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!

No comments about Visual Basic .Net, Spanish Edition.

No comments about Visual Basic .NET Core Language Little Black Book.

No comments about Building Applications with Microsoft Office/Visual Basic.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Client/Server Programming Gold Book: Building Better Enterprises and Departmental Environments.

1. Yikes! You browse through the first few pages on this book, and your interest is built up, because it pretends to be a comprehensive, state of the art review on the status of VB 6 as a development technology. It reads like it. You keep on reading, and the writing style throws you off completely. A topic is usually not developed well enough before the authors jump to the next one, and then the next, and sometimes back to the original one... it is pretty much like watching someone with ADHD browsing the Internet on Visual Basic topics. Code examples in the book are jumped straight into without much intro, and the ones in the CD have bugs in one or two of them.

   They want to cover so much so quickly, they take on so many interesting topics, and yet they mix them up so inconsistently that following this book through is almost impossible. A potentially great book, but terribly edited. reading it gave me a migraine. I'm trying to read it through again, but slowly, as to not get so frustrated, and with my word processor open in outline mode as to make sense of the mess. Too bad.




2. It is a good book for VB6. But the CD that came with my book is Visual Basic 6 Object Oriented Programming!.



3. This is an excellent book for experienced client/server developer. Author identified new concepts of database connectivity in VB6 and future trend. Reader who uses other database tools such as "PowerBuilder" will find this book useful if he or she wants to switch to VB6. It would be better if author gives more "step by step" instructions. This book is not recommended for new c/s developer.



4. The book has the worst explanations of programming concepts I have ever attempted to read and the CD-ROM is nearly worthless. You will be fortunate indeed if the examples work with your installation of VB6. Several of the examples that were to supposed to use a data control actually displayed a picture box and never did work as a data control. The only way that I could get them to work was to delete the picture boxes, add a data control and program it. For that I didn't need this book or the waste of my time trying to make the examples work. As a database programmer, I feel that the money spent on this book was a waste. I might as well have burned the money for warmth.



5. ... and hope it will never see the light of day again. This is one of the worst books on programming that I've ever read. The examples are terrible, and most of them don't work.

   Too bad that there is no zero star catagory.

   This book appears to be some class notes slapped together to cash in on the client/server "dot com" boom of the ninties. If you see it in a used book bin for a dollar, don't waste your money.

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 Professional Visual Basic 6: The 2003 Programmer's Resource.

1. This is a very thorough compendium of essential information for Visual Basic 6 developers. All of the authors are developers themselves and understand their subject matter thoroughly. You'll find a wide range of helpful information including SQL, COM+, XML, SOAP and much more. You'll even find step-by step information on how to deploy your Visual Basic applications using Visual Studio Installer and Wise Installation System. A great reference book that you'll pull off your shelf again and again...



2. Being a fan of the Wrox series, I was not disappointed with the latest Professional Visual Basic 6 book. Even though .NET technologies carry the current industry momentum (for MS-based development), there will always be a place for VB 6 within the Enterprise. In my case, for example, I will always have a need to use VB6 for certain clients who are either unwilling or slow to adapt to the newer technologies (namely, .NET) for any number of business reasons.

   The authors of this book have done a very good job of bringing together some of today's hottest technologies under one cover. Experienced VB developers will find the chapters within a practical reference (if not a valuable introduction) to modern APIs, such as ADO, COM+, MSMQ, XML, and SOAP. In the short time that I've owned this, I have already pulled it off of the shelf to reference the text and examples on several occasions.

   Having said that, though, there is only so much that can fit into any one book, so it does not serve as an absolute reference manual for any single technology.

   The book comes with a CD that contains the usual source code from the book, plus 10 Case Studies and 5 Wrox titles in PDF format. Just a technical note, though: I couldn't open the PDF files using Acrobat Reader 4.05, but a simple upgrade to the latest free version resolved that problem.




3. I saw the title of this book and picked it up - we are trying to build web services via SOAP at my company and we are not migrating to .NET for a while yet. The book proved worthy of it's title. This book covers modern implementations with legacy technology. Thank you to the authors. I suspect that there are quite a few companies out there that, like us, need to see VB6 references for a while yet (Microsoft has seemed to replace their VB6 documentation with VB.NET documentation on their site).

   I recommend this one!




4. I saw the title of this book and picked it up - we are trying to build web services via SOAP at my company and we are not migrating to .NET for a while yet. The book proved worthy of it's title. This book covers modern implementations with legacy technology. Thank you to the authors. I suspect that there are quite a few companies out there that, like us, need to see VB6 references for a while yet (Microsoft has seemed to replace their VB6 documentation with VB.NET documentation on their site).

   I recommend this one!




5. This is a decent Wrox book. Not the jumble of pages stacked together that you get most of the time, but a well rounded compendium of nice to know things for the casual VB Developer. I say "casual", because when it comes to professional programming, you really shouldn't have to read (again) about doing some basic ADO stuff or creating an install package. Three stars for this book because it's good, but not written for a professional developer...

2 comments about Visual Basic.NET Programming (2nd Edition).

1. This book is great for a VB beginner or for the more experience programmer. This book will teach you chapter by chapter how to create effective visual interfaces. The book starts by identifying the basic concept of visual basic and then builds on those concepts by teaching more intermediate programming techniques.
   What sets this book apart from its pears is the author's dedication to detail in explaining all concepts, the end of chapter exercises that let you apply what you just learned, and the index which is very good and makes referencing a breeze.
   I highly recommend this book.



2. I signed up for an online class at Rio Salado just this past month. Mind you, I'm just a beginner but am surrounded with programmers at work so I am doing fine. I also have been working out of the Microsoft VB 2005 Step by Step book and am 1/2 way through it with no issues. Well, the class demands this Visual Basic.Net Programming, 2nd Edition Jeffrey Tsay book so I had to get it.
   Let me just say, after the 1st chapter I was already feeling the pain. This author jumps around way too much and he's quite hard to follow. He doesn't say, "now try this code, or " write this code." Instead he mentions "the code should look like this."
   Ohhh I see, after reading ahead and getting lost, that I was suppose to code that! On top of the terrible instructions comes the lack of examples. I was getting so lost I went back and forth from this book to my Microsoft book, what kind of junk is that? Sad to say, after getting frustrated every time I read this book, I said forget it and dropped the damn class. For now I will stick to my Microsoft book and make sure the next Class I sign up for doesn't requires Mr. Tsay's books!

3 comments about Programming in Visual Basic .NET w/student CD & 5-CD Visual Basic .NET 2003 software set.

1. If you want to drag and drop objects without understanding what you are doing, this is a book for you. Otherwise, there are other books that do a much better job.

   Also, in Chapter 3, there is one glaring error to note: the authors continutally describe the "@" symbol to be a wildcard in SQL Server when it is used to define a variable.




2. This is a great book for beginners and intermediate to experts whom have been working in Visual Basic 6 and now trying Visual Basic .NET.
   The book requires the open mind of a programmer and your way is easy and you will be navigating with strong wings in the wind.



3. I used this book in a programming course and I utterly enjoyed it. It is simple to understand and it comes with examples for every new concept; the examples actually work. I recommend that you do at least the first three exercises in every chapter. Doing this, will make you proficient in programming in VB.NET.

5 comments about Oracle Programming with Visual Basic.

1. This book is fantastic for moderate to experienced VB programmers that have a need to use Oracle. I don't know what I would have done without it. Because the ADO and Oracle do not mesh perfectly, there are definitely some tricks to know, especially for using stored procedures (a must in any enterprise level application). Like I said, a great resource.



2. There are very few books with "Oracle" and "Visual Basic" in the title. This is unfortunate for developers that want to gain insights into developing quality solutions with those technologies. This is especially so when the developer does not have the benefit of Oracle / VB experienced peers. Fortunately, however, Mr. Snowdon provides us with a well written book on both subjects under one title. The content is quite broad and rather simple and the examples are easy to test out. With that being said, this is definitely a great book for the novice (an experienced VB developer with little experience with Oracle or vice versa or just a plain ol' novice). Beginners could swallow it too, however, the breadth of content may prove somewhat daunting. The senior developer may encounter a degree of frustration with the simplicity or generality of some of the content, but oh well I guess...I found the following discussions very useful: Oracle physical architecture, data access (specifically ADO and the use of DSN-less connections), calling Oracle stored procedures and functions). I should mention that about half of the book deals with basics such as database design, SQL, VB, etc. So, if you need to get up to speed fairly quickly and you're not building a monolithic OLTP system then this is a good addition to your library. Besides, the price is right. I also recommend Dov Trietsch's 'VB Oracle 8' from Wrox which is better for the more advanced VB programmer (use of classes and better coverage of ADO especially in the area of dealing with server sided objects--stored procedures and server sided PL/SQL cursors).

   As a final remark let me add that Oracle developers with VB skills (or vice versa, yet again) are capable of commanding large salaries or hourly rates. This is your opportunity as a computer geek to get the recognition you deserve and to live like a rock star.

   Order yours now!




3. If you compare the size of this book with Dov Treitch's Visual Basic Oracle 8 (wrox), you might think you could get further using this book. That may be true if you're interested in doing Oracle dba tasks. But this book is titled "Oracle Programming".

   The first 6 chapters, 210 pages, are dedicated to Oracle architecture and administrative tasks, such as deploying an Oracle db. In my opinion, if you're programming you may need to know about 10 pages worth of this info, good luck finding it, and if you're doing dba work on an enterprise server watch out if you've only read these 200 pages.

   Then, when it comes to actual programming an app against Oracle the book also falls way short of the wrox title. There is not a single example in the book that actually demostrates how to create a FORM (remember those?) that links to Oracle. Published in 1999 the code is also behind, with large sections of the book dedicated to DAO, RDO, and ODBC Direct. And, as others have stated, the code describing the use of stored procedures is either wrong or out of date.

   If you want to read a long book, get this one. There are some good, clear descriptions of the theory behind cursors and the mechanics of the various middleware connection layers. If you actually want to develop against Oracle, get the wrox book!




4. Oracle owns the relational database server market and Microsoft owns the desktop market. Visual Basic is the language of choice for the WinTell development world. One would expect dozens of books available to support this paradigm, but there are not.

   I recommend this book to everyone who must use Oracle. The first 10 chapters summarize Oracle better then Oracle summarizes Oracle. Snowdon assumes that the reader is familiar with SQL Server, but he does not assume ANY Oracle knowledge. By the time this book was available I had already written two production class programs for Oracle without the benefit of experienced Oracle DBA's to help me. This book would have saved me hours of frustration had it been available.

   I have just purchased Dov Trietsch's, "Visual Basic Oracle 8 Programmer's Reference," so I cannot compare the two.

   If you are going to survive in an Oracle environment, you will need to learn PL/SQL, Oracle's extended SQL programming language for triggers and stored procedures. Snowdon has an excellent introduction, but the definitive source is Steven Feurerstein's "Oracle PL/SQL Programming" by O'Reilly and Associates. I DO NOT recommend any of the Osborne books on Oracle, even though they are Oracle's vendor of choice. Oracle makes a big chunk of its money in consulting fees and, in my opinion, the Osborne documentation protects that revenue stream.




5. This book is really the vb programmer's guide to Oracle. This is a good general reference but it does not get into depth on visual basic side. THis book would be good for someone with little knowledge of how Oracle works.