No comments about Web Developer's Guide to JavaScript & VBScript: Your Complete Guide to Creating Live, Interactive Online Applications.

5 comments about Professional VB SAP R/3 Programming.

1. Details with examples. Good for all SAP R/3 tools and application developers. Explains BAPIs, RFCs, bussiness object repository (BOR), SAP DCOM Connector component etc.



2. I'm not a VB programmer. I obtained this book to better understand how BAPI's worked and could interface with external applications based on a project team demand to develop better masterdata loaders. The first three chapters alone are goldmines of information that are neatly tied together and explain the concepts and framework used. After reading them I understood why SAP went this route and better understood some of the potential areas where BAPI's could assist our development team. The latter chapters get into more VB oriented issues but are useful regardless of VB experience (or lack thereof). Our VB developers all own this book.



3. An excellent guide for understanding BAPIs and RFCs, complemented with good explained VB programs which are useful for learnig how to develop interfaces whith SAP using VB.



4. I bought this book knowing VB but was new to R/3. Within days I had a working interface to SAP. If you want to use COM objects to connect to R/3 and make remote function calls this is the book. Great examples on using late binding too if you want to put the functionality into a dll without having a control bound to a vb form. Of the many computer books I've read, this is one of the best.



5. "Professional VB SAP R/3 Programming" - demonstrates how to combine existing Visual Basic tools with the new extensibility tools, so that you can develop robust enterprise applications based on SAP R/3 from a non-SAP programming environment. It also explains the fundamentals of SAP, including the new SAP tools and technologies. SAP R/3 business objects and BAPIs are implemented and a guide to the SAP Business Framework is illustrated. The SAP R/3 Automation tools are used to replicate SAP functionality from VB and the DCOM Component Connector is used to generate business object proxies, aswell as programming the core components of the DCOM Component Connector. Browsing the SAP R/3 Business Object Repository is demonstrated and working code samples of both inbound and outbound SAP R/3 operations are included...

2 comments about Introduction To Programming with Visual Basic .net.

1. This book is an introductory programming text. To be clear, it is not an introduction to Visual Basic.NET for existing programmers; it is entirely aimed at new and learning programmers with no prior experience. It serves such an audience admirably.
   
   The book opens with an historical overview of programming languages and the nature of problem solving. It then progresses in a methodical and sensible manner through working in the IDE, designing forms using visual components, responding to events, working with primitive data types, handling basic user interaction, conditional statements and branching, looping, procedures and functions, scope, arrays and algorithms, database integration, SQL, file handling, ASP.NET, and classes. This gives the book an excellent depth, with material not usually included in introductory texts but which are highly relevant to the construction of functional software.
   
   An especially nice aspect of this book is the development of a "real-world" financial application at the conclusion of each chapter, giving immediate practical exposure to the theoretical concepts being discussed.
   
   Scattered throughout the book are highlighted snippets entitled "tips from the pros". These attempt to convey wisdom from experienced programmers. Their value is somewhat dubious, as for the most part these do not - as may have been reasonably expected - explain best practices or highlight "gotchas" for new programmers. They do pitch sensible ideas, but which are largely common-sense and hardly revelationary.
   
   Additionally, two other matters are irksome. Firstly, the authors leave abstract data types right to the very end chapter, yet this should perhaps be raised earlier, after primitive data types. Secondly, leading on from the first, the authors title this chapter classes, yet beyond constructing one's own data types there is no real coverage of object-oriented design.
   
   That aside, this is an outstanding and very easily digested work. It is well recommended for beginning coders, giving sound instruction in both the art and science of programming and a solid grounding in a popular and contemporary language.



2. Had to get the book for a programming class and actually enjoyed reading it. Easy to understand, well written, need more textbooks like this for college students.
   
   Had a poor index and no class library in the back :(

5 comments about VB.NET: Your Visual Blueprint for Building Versatile Programs on the .NET Framework (With CD-ROM).

1. I highly recommend this book to any person wanting to learn VB. Richard Bowman did an excellent job keeping things clear and concise. This is a must have for anyone wanting to learn VB. This book is the best I have seen in years.



2. Easy and fast introduction to VB .NET - gives you the basics and more in an easily digested manner. I like the visual approach that helps in remembering things and easily create a "mental map" of VB.



3. There is a good book for beginners. Few things to note there are errors cropping up in his later chapters like the windows service installer excercises and asynchronous callback example, the update in edit data in datagrid. The last three chapters were very clumpsily put together in which someone with 7 years of exp cannot put together why they were even there when the explanation and example were of poor quality. Don't get me wrong, this is a very good dummies book, however after finishing the blueprint examples, a vb.net beginner wrox book would be the next book one should go for to fill in the gaps



4. I am a web developer that wanted to learn how to get into the .NET game. This book was a great start. It quickly helped me learn how to use Visual Studio as well as how to start programming in VB. 70% of the book uses windows forms in the examples, 20% of the book uses web forms, and 10% uses console related examples. Overall, I really like the book and would recommend it to anyone that needed a starting point in .NET and Visual Studio. I only wish that the sections on web based (asp.net) forms were expanded. Unfortunately the asp.net counterpart to this book is written in C# by another author and is no where near as good as this book... bummer!



5. Looked promising but the early code examples failed to run as predicted. The book assumes that they will and offers no help when they do not. Several code example failures, no response to emails requesting help, days of frustration and I was off looking for another book.

1 comments about Word 2003 Visual Basic Programming.

1. The book is a good presentation but too simple. Typical book by programmers. They don't really want to tell you how to do something useful. Changing fonts or their sizes via a program! give me a break. How about making a selection and then replacing with another string. I figured everything out after rummaging through the 1400 page reference!

5 comments about Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic: Programmer's Guide (Microsoft Professional Editions).

1. This is a book designed for people that already know something about office and vba and who want to take custom development to the next level with more advanced techniques



2. The intro materials in this book reveal that the authors were working side-by-side with the office development team as this book was written. Such direct access to the people who know the most about the product is unusual and it shows in this book. A collection of truly "useful" information and sample code. This is not a rehash of online help or a collection of the "basic" programming info found in a lot of reference books. The discussion generally gives you useful information and, the part I like the most, gives you sample code that works just the way it is in my own programs. This is not sample code of the type "MyControl.Backcolor = Red" that I see so much of. It appears that a real effort was made to write code that not only illustrates a concept, but that is usable in other contexts without much, or any, modification.

   Thanks for the resource....check it out - you will not be disappointed.




3. It's very hard to find a book on VBA that isn't based in one application, and doesn't begin at the 'Hello World' level. This book does neither. Instead it provides a good introduction to the object models of the Office applications, and includes well-written code examples. The breadth of content is impressive--from shared Office components to class modules. What a pity it's out of print!



4. I would agree with the review that states the authors were working side-by-side with the office development team as this book was written. However, I would disagree that such close input was entirely helpful. While the information contained in this book is a nice introduction to how things are "supposed" to work, as with so much of Microsoft's software, things never quite work the way they were designed, unless of course, you're doing exactly what the folks at Microsoft assumed you would do. Not only do some examples in this book fail to work, most examples are simple and obvious, the kind of thing a person might generate from looking at Microsoft's help information. Often they illustrate how the designers assumed their software would work. They often fail to demonstrate what the software can do--or much more important--how to get around the artificial limitations set by Microsoft. Some simple examples involve such basic building blocks as dialog boxes and menus (commandbars in Micro-speak). Some built-in dialog boxes have over a dozen arguments, but try finding out what those arguments do from either this book or from Microsoft's help information. As for the commandbars, even the examples from the book fail to work.

   My advice? If you want to know what Microsoft intended, get this book. If you want to use Microsoft Office in a real world situation, keep looking.




5. I would disagree with many people on this book due to the fact that this book is very helpful on using codes and debugging tools although its a definition guide on computer programming in windows 2000 it can teach you a lot of details on programming it is more like a beginners guide using many symbols and differnt codes this book is more of a book for people wanting to learn how to write files store files also deals with rewritting web pages or possibley a guide on how to develop folders spreadsheets graphs and many othe features i would say this book is really great for anyone wanting to learn c programming in windows environment as well as in the assembly language or DOS enviroment; although this book does not teach you assembly language programming it is a way to start learning assembly language programming1

2 comments about Visual Basic .NET Programmer's Reference.

1. I am not a professional programmer so I need all the help I can get. I was stuck trying to get the Long Date format to work correctly so I consulted the help menu in VB.NET and all that provided was information that was incorrect and or that I could not implement correctly so I picked up my new copy of Programmerýs reference and found the solution within seconds. I use the previous version Programmerýs reference for VB6 and it also is an excellent resource. Both of these books by Dan Rahmel have MORE information that I can use in the real world than several of the 1500 page books on my shelves.
   Lloyd Gregory techrep@lloydgregory.com



2. Whenever I need some help with Visual Basic.net, this is the first source that I use. Sometimes it is better than the on-line help. I would supplement this book with the "Visual Basic.Net: The Complete Reference" book. I would highly recommend that both books be added to your Visual Basic.Net reference library. Although not as fast as the on-line help, the book provides better answers to your Visual Basic.Net questions. The only error that I found is ADO.Net becomes ADO.Next in the chapter on ADO.Net. Must have been the publisher.

5 comments about Visual Basic(R) .NET Developer's Guide to ASP .NET, XML and ADO.NET (White Book).

1. This book is good for beginners and mid level .NET developers; it can also be used as a reference, too. It is concise and it contains complete examples (hello W...). The author does not assume that you have VS.NET, which can be a plus for some.

   I have other books written by Jeffery McManus. This book is just as good. I would like to see more books written by this author but on the advance side, for those who mainly use VS.NET as their development environment.




2. This book is very easy to read, and the examples in the book are all easy to follow. It provides enough information for people who are new to .NET and those who need a reference tool. The book has a good background on Visual Basic .NET, ASP.NET, XML, and ADO.NET. Very easy to understand.

   Chapter 2 provides good information for migrating from ASP to ASP.NET. It helps ASP 3.0 developers understand the differences between ASP 3.0 and ASP.NET and what needs to be changed. This book also discusses the general idea of Web Services, XML and ADO.NET with very simple examples. Having this makes it very helpful in understanding the corrolation of all the .NET features. You may want to pick up other books if you want to know more about these topics. I was able to use some of the examples in my development work, the examples are very nicely written and very well explained. This book, as is, can be a good tool for both learning .NET and used as a reference in future development work. I recommend the book. ---Reviewed by Annie W.




3. I would recommend this book for those VB/ASP developers who wish to get a basic guide to migrating to the new .NET technology. It does assume some previous knowledge of ASP development. It is useful as a handy reference for major features of .NET ASP development. I would not recommend it for those just getting started with ASP.NET.

   The book is well organized for the amount of subject matter covered. I found it somewhat daunting at first, since the author gets right into the new features of ASP.NET without a lot of background and foundation theory. Some may find this cutting to the chase as a feature, but the subject of migration is no small task.

   Going on to the page framework and configuration chapters, however provided a more rewarding journey. The book provides some basic knowledge needed for configuring and deploying an ASP application. This is an important topic that many books do not cover as thoroughly.

   The coverage of Web services is quite sufficient to get one started on their way to developing web service based applications. The code examples are well organized and easy to navigate and relate well to illustrate the text. The book is not, however a guide on style or technique - you'll need to develop that elsewhere.

   The sections on XML and ADO.NET are enough to get started with a good understanding of how these topics are so importantly tied into ASP.NET applications.

   Overall, the authors provide a great deal of detailed information without a lot of unnecessary verbiage. The book makes a reasonably good reference worth keeping at hand. -- Reviewed by Richard S.




4. As an experienced VB and ASP developer, I have spent the last year trying to make some progress in developing ASP.NET applications. 5-6 book purchases helped, but I never could really get the hang of it, until I got this book. After a very enjoyable time reading this book, and working through the examples, I am now going back through the other books, getting much more understanding from them.

   It's hard for me to say why this book proved to be so much more helpful, but it did. Jeffrey McManus is a good speaker and author, and this is the first book I've read from Chris Kinsman. Maybe it's their language that helped me, maybe it was the subjects they chose to spend time on, but one way or another, this book opened the floodgates for me.

   A couple of things I can definitely say that I found to be head and shoulders above other books are:

   1) Lack of errors/typos, etc. I'm not saying there aren't any, but this book definitely was not one of those that make it harder to learn simply because you think what you are reading is right, and it isn't. I had zero problems like that.

   2) Easy to follow code examples. So many books I've read make their examples too complex, expecting that you know everything that they are doing except for the one narrow thing they are trying to teach you. Like using regular expressions to validate email addresses before you save them to the database, and this in an example of "how to save to the database." This book has none of that junk. Each example cuts to the core of what it is trying to show you, and makes sure to explain it all, step by step.

   I can't wait for these guys to team up again.




5. Every now and then, a book comes along that I feel deserves 5 stars. This is one of those books. This book targets the intermediate Visual Basic.Net developer but someone trying to learn Visual Basic.Net, ASP.Net, ADO.Net, or XML will find that this book is easy to read. Chapters 1 through 10 cover ASP.Net, Chapter 11 covers XML, and Chapter 12 covers ADO.Net. At the end of several chapters, the authors provide a mini-reference. For example, at the end of chapter 11, there is a mini-reference on XML. I use these mini-references on a daily basis. In each chapter the authors have ample examples. The amazing thing is that they all work. I followed every example and with a minor exception of 1 example in the XML Chapter, all of the examples worked. The one exception just required some minor adjustments (using the XML indentation method). This is my first book by Jeffery P. McManus and Chris Kinsman but it won't be the last. I plan to buy their equivalent book on C#. I would also buy any "advanced" books that the authors write.

   Pros: Easy to read, ample examples that work, and mini-references at the end of the chapters.

   Cons: I would like to see more illustrations in the book.

   This book is definitely a "Buy".

5 comments about Visual Basic® 6 Bible.

1. I purchased this book over a year ago and still refer to it today.

   The book not only introduces you to programming in visual basic but explains it in a way that you can understand.

   The book steps through using the features of Visual Basic 6 and allows you to start programming almost from the time you pickup the book.

   This book doesn't go into many advanced topics so it is best suited for people that are looking to break into programming with visual basic.

   I would purchase it again or purchase it for someone in my family




2. I would not recommend this book for any reason. As I followed the code in creating these projects I encountered numerous bugs. No updates are made available for the code in this book. The bugs occur because of this books dependancies on Visual Basic 5 components. This is rather poor for a book that touts itself as being the Bible for Visual Basic 6. Authors and editors should take the time to at least be sure to use the same components included in the version of VB that they are supposedly supporting.

   I would reccomend the John Smiley series of books instead. At least his code works and makes for a much more enjoyable read as well.




3. This book has the right idea about what topics to cover but doesn't cover them in depth enough. Also the editing is HORRIBLE. For instance they talk about how great ADO is but yet seem to use DAO for everything....Seems lazy to me. Also If you get stuck on any code....its probably wrong in the book. The CD at least has the right code.



4. The most I got out of this book was being able to follow the tutorials that implement the various gadgets and gizmos that VB6 has to offer. While these examples and the concepts they illustrate are good (it's what earned my 1 star), it is absolutely horrible when you need it to implement your own programs. If you're looking for a book that you can use as a reference for your own projects, this is NOT it! Here's an example of what I mean.

   If you want to know how the combo box control works, for example, you look in the index and find 3 pages on it. The first page (p.79) shows a little blurb that explains what it is. Big whoop!!! Gee that really helps me! The second page listed in the index (p. 86) shows a little paragraph sub-titled "Adding the Combo Box". This tells you basically how to add it as part of the tutorial. That's about it! If I want to know how to use the combo box I have to dig through the book to find the code where it is implemented in the tutorial to see how it is used in that particular example and then hope that it will help me. It's the same for all other controls.

   In a nutshell, while the book is decent when it comes to explaining VB6 in it's examples, it falls waaay short when you need to quickly look up info on how to use a particular control independent of any particular program. I have been extremely frustrated every time I pick up the book to go back and refresh my memory on how to use the controls.

   My advice, don't do it! Get another book!




5. If you want screenshots and useless code and tutorials telling you to "click the ComboBox tool, then click to place your ComboBox," you might like this book. For my part, I prefer SUBSTANCE not screenshots and wizard-like walkthroughs.

   Put it this way: if you think that a book telling people to click on the Start menu is a good way to teach Windows, you'd like this book. If you want to know more details, forget it. Look elsewhere and save the trees. The online help that comes with Visual Basic is *way* more useful, both as a reference and as an introduction -- even if you are completely new to programming. For those reviewers that rated the book highly (notice they are all new to programming) I would suggest that, had you used the Help menu, you would have learned faster. I doubt any experienced programmer would disagree with this opinion.

5 comments about Mastering VBA 6 (Mastering).

1. It is a good book, but there are a lot of things you won't see here.



2. This book will give you information and knowledge that you need before learning to be a programmer.



3. I expected much more from this book, specially if its title says "Mastering." Although the author claims he will be hands-on and practical, in fact he elaborates on only few examples preceeded by interminable explanations. For example, the first 100 pages contain only 4 very simple and concrete cases using macros and the rest is an agonizing explanation on each and all of the components of several menus. No concrete examples that would enable the reader to cement his knowledge on solid ground.
   On ocassions the author explains VBA for an specific application, say Word, but then he changes to give general explanations for all applications at once, disorderly mentioning exceptions for Excel, Word, Project or PowerPoint, what makes the reading difficult.
   No, this book is not for me. I need principles and theory handsomely applied in concrete cases.



4. This book should be called "Programming 101 with VBA". The author spends pages discussing inefficient sorts and searches that can be found in any other book.

   If you don't know anything about programming, and what to know how to get the most of your applications - this may be for you.
   Don't buy this if you already know VB and want to learn some of the andvanced features of VBA.




5. Have read the other reviews, and feel the need to counter a few points. This is a great book for nonprogrammers who are proficient with an application such as Word or Excel and want to take the next step to getting their application to "jump through hoops." (Or who just want to get a taste for programming.)

   Background: I'm a tech writer with no programming education or experience other than some minor html and scripting I've picked up on the job. This book enabled me to self-educate myself to a fairly proficient level with VBA in a matter of two months. Out of all the "learn this skill quick" books that I've bought, this one has delivered the most value by far.

   A few counterpoints: The reader from Naskayuna says the author spends pages discussing techniques that can be found in any other book. Those pages of discussion are what make this book invaluable to a beginner. Every code example the author gives (I didn't count, but I'd say there are scores) is followed by a thorough, step-by-step explanation of what each line of code means.

   For the experienced programmer (apparently this reviewer is one), this probably gets old. But for the inexperienced user it does several things. Your confidence goes up each time you can look at a coded procedure and understand everything that is happening from the first step to the last. Your VBA lessons get driven in by repetition. And you don't spend as much time flipping back trying to locate previous concepts, because the code you are looking at is explained right there. I own another VBA book and have checked out two others from my employer's training library. There is no comparison! This author's approach to explaining sample code is by far the best for VBA novices without a programming background.

   The reader from Walnut CA complained that there weren't enough examples and that the first 100 pages offer only an agonizing explanation of all the menu components in the VBA editor. The reviewer is basically right about the first 100 pages, but missed a very important point. My experience differed in that I read some of the introductory stuff up front, then skipped right over most of those 100 pages to dive into the practical, hands-on stuff. Then I just used the first 100 pages or so as a resource when I needed to know more about how something worked. In fact, I think the author actually recommends this strategy early in the book! It worked like a charm for me. Maybe the reviewer didn't get past the first 100 pages, because if there's one thing this book definitely does NOT lack, it is hands-on examples.

   Last counterpoint: The first reviewer (March 2000) says there's a lot of stuff you won't see here. I don't think it's possible in a single book to cover all the concepts of a huge topic like VBA and still give plenty of hands-on practice. I liked the balance of conceptual explanations and hands-on practice. I also liked the fact that the author spends a lot of time telling you how to get help beyond the book. He spends pages explaining how best to use the online help. He may not cover everything, but he points you toward plenty of other tools that will fill the gaps.

   Some caveats: Learning VBA on your own from a book is somewhat akin to learning a foreign language using only audiotapes and a textbook. It might not be for everybody. I give this book five stars, but it ain't a magic bullet!! This book worked for me because I was already proficient with a particular tool (MS Word) and had some specific goals in mind for what I wanted to accomplish with VBA, and was willing and able to put in a lot of time at the computer to meet those goals. If you don't have a tool and some goals of your own in mind, or don't have the time to devote to learning this stuff, your mileage may vary. But if you've got all that going for you, I don't think you'll find a better starting point than this.