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5 comments about Visual Basic 6 From Scratch (Scratch Series).

1. I'm a technical school instructor and used 4 different books to teach the first course in VB before an outside instructor gave me this book. The concepts that are so very abstract and hard to understand are explained extremely well with great examples and in simple terms. The format is an excellent one for instruction. You may want to also work through a book that completes several different projects before you tackle this one. But when you do, this book will pull it together for you and take you further into the code world of business which is were most of the work programmers have generates from.



2. Visual Basic 6 from Scratch is a very good book, but dangerous for beginners. The book text is full of errors, mostly omissions, but fortunately the sample code in the cd seems bug free. Common code errors in the text are omitting function types, upper bounds in loops, and numbers on the right side of the equals sign in expressions. Another problem is that the book has you create a Standard exe file in the very beginning for the application, but it appears that that results in problems later down the road. Instead of a Standard exe file select the other option of Working Model Edition, which automatically puts out more controls in the toolbox. Another problem is that the book uses the MaskedEdit control, but you might not have the license to it, so instead you have to do your best with a regular text box control. The book did not mention nor used the With/End With structure, which comes in handy in many places in the code. All this might leave you Scratching your head. Other than that the book is great. It covers the use of many controls, including many ActiveX controls, covers some database, SQL, and ADO concepts, and covers extensively user defined classes. Best of all is the building of an entire application from Scratch.



3. I gave it a 4 due to trouble with some code found in the book. There are times when the code is missing parts or it's entirely non-existent. It's a good thing for the cd code, since one has to go back through it to find why parts aren't working. But I liked the project the book takes you through. It's a great way to learn by building an entire working application from start to finish, rather than just a bunch of small code snippets and useless program widgets.



4. Of all the programming books I've read (and tried to read), this is by far the best. I read this book completely in 2 evenings, and enjoyed it from cover to cover. I already knew VB, but this was a fantastic book that reinforced the skills I'd lost and was throrough enough to cover many topics I hadn't, before. It isn't designed for advanced VB programmers, but is perfect for beginners and novices. The writing style is great, without lots of silly jokes or sad attempts at humour. The only (very minor) criticism I might have is that it the complete instructions on creating objects, setting properties, etc. is repeated with a lot of detail, which is more reading to get to the "good part". A suggestion: have a table that shows the end-result of what that section requires as far as objects, property settings, etc. to avoid the 2-3 paragraphs of detailed explanations of how to do it. Still, a wonderful, wonderful, book. I can't recommend this title enough!



5. Inasmuch as there are numerous errors in the book as reported by other previous reviewers (see additional reviews below), I would like for someone to give us the URL where we can find the errata sheet. I have searched the Jesse Liberty site and the web to no avail.

4 comments about Visual Basic Telephony.

1. In general, it is well writen: easy to read. However, as I worried, it was a little bit outdated. And, there were not surficent explanation on codes for visual voice. I wouldn't recommend this book if someone wants to learn how to write a program using visual voice in visual basic environment.



2. This book was an excellent introduction to visual basic telephony...If you are interested in a beginning book on Telephony and how a telephony application would work in a point and click environment, this book is a solid choice.



3. Don't buy this book. It is way out dated.



4. This book belongs on the "out of print" list. A promising title, but lousy content. Instead of providing useful materials on developing telephony applications in Visual Basic, the authors, in essence, used this book as promotional material for their own Visual Voice software component which works with Visual Basic 1.0, long outdated considering VB 6.0 is about to be replaced with VB.Net . The rest of the book is an overview of Visual Basic, telephony terminology, and even talks of Windows 3.1. This book is overdue for the recycling bins.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Programming Blue Book: The Most Complete, Hands-On Resource for Writing Programs with Microsoft Visual Basic 6!.

1. By the time I made it to the end of this book I knew how to program VB 6. I was used to Java but new to the world of Visual Basic, a huge and complex world at that. To take on the task of writing a tutorial that can cover such a topic must have been daunting indeed, but this author has done it really well! The book was perfect for me because it assumed I knew nothing about VB, yet didn't bog me down with general programming fundamentals. The code exercises touch most all the areas a professional programmer is likely to encounter on the job. He both holds your hand through the exercises and lets you make some steps on your own, which I thought worked very well. If you want to learn Visual Basic 6, buy this book and work it through to the end...it's worth it.



2. This book is for pre-beginners. It explains what the mouse is and what "Click" means. I had to wade through pages and pages of garbage like "this is the start menu" and "this is a button" to find any useful information. Then suddenly the author dives headfirst into objects and stacks. 1st too slow, then too fast.



3. Here is a book that I used for a first-book on Visual Basic. I liked it, but you might want to pick up a VB reference is you want a better source of info than this book provides. This book is O.K.



4. This book is far better than most of its direct competitors.

   The good features of this book, rarely seen in other books, are: readable, lively, humour-laced, intelligent writing style; almost complete lack of technical errors and contentious statements (that is very rare in IT-related books); mostly-interesting and realistic problems are tackled as examples; concise and useful demonstration of error handling; good guidance on using the debugging tools; just-right discussion of Windows as an event-driven, object-oriented environment and how you need to think as a VB developer.

   Amongst other features: it has good range in technical content from beginner to intermediate; it flows well from topic to topic; it covers the basics of the VB development environment; VB structures, keywords and how to use them; object-orientation theory Lite; good contents and index sections; reasonably consistent use of object/variable naming schemes throughout.

   Sure, it misses some topics and overdoes others but its good on the fundamentals and intermediates.

   I am a lecturer in tertiary education and use this on the course I teach. I've considered many books as student texts and this is the best for my purposes, as an adjunct to my teaching. Students certainly enjoy the style and content.

   This book is part of the Blue-Black-Gold series that Coriolis run for VB. I haven't seen the Black book, but I strongly recommend the Gold Book. Keep printing them, Coriolis.




5. This book starts off as so many other programming books do,with a few exeptions. The history is brief and to the point. The first chapter is dedicated to getting you ready for hands on Work with Visual Basic 6, and assumes a prior knowledge of basic Windows expierience. I find this book the be an exellent
   resource for anyone wanting to learn Visual Basic. The few problems I found, was the constant repeating of "How to do his..." For myself this is rather annoying but for the beginner this "feature" will help you to remember simple things such as changing properties. When you complete this book, you will be ready to start writing you own Visual Basic programs with ease. One Word of warning, chapter 4 is a very in depth look at variables. Im now sure what the auther was thinking by putting so much information in one chapter, but at least is makes for easy refrence. The way I got through chapter 4 was to take lots and lots of notes, and refer back to them as needed. How ever after working with variables through out the book there's no doubt you can master them.

5 comments about Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic .NET: An Object-Oriented Approach, Comprehensive.

1. It's funny how perspectives from a programmer and a beginner differ so greatly on this text. I am a very successful 30 something student at a major university. I think I am qualified to say, from a beginner's standpoint, that this book leaves much to be desired. I will retread some of the same points others have made here.
   
   The book is intentionally vague: As beginners, students need to grasp basic programming concepys and styles. This text seems to often avoid explaining these basic concepts. The text also does not offer examples of good efficient code or practices. The teacher materials (assignments) intentionally ask for things not discussed in the chapters, The exams are designed to trick the student rather than test understanding of concepts. Forcing sheer memorization over understanding is a bad way to start learning. Example: Which of the following are properties of the Color Structure? a. R,G,B / b. ColorRed,ColorBlue,ColorRed / c. Alpha / d. All of the above - if you answered A you are correct -but Alpha is also a property of the color structure. That's not inportant. A is the answer.
   
   Examples sometimes don't work: Code examples in Chapter 6 fail to work. What's worse, the publisher's web site does not correct this issue. If you plan on drawing text onto a form prepare to do some reading on the outside in order to accomplish this task.
   
   Not easy to read: As mentioned, this text is full of run on sentenses, disjointed and technical. Technical is good, but some plain english explanations would help the BEGINNER to grasp concepts.
   
   Class revolt over the text: As mentioned, students in my class have openly criticized this text. (They actually begged the teacher to just code in VB and explain what's happening over usung the text) These complaints were brought to not only to the teacher, but to the head of the department.
   
   If you are teacher and want to teach VB to beginners, look at some of the other suggestions posted here. This text makes learning VB a chore. People want to be challenged, but also have fun learning something as powerful and simple as VB.NET.



2. I have to say I agree with the reviews below that state that this book is not for beginners. Others have already pointed out the problems with this book, and I agree with them.
   Don't buy it, unless you are looking for an expensive paper weight.



3. This is a poorly written book. The explanations are incomplete and the book is (badly) organized around examples, rather than conceptual building blocks. As stated in other reviews, some of the program examples do not work, and must be debugged. What really prompted me to review this text is the previous positive review from a teacher. Let me make one thing perfectly clear: when class after class of students finishes a course feeling demotivated because of a confusing text, and that they have frustrating gaps in the knowledge they should have aquired, the teacher or professor's opinion of the text is irrelevant. Apparently there are some teachers who, rather than admit that they have chosen a bad textbook, will dig-in and defend that text to the bitter end. I take great exception to the review title "Great for responsible and interested learners!" In other words, he says that students who do not find this book understandable are irresponsible and/or uninterested. On this note, perhaps we should let half of the air out of a life-ring before we throw it to a drowning person. If he or she is "responsible and interested," and tries very hard, then the person will overcome that disadvantage, and in the process, build endurance and ability to stay afloat. We are told by the reviewer that the "responsible and interested" reader will be able to "connect the dots" on his own, and make sense out of this book. Finally, the review even has the audacity to admonish teachers who might be tempted to "cater to this type of student," (students who complain about this textbook). I have tried hard not to get personal in this review (rebuttal), so I will just say in a generic mode, that any teacher or professor who intentionally sets students up for failure by using a difficult text, when other better,clearer, more understandable ones are available, should rethink his or her career. A book for teaching Visual Basic should thoroughly expound Visual Basic, and not be an obstacle course for teaching independent thinking. On that note, as you might expect, this book is utterly useless for someone learning VB on their own.



4. Ekedahls books are not good books to learn programming. They are books that teach how to type code in the code windows and run and "Look how well I can tell you to write a program". Unfortunately you do not learn how to prorgam. You are lost and confused and looking at your classmate asking if they understand the class.
   
   For a beginner's book get Diane Zak's, It will save u time and money, stress, anger and hatred towards him.



5. I am currently using this book for a programming class and since this is only my second programming class, I thought maybe I had a comprehension problem...I do not.
   
   After many hours of frustration and thoughts of wanting to just quit school because of this class/book, my husband, who is an experienced programmer, told me that I was not the one with the problem, it was the book. Unfortunately, I have no choice but to use the text because it came with my class and I have to do the assignments. However, my husband has loaned my some of his books that are written much better and fill the gaps that this book leaves. I just hope my school will read the reviews and choose a better book for future students.

5 comments about Dan Appleman's Win32 API Puzzle Book and Tutorial for Visual Basic Programmers.

1. There's something fundamentally wrong with the concept of a puzzle book for an application programming interface. A book about an API should yield clarity, not puzzles.



2. When I was researching how to access HID-class USB peripherals from VB applications, I learned from the Windows 98 docs that I needed to call a series of API functions to locate the device and learn about its capabilities. Many of the calls involved passing and returning complex structures. I could find no documentation on the calls for Visual-Basic programmers. Although I had some experience with API calls, my initial attempts at calling these functions didn't get far.

   Then I bought this book. First I read it straight through (though I do admit to reading each solution after the puzzle, rather than waiting til the end). Then I went back to my code with the book at hand and eventually got it all working. Plus, I understood exactly why the code had to be the way it was in order to work.

   This isn't a cookbook. Thinking is required. One sentence I took particular comfort in when things weren't quite working yet was, "It is ultimately possible to handle any structure, no matter what type of data it contains." (p. 363)

   This is an excellent and useful book that will enable you to do any API call that Windows might throw your way.




3. You cann't programming a good VB without it



4. As a VB programmer you should have at least 2 books on yourshelf: Dan Appleman's Visual Basic Programmer's Guide to the Win32 APIand this one. The former teaches by showing - serving as a reference book when you are trying enhance the functionality of your VB application. The latter teaches by doing - allowing your mind to actively grasp the concepts behind API calls, structures, and pointers, instead of mindlessly hacking through APIs, tossing in variables, hoping for success. The puzzles in this book allow you to learn from your mistakes. Mr. Appleman explains his own logic as he works through the problem. For me, this is more valuable than just being told the answer as many books in this genre do.

   This book is vital to help train a VB programmer to become a designer, rather than a developer. It helps you understand the importance of visualizing the solution to the problem before writing a single line of code. In sports they say that you need to visualize the goal before you actually play the game. I think the same goes for coding. This book is the ideal companion for that exercise. If you are a technical team lead, go ahead and assign these puzzles to your developers so that they can not only hone their skills, but also sharpen their minds.

   In addition, Mr. Appleman's writing style of light bantering and humor is a nice relief from the dry technical-journalistic writing of other Visual Basic authors.

   ...this book is not a cookbook...it can be better thought of as Ingredient Book. By understanding the fundamental ingredients towards cooking up a VB/WinAPI program, it helps you become a better chef. You need to understand what goes into a creation before you can anticipate what comes out.

   ...this book is not meant to serve as a comprehensive reference guide to the API. For that try Mr. Appleman's API book or Bock's Visual Basic 6 Win32 API Tutorial.. END




5. If you use API's, or want to use API's, then I suggest getting this book. There are so many API calls out there, that no book contains them all.

   This book helps you solve the API so you can use them in your applications. Definately a "must have" for any programmer out there worth his salt.

5 comments about Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic .NET in 24 Hours.

1. This is a pleasant book (but now the wrong edition) for the beginner with no prior VB experience. Teaching is done via many VERY SIMPLE projects, and these cannot be done without Visual Studio. You want to buy the latest version "Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 (VB .NET) in 24 Hours Complete Starter Kit" which includes a DVD with a trial version of the latest Visual Studio.

   Projects are all for Windows Forms projects including one session on automating Excel (from a Windows form). Visual Basic.NET's most exciting use for many is for the code behind ASP.NET Web Forms when developing applications with a web browser user interface. The author does mention such use very briefly but offers no examples. There are many fine introductory books at this same beginner level on VB.NET and ASP.NET; so if web applications are where you are headed, this book will not be the best choice.

   This book might be nice easy step up for someone moving from the Excel macro (VB for Applications, VBA) world into more general applications. If you are a professional but new to VB, the book can be completed in a week end; and you can then pass it on to a kid just getting into programming. As noted by another reader, the description of the language is too brief to give this book value as a reference.

   Author James Foxall has many books to his credit and writes nicely. For the most part he eschews the silliness of many professionals writing "down" for beginners. There are a surprising number of editing mistakes, but nearly all of the code runs as presented.




2. Those looking to start programming in VB will find this book very useful. The chapters are arranged in a logical manner so that the user will build upon knowledge from previous chapters. The author explains things in easy to understand terms, anyone could learn to start using VB with this book.



3. This book (unlike many others on the same subject) does NOT assume any previous knowledge of Visual Basic and helps the reader on the journey to learning vb.net with ease.It is well written in easy to understand terms and has me wanting to move on to the next stage already.The many examples in this book also provide a very good reference library for future use.



4. I hadn't programmed in years so I bought four books in an attempt to get a handle on VB.net. Of the four, this is the book I used to learn the basics. Lessons are easy to follow and understand. Sample programs are simple but I am already using knowledge from them to write my own code. Highly recommend.



5. This book is great. The author has a way of explaining VB in a very understanding way. I got this book for under $3.00 new! It was the best $3.00 I spent this year!

4 comments about Vbscript Unleashed.

1. The book only actually has a few chapters on VBScript, of which most are simple reference guides to the language. There is not enough detail on how to actually use the language. My problems with the book: Only a fraction of the language is covered, and what is mentioned has many errors. The chapter on the scripting object model incorrectly describes how to work with frames. I try to write code using the examples and get nothing but errors. The sample scripts provided work but have bad programming style. The book proceeds to explain ActiveX in great detail, but I bought the book for VBSCript, and was very disappointed that there was only a couple chapters of use to me.



2. This book has so many errors and inaccurate statements that it would definitely place a newcomer to VBScript (which it was obviously written for and by) on the WRONG track. I purchased this book as an aide to prepare for a class I was teaching, and I wasted my money. Do not buy this book!



3. I wanted a good primer and reference guide to VBScript - this book was both. There are a few typos here and there, but I think it's a great book and have gotten a lot of use out of it. This was the second book I have bought from the "Unleashed" series and I just bought a third!



4. With all the other reviews I was apprehensive in buying the book. I bought the book anyway, just like any other computer programming references you would get ideas and techniques here that other books do not offer. A definite must have if you want to improve your skill in SCRIPTING!

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