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

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



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



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



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



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

4 comments about Visual Basic 2008 For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. I am sure there is some worthwhile information between the covers of this book - I just couldn't find it. I would recommend to people that have the basics already, spend your money on a real VB book.



2. Try as hard as I can, I cannot find anything positive to say about this "book". Don't be fooled by the table of content, it might sound "juicy" but it's as illusory as a politicians promises ... There 's no substance in this text, and the whole teaching strategy is flawed. If you begin your programming journey here you will probably conclude programming is not an art, an intellectual challenge, or an intriguing game, but a boring routine to help visual studio write boring useless applications. You might have heard Edsger Dijkstra quote:
   "It is practically impossible to teach good programming to students that have had a prior exposure to BASIC: as potential programmers they are mentally mutilated beyond hope of regeneration." This might not be necessarily true for VB.NET, but it will if you start your study with this text.



3. This book is designed to get you going quickly in Microsoft Visual Basic 2008. It's not a reference, it's probably not for the complete beginner, and true dummies probably won't be up to this level. Rather it is an entertaining tour for those with some modest programming experience on how to get going quickly in VB 2008. If you are a self-starter, this is the book for you!
   
   The author packs the book full of useful "how to's." Rather than trying to answer every question you could possibly ask about VB 2008, the author focuses on the most essential tools you will need. Once you get the basic idea of how a given tool or approach works from the book, you have what you need to apply these tools and/or approaches to other problems you encounter in VB 2008.



4. If I received my order (14 May 2008) I would be able to post a review - but as of 4 June 2008 nothing! ETA 19 May 2008.

1 comments about AJAX, Rich Internet Applications, and Web Development for Programmers (Deitel Developer Series).

1. The book covers only tip of the iceberg on all the subjects it advertises to cover. The list is over 20 subjects, and most are really quick and dirty introductions, but nothing that can really be used. The book probably rules if you are a total newbie to all of the subjects and need a quick intro to things, but beyond that, nothing new here. Googling the titles serves at least as good.

5 comments about Microsoft Office Project 2003 Bible.

1. Most of the material is straight from the online help. Download for free and read the Online books associated with installing and administering Project Server 2003 before you spend any $ on a book.



2. I'm an engineer who uses Project in my work and this book has been a great help. Every time I've had a problem getting the software to do what I wanted this book has provided a clear and consise explanation that helped me get through the problem. I'd recommend it to anyone who uses Project for major projects and doesn't have time to waste finding an answer on how to get the software to do what you want it to.



3. Beware, the book may be good, I just start reading it, but I can't look at the examples from the "accompanying cd" because Amazon hasn't made it available to me. I've written them 3 times and still no answer. Buy this book from the bookstore. Also, this ebook is very restrictive. I don't know if I can view it from other computers and it only allows me to copy 10 selections in 7 days, after that no more cutting and pasting.....beware of the limitations. I give this 1 star, not for content but for delivery and restrictions. spearsjunk@hotmail.com



4. Got the book in just of few days and in great condition. Only gotten through about a third of the book so far. Lots of information and very useful to increase my job skills. Just find it somewhat diffucult to relate to if you don't have the software to work with while reading. Reading at home and have the software at work.



5. I have the Excel Bibble, Access Bible, and now the Project Bible. The books are very thorough and easy to understand. These books are much more detailed than the "Books for Dummies". I have had these books for some time now and still use the books for reference.

5 comments about VBScript in a Nutshell, 2nd Edition.

1. I don't have this book, I've never read it. But the negative reviews for it are out of line. People have reviewed it claiming it isn't for the beginner or for learning VB Script. NO KIDDING!! It is called NUTSHELL for a reason. It is a reference book, NOT a learning book. Don't give bad reviews for a book because you were too stupid to realize you bought the wrong book. That's just as bad as buying a Java book and complaining that it doesn't have any Javascipt examples in it.



2. This is not the book to learn the basics of VBScript, but it's exactly what I needed; a good reference book. I got tired of trying to find syntax of commands and functions online. Now I have it at my fingertips.



3. This is not intended for beginners in scripting or VBScript in particular. But for anyone with even moderate programming or scripting, this may be all you'll need to become familiar with VBScript.
   
   Written in the spare, terse style of all Nutshell books, the book is very dense in terms of information. The major aspects of VBScript's versatility are explored (though there are no references to HTML Applications (HTAs)). The major functions are explained and there is a complete reference.
   
   An essential volume for anyone using VBScript.
   
   Jerry



4. This text is excellent for folks working on VBs projects. It contains good examples, great information about syntax and also warnings for "gotcha's" -- it's great!



5. I've been a big fan of the 1st edition for years and found it very helpful. I use Regular Expressions a lot in Perl and found VBScript's support for RE's a bit lacking (could not extract the submatches). I was pleasantly surprised to find that this capability was added in VBScript 5.5. I bought the 2nd edition of this book because it claimed to cover VBScript 5.6. Imagine my surprise when the SubMatches collection isn't documented at all.
   
   Overall I'm quite disappointed in the 2nd edition.

1 comments about Access 2007 VBA Programming For Dummies (For Dummies (Computer/Tech)).

1. Some years ago Microsoft created a specialized programming language to allow extensions to be made to the normal modes of operation allowed in their Office suite. The language was fairly well thought out to be applicable to applications as different as word processing, spreadsheets or data bases. They called it Visual Basic for Applications shortened to VBA. It has worked remarkable well. Down theough the years there have been relatively few changes to VBA.
   
   This book is on VBA as specifically oriented to the Microsoft Access database program. But if you learn Access VBA, you are not far from knowing how to use VBA on any of the other Office components.
   
   While this is an Access book, it is specifically on VBA, it assumes that you already know about how to build a table, and about rows and columns. It also assumes that you have some familiarty with other Access features such as building queries.
   
   Access goes to a great deal of effort to avoid having to use the underlying SQL language. There are a couple of chapters on SQL for the total beginner. In the long run, you will probably want to know more.
   
   You can't design one book to do everything in about 400 pages. This "dummies" book concentrates on VBA. That's enough for one book. It does a good job on VBA. You may want to fill out your bookshelf with Access for Dummies and SQL for Dummies.

No comments about Microsoft® Office Excel® 2007 Visual Basic® for Applications Step by Step (BPG-step by Step).

3 comments about Beginning DotNetNuke 4.0 Website Creation in VB 2005 with Visual Web Developer 2005 Express: From Novice to Professional (Beginning: from Novice to Professional).

1. It's not for the complete novice and it won't teach you how to code. But it will get you up and going with VWD and DNN. Well written with good screenshots. He also takes you through the process of creating modules. It's a good primer and was what I was looking for.



2. This is a very good introduction to DotNetNuke. It will help you install DNN on you own machine and guide you through building a simple website.
   
   If you know a little about programming in VB and know something about HTML and CSS, this book will show you how to write your own DNN modules and create your own DNN skins and containers. You won't learn how to write complex modules or elaborate skins but you'll learn the basics.
   
   If you already know how to install DNN and how to create DNN modules and skins, this book is not for you.
   
   If you know nothing about programming in VB and know nothing about HTML, then you should probably learn about them before you tackle this book.



3. This book will take you from absolutely no knowledge of DotnetNuke and get you well on your way. Simple to follow. Like any good intro book it will help you to understand how DNN works and gives you enough information to know where to go to learn more. For example after you are shown what a skin is and how to use it you are then shown how to make one of your own. You should then understand where you want to go from there. My experience level is 1.5 years as an ASP.net, VB and C# Developer with SQL server 2005. I have no previous knowledge of DNN. It will be very helpful if you know a bit about Visual Web developer, Light Coding, CSS, XML and some graphics program knowledge such as Fireworks or Photoshop. However, this book will get even the non programmer where he needs to be to use DNN. In short - if you are new, Start here.

5 comments about Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Version 2003 (Pro Developer).

1. This was the first .NET book I purchased, and in many ways if I hadn't bought any others it would have been sufficient. It has thorough coverage of the .NET environment, with lucid code examples in VB.NET. I found the chapters on ADO.NET and the framework internals to be most useful to my job as an ASP.NET developer, but the coverage is deep enough that a person with very little programming experience could read this book and come away as a well-rounded .NET programmer. Even if you're writing in C#, as I am, the book is worth the money. I would also recommend Dino Esposito's Programming Microsoft ASP.NET for more depth if you're a web developer.



2. I bought this book few years. It is an excelent source of information and writers style is very clear. I just came back to see if Balena has book for C# 2005. Looks like I found something. I am going get that one. However, present book is quite good, check if there is a newer release you may want to get that one.



3. Fast service, great quality... What more can you ask for. I recommend this seller.



4. There is a lot of information in this book, covering a broad range of subjects. It is well laid out and easy to reference. The CD comes with the current version of the book as well as the author's previous book on VB6. Not really a beginner's book as there are more intermediate and advanced topics. I had not used .NET and hadn't touched VB6 in a couple of years. I needed a resource to help jump from rusty VB6 skills to .NET - this book did it perfectly. It is also filled with advanced topics that I am not currently using but now know where to go when the need arrives.



5. I am an experienced developer but fairly new to VB.NET. This book is not for beginners but it is great for someone like myself who knows what they want to do and just wants some good examples and tips. It's a great reference book and a good alterative to Google. The English is clear and to the point. The book is a sturdy hardback and the pages are well laid out. It's easy to read afters hous of staring at a screen. To sum up, I'm glad that I brought it. It has saved me time and money and you can't ask for much more than that :-)

3 comments about VBScript Pocket Reference.

1. I like the O'Reilly pocket reference series. They don't take up a lot of desk real estate, and you can generally find what you need to know in a hurry.

   From the perspective of a programmer who hasn't touched basic since he had a Sinclair Spectrum, I found this book got me up to speed reasonbly quickly. However I suspect it will attract a fairly small audience - a non programmer would find it too terse to be a good learning book, and an experienced VB programmer would probably be better off with a book specific to the environment they're using (eg, ASP) because this book does not cover any enviroment specific objects, and VBScript has no enviroment specific functions. It does however cover the filesystem objects and the dictionary object, which is handy.

   Every now and then I get frustrated with the book when I can't find a function that I want, but then I usually discover that the function doesn't exist in VBScript, which is really such a trivial language that a pocket reference can cover it more or less completely.




2. It you want to learn VBScript go elsewhere. However, if you just want a quick reference that you can take anywhere this is the only book for you. It is remarkably concise and very well written. Its perfect for the VBScritp programmer that needs a little help from time to time looking up a hard to remember command and its syntax.



3. The reference material seems accurate but I have found more detail in the free help file that comes with VBS 5.6. Return values and types and the actual values of the builtin constants, which I didn't find in the book.
   
   I apparently overlooked the note that this book was based on VBS 5.5 when I ordered it. I have several pocket references and this is the first that fell short of my needs.