namely XML and Web Services.
   
   The book goes through a lot of necessary but mundane stuff concerning user interfaces, server control and ADO.NET. Yeah, to know VB.NET, you need this material. But more significant is the long exposition on XML. It is now a de facto standard for markup of structured data. Within the entire .NET portfolio, it is pervasive. And also in the J2EE world. The book shows how Microsoft has integrated web development and VB.NET tightly into using XML. Well worth understanding.
   
   The other big buzz is about Web Services. Here the discussion is not as indepth. The basics are covered. But Web Services Description Language is only tangentially invoked. And what is seeming to be a more powerful language, Business Process Execution Language, doesn't even rate a mention. Perhaps this is why the title says "beginning"? There could well be a sequel in the works, to cover these.



2. I'm really impressed by the thoughtfulness of the organization and writing in this book. Where the reader has questions that require deeper explanation the exposition is there. The content is well researched and the author has obviously spent the time to do some complex information distillation for us. An ideal book for anyone looking to start with VB.NET programming. And well worth the look for those already using the platform who want to broaden their understanding.



3. Book was very well written. Author effectively communicates with novice users in a 'For Dummies' style without being patronizing or condescending. By 'For Dummies' style, I mean that he literally defines which menu option to click, etc. in a similar manner to the popular series.
   
   Intermediate to Advanced users will probably find this book to be a bit unwieldy, not because of the material presented but because of all of the detail given for the benefit of the novice user.
   
   I would absolutely recommend it for someone just getting their feet wet in the VB.Net web development arena.



4. Beginning Visual Web Programming in VB.Net is well worth a read. The book is very straight forward and the examples are such that they guide you through quite easily so that the reader can follow along without much trouble. Chapters 7 and 8 are really nice with their XML information and examples. XML is great if you need a pages that load fast and are efficient.The descriptions that come in these chapters increase your understanding of why it is such an important part of the overall structure. MSDE I personally find can be a bit of a pain when setting it up but with this particular book things seemed to go ok. Overall the book is definately worth reading and will only help in your knowledge of .NET programming.

5 comments about Visual Basic Game Programming For Teens.

1. Helloooo! VB 6 is dead! <--------- You are in denial.
   First off VB will never leave you in the dry.
   1. VB is owned by Microsoft and will never be ported to Linux or Mac.
   2. VB has continued to have new releases.
   3. C++ uses directx just like the rest of programming languages for games.
   4. VB dominates in database programming. [MMO] Game DataBase!
   5. It is possible to code in VB, that can run faster than C++.
   6. Most people who bash VB do not know how to code in it and claim it to be for beginners when they only seen the dev. Fact is VB can do anything C++ can if you know how to code it.
   7. So i say read and know what you are talking about before shooting off at the lips about something you have no clue about. Try looking at the development and then retract your comment.



2. Just started programming and VB seems like a good place.
   Johnathan rambles on a bit to much about maps but I learned alot. Rich D



3. Don't believe those that tell you VB is dead, vb is still alive and well! Just look at Microsoft Access 2003(A database program)when you build advance coding in it you are using vb language,even in the latest Access edition, VB is still there. Just visit your local book store, you will still see VB books out there. Another proof that VB is still alive, look at many E-commerce shopping carts, many of them are build in VB, and they are functioning with great precision.
   The book is intended for the teenager that wants to explore programming in a fun, and easy method, and Vb can deliver that without advance codes that will make a teenage kid left in the dark. It will give them the opportunity to learn to write simple executable codes, once they do that, then they can move on to Vb.net or C++. And with that, the author would accomplish his/her mission, and that is teaching a young mind.
   Go ahead buy the book, play with the codes, and have fun!



4. Overall I find this book good at what it advertises to be, a tour through the process of making a DirectX game in VB that would be very interesting and appealing to a novice programmer (teen). The game is a simplified 2d rpg/adventure game, called `Celtic Crusader'. While functional, in the interest of simplicity and time by the author's own words it isn't a fully featured game, it lacks features such as character inventory or network play.
   
   If you are looking for detailed information on DirectX, this is not the book. This book does not explain the DirectX methods used, or even display their signatures, it just tells you what the routine you are coding does as a whole, and gives you the code.
   
   I currently work in VB.Net, but I am experienced in the last few incarnations of VB, so the conversion of the provided code examples into VB.Net is not much of a problem. I would say someone familiar with VB.Net but without experience in VB6 will not have much problem; in fact the DirectX method calls in VB.Net are more logical than in VB6.
   
   For example
   d3ddev.Present(ByVal 0, ByVal 0, 0, ByVal 0)
   becomes
   d3ddev.Present(Handle.zero,Handle.zero, 0, Handle.zero)
   
   If you pay attention to the intellisense balloons then the DirectX method calls are fairly easy to figure out.
   
   The author doesn't fully qualify all his references, so be aware and supply the appropriate qualifacation for the constants. Be sure to Imports DxVBLibA
   
   For example
   d3dpp.SwapEffect = D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD
   becomes
   d3dpp.SwapEffect = CONST_D3DSWAPEFFECT.D3DSWAPEFFECT_DISCARD
   
   The VB side of the code is the same (an If-Then is still If-Then) except that you will need to recognize form events as such by their names instead of their handles keyword.
   
   The DirectX8 for Visual Basic type library reference is still available with DirectX9.0c in VB.Net (just look under the Com tab when adding the reference) and seems to work fine in XP (I have tried it on 3 different machines.) I have not worked through the entire book yet, but so far I have not had any problems with compatibility.
   
   This book is thinner than the typical programming book (tome) you normally find. It leads the reader directly through the creation of this adventure game, cutting out many side details as mentioned earlier. However, I find it delivers enough to create a decent working game, and a nice resource for a programmer looking for straightforward code examples.



5. Ok, yes, 2005? VB6??? Are you aware that Microsoft has discontinued selling and supporting this software?? This software was first published in 1999!!! Find a book that is using a little bit more of state of the art technology. This one is a waste of time and money.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself More Visual Basic 6 in 21 Days (2nd Edition) (Sams Teach Yourself).

1. I wish I had read the others' review about this book before I started to read this book. There are just too many editial erros in it. For example, Figure 1.22 refers to Hierarchical FlexGrid Control but it actually shows Tooltiptext; Figure 1.23 mentions Data Environment Designer but the illustration is about the form of file copying. If you copy and paste the code listing of 1.1, it wouldn't run because it introduced "i" that did not declared. I wonder if the author and the editor even ever read the final proof once, because there are so many obvious errors if you are an experienced VB user. But if you are trying to learn VB, it wouldn't help because it's so confusing.



2. This text is so poorly edited that I am having a hard time understanding anything. The errors occur everywhere. Nearly every graphic is wrong, and a great deal of the examples do not illustrate what the header specifies. Don't waste your time or your money.



3. After reading the first chapter of this book, I got so frustrated with the way this book was written and explained. I decided that I must warn any would be VB programmer to stay away from this book. However, as I was about to write this review, I noticed that a lot of people had already made the mistake and disappointed themselves. Please do not waste your time or money on this crap. This book is so poorly written, I am wondering just how it got published in the first place.It seerms that neither the author nor the publisher speaks English. and that the book was written in a bar on a long weekend. Every example seems to have just that more alcohol in it. My advise to you, is look for a book written by John Smiley or some other real author. Your time and money would be better spent.



4. Fortunately I stumbled on this page when I was looking for a cheap copy of the book. Thanks to the previous reviewers - all very consistent in your comments! - I shall avoid the book like Typhoid Mary and look elsewhere. Thanks again for saving me dollars and headaches!



5. Worst book I ever bought, The example code is incomplete or incorrect. Very frustrating. Buy this book to convince someone to give up programming.

5 comments about ADO Examples and Best Practices.

1. This book was clearly rushed out the door early to make someone some extra money - many factual errors littered in the sample code and analysis



2. I do a lot of browser-based application development with ASP/ADO/SQL Server and found this to be one of most useful books I have ever owned. The coverage of ADO is superb and the author's writing style is very enjoyable.



3. If you use ADO, you need this book. Much like Bill Vaughn's early "HitchHiker's Guide to SQL Server" this book tells you everything Microsoft forgot to warn you about in ADO. Filled with tips, tricks and gotcha's, this book could save you countless hours of debugging, and endless frustration. It has for me. Plus, Bill Vaughn is an amusing author, who makes what could be a very dry and boring subject actually entertaining.



4. This book is targetted towards intermediate and advanced users. Hence save your humor about your daughters in some other books. His previous book on VB 5: Hitchhiker's guide to VB was excellent. This one is written for clowns.
   What I mean is: when I buy this kind of book which is targetted towards advanced users, I just need the technics so I can implement them quickly. So save the jokes for some other books. My suggestion is to buy Serious ADO: Universal Data Access with Visual Basic by MacDonald. If you only have a couple of weeks to implement some app using VB and ADO, this book will deliver.
   I got my app running with solid foundations in no time.
   When reading books for ADO, you need to understand connection objects, disconnected recordset, parameter objects etc. Serious ADO illustrates them rigorously - minus the jokes.



5. It's not common to want to write a review about a book this one deserves taking some time out for it. Though I'm not new to programming I am to VB with SQL. I have been developement a quite complicated application with VB with SQL and not a day goes by that I have not used this book and found true real solutions and insight. This book was written for developers and answers the question we make quite directly. It is small but the point. Takes you by the hand (great for begginers in SQL developers, but has enough information for intermediate and advance developres.