1 comments about The Revolutionary Guide to Visual Basic 4 Professional.

1. I hadn't realized I forgot to review this book.

   I teach VB at the university level, and have used this book as well. In my opinion, it's one of the best VB books ever written.

   I use Peter Wright's Beginning Visual Basic book for my Introduction classes, and use the second part of Peter's book along with the Revolutionary Guide to VB for the Intermediate and Advanced courses.

   This book has indepth coverage on Database, OLE Automation (now called ActiveX Automation), and has a pretty detailed application that is developed throughout.

   The title may scare you a bit, but I still think for the price, this book is a bargain, and can really help you get a grasp on some of the more complicated VB mechanisms.

No comments about Visual Basic 4 Coursebook.

5 comments about Visual Basic .NET Bible.

1. I only read two chapters of this book for ADO.Net and Multithreading. I would have to say that the ADO.Net section was good. On the otherhand, the Multithreading section was very skimpy, but it does show the reader where to start.



2. I was first amazed at the size of this book. It is large, 1240 pages and not only covers vb.net ... but everything you want to use vb.net for (ASP.NET, Windows forms, webservices, etc). If you want to be a .net developer who uses vb.net, then get this book. As someone said earlier, it also makes a awesome desk reference.



3. After reading VB.Net by Fransesco Balena, this one was its poor cousin. If anyone were to get into the ADO.Net chapter, that persons database access knowledge is bound to get scarred for life. Majority of the samples dont work. take a rain check.



4. This is by far the worst book I have ever read on any programming language. I would have to say that 90% of the code examples are wrong. I have been programing in VB.NET since the beta's and thought this book might be good for some reference. I was totally wrong.
   Seems to me that it was written too fast by to many blind people who have no idea what they where doing. Its almost as if they where making things up as they went along! If you want a good book dont get this one.



5. I like how this book has attained a good balance of being a tutorial and reference book. It has many great examples and does a great job of explaining how to better understand how to develop in .NET!!!

2 comments about Visual Basic Developer's Guide to SQL Server.

1. I had purchased a couple of SQL server books prior to this one and found that they all fell short. This one is the best of the bunch in my mind. I always keep it handy on the job.



2. If you're migrating from Access, have used DAO and have some familiarity with ADO and want a broad survey of SQL Server 2000 then this is the book for you. It explains all the main features object models, the difference between versions, specifications as well as giving you a running start on coding. Is it the best book out there for ADO? No, Get William Vaughn's ADO Examples and Best Practices, but this book will easily get you there if you're an experienced DAO programmer. For the money this is a great book and if you know nothing about SQL Server 2000 it works great alongside the Vaughn. Don't get it if you're already have a broad familiarity with SQL Server. Get Inside SQL Server.

1 comments about Introduction to Microsoft Visual Basic 4 (Shelly and Cashman Series).

1. This book takes you through the "basic" building blocks needed to write programs in VB 4 or 5. There are many illustrations which show you how to add combo boxes, message boxes, timers and how to use the menu editor. This book is very good for a beginner, but if you have had experience with VB, you may be dissapointed with the depth that this book covers.

5 comments about Beginning Web Programming using VB.NET and Visual Studio .NET.

1. A word of caution here, this is not a beginners book. More like an advanced or an intermediate book. If this is a beginner's book, then I would hate to see an advanced book. The first 2 chapters were okay, but starting with Chapter 3 it is a real lu-lu! It goes on and on about web controls and custom controls and dynamic control and customized templates and cascading style sheets. I think it would have been best if some of that advanced material had been left out and kept more simple for chapter 3 and concentrated on developing an application that didn't have to rely on all kinds of custom controls and style sheets and all other kinds of stuff. Keep it simple stupid would have been more the order of the day when it came to writing this book.



2. First off, I was glad to read other reviews confirming what I had already been experiencing with this book and that Alzheimer's has not set in. This is no beginner's book, Senator. Title perhaps should have been: "Accelerated Web-Programming, Seatbelts Required." What's more is that the text begins to dissipate in consistency and accuracy as it progresses. Go to the book's errata page and it's got errata itself. (Every chapter is listed as 0.) Even code samples do not always work. Need a specific? Try to run the last exercise in Chapter 6 from Wrox's download. No way, Jose. I guess they forgot about the chapter called application testing. The front page has six different authors displayed on it. I think this is part of the book's problem. It's a hodge podge. It's got the how-many-many-geeks-does-it-take-to-screw-up-a-tutorial syndrome. In all fairness, I should say that the book did help me to keep my feet wet with dot Net coding using Visual Studio. Mighty slippery surface, though.



3. Truely this is not a beginner's book but rather a foundational book.
   I've been studying the .Net Framework for just over a year now. During my studies, I've learned many sophisticated techniques; however, I have not be able to show what I know because I did know how to put it all together. It was like having all the pieces to the puzzle and not having a picture to guide the construction. Consequently, I've been looking for the Picture and this book is it.... a step-by-step guidance on how to integrates all the technologies into one project. This is the "Glue"!

   If you're looking for guidance on how to implement the many .Net techniques in a Web Application than this is a Great book! If you are a real beginner please look else where and then come to this book. You will be glad that you did ---> I am!

   Bottom Line - The book should be titled Foundational instead of Beginning. If it were, I am sure it reviews would be much higher.




4. I have bought at least a dozen Web Development Books and this book has provided more practical development techniques than all the other books combined. As a previous evaluator has written, this book is the "Glue" the brings everything together. No book on this complex subject can do it all, but this book comes the closest of any I have read.



5. I can understand that a complete beginner to web design and programming in the .NET Framework would be a little upset with the title as some of the reviews have stated, but there's a light at the end of the tunnel! Those that are complaining now will be thankful later when they need to integrate all of these new technologies to create a finely woven site that impresses its users. I can honestly say that I've read a dozen books on ASP.NET (in VB and C#) and none do the justice to the topic that this book does. Many are rehashes of the same old thing - here's a datalist, here's a datagrid, here's one way to use ADO.NET, etc. It's just so hard to find it all in one place and this book does have most of it between two covers!
   Consider having a look at a book like ASP.NET Website Programming (problem - design -solution) which I have read from cover to cover. Now that is an advanced book that covers excellent ground but really doesn't do a good job of explaining the code - if this book was at my fingertips it would have been much, much easier to understand and implement.
   So those of you that have some experience with custom server controls, CSS, ADO.NET, and XML will not find the road that hard and will greatly enjoy this read.
   Those that want to learn how to implement security correctly using a variety of different techniques throughout the lifecycle or your project will be very excited indeed.

   -All the best in your programming endeavors.

3 comments about Accounting & Finance: Developer's Guide With Visual Basic 3/Book and Disk.

1. I was going to make a program for a very important company here in Uruguay based upon this book, but oops, surprise. You make a .exe file, run the progam and try to insert some accounts and some transactions and the program never works. I started to analize the code and in some places there were calls to fields in tables that never ever existed, fields in tables that where never initialized provoking errors everywhere, etc etc.... My question is this one: ¿Should the program run correctly, or should i use the code as the skeleton for anotherone?, which implcates that i should overview all the source code. thank you very much Erik Sloth Montevideo, Uruguay



2. Do not buy this book unless you are prepared to spend some time de-bugging the software. As supplied on the disk, it will not work. Too bad, because the general format could provide a good framework for some custom accounting. It bears some resemblance to the old Osborne Accounting Software. I contacted Sams Publishing on 12/12/96 and they have no plans to fix it, a very poor response for what I thought was a reputable company



3. This book looks great on the surface, but is unusable for writing an accounting application in VB. The A/R payments only allows a single payment for each invoice. The invoice module doesn't allow invoices to be reprinted. Some good ideas and code examples for using data access objects though, and I like the way theprogram allows the user to create multiple data files for different companies. Plan on writing your VB accounting app from scratch though. Sorry Jack.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 for Dummies Deluxe Compiler Kit.

1. This product is learner's manual for VB6 combined with a cd-rom allegedly containing a learner's version of the software. Good idea, problematic execution. After a few chapters into the book, I am less than impressed. The accompanying cd-rom of Visual Basic is a scaled down version that does not have all the bells and whistles that are talked about in the book itself. For example, an early exercise directs the reader to put certain icons in a program. According to the book, these icons come loaded with Visual Basic 6. Maybe, but they don't come loaded on the scaled-down, companion CD version. Additionally, the book identifies a particular basic portion of the VB 6 interface called the Immediate Window, characterized as a debugging tool. This tool also does not come with the scaled down version. I am considering returning the product, purchasing the book alone for approx. half the price, and then getting a copy of the software.



2. They say it takes an honorable person to admit an error. I'm not necessarily honorable, but I was wrong about some facts in my previous review, and I'd like to correct the situation now. 1) I found the Icons folder I couldn't find earlier. It doesn't install automatically, but if you put the installation CD back in and search, you'll find it. 2) I found the portion of VB6 I couldn't find earlier -- it was just hidden from view. So the product isn't problematic, just the user. I'm still reading the book and using the application, and I am actually, in a truly basic sense, programming. And now, because I have not yet finshed the book, and becuase I don't want to have to apologize again, I resolve to say nothing more.



3. The title of this package is outright wrong. I've been programming for over ten years and when something says "COMPILER" I expect a compiler. The working model included in this package lets you build programs that run in the IDE but does not compile to EXE's. As for the book, no great shakes. It spends a great deal of time on the RAD but if you want to learn useful VB code, better look elsewhere.



4. While the book will get you started, alot is asummed. Previous programming experience is helpful.



5. If you are serious about learning V.B. 6.0, this book is not for you. The software that comes with the book contains no online help and does NOT compile. Spend a few extra dollars and buy "Visual Basic 6.0 Deluxe Learning Edition". It has the complete online MSDN library for all the help you need, and you can compile your projects into actual executable files.

No comments about Visual Basic: For MS-DOS by Example (Programming Series).

3 comments about Learn Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition Now.

1. I buy alot of programming books and most of them get 2 pages read before they go on the shelf but this book I finished in no time flat! Good examples for a beginner. A little too much emphasize on ActiveX components but oh well. A+



2. Incredibly basic...assumes you don't know to code at all. Needs six chapters to cover variables, functions, arrays, loops! One shallow chapter about the debugger. Security coverage--a bullet on the back cover--a joke. No mention of Windows Scripting Host. Maybe good for someone who wants to learn programming...and makes the weird choice to start out with VB Script. In sum, a bizarre book.



3. First, this is a good book for learning vbscript, or brushing up if you are at a moderate level. I don't believe that expert vbscripters would find much use in it, and it is not a reference book.

   However, I have no programning background, and I wanted a good tutorial book. This is that book. Note that the book covers Vbscript has it relates to the web, not to WSH (Windows Scripting Host). I keep this book handy when scripting, and refer to it a lot, but I am still in the beginner stage.

   Again, as an introduction to vbscript, get this book!