3 comments about Visual Basic .NET Developer's Handbook.

1. This is a tough book; "Learn VB .NET in 10 Minutes" it ain't. But if you're willing to put the effort into it, this is a book that contains real meat instead of the fluff you get with so many computer books.

   There are a few things you should realize before you begin:

   1) This is not an introduction to VB .NET; use some other book for that. This book comes after you've done "Hello World" and a few other minor programs and are wondering how to get from tinkerer to guru.

   2) There's a LOT of SQL Server stuff in this book, so if you haven't worked with SQL Server or another OLTP database (Oracle, DB2, Informix, etc.), you won't understand it. You don't have to be a SQL Server guru but you do have to know how to create tables, stored procedures, etc. Knowledge of Access is not enough.

   3) Many examples use the built-in SQL Server integration in Server Explorer in the Visual Studio .NET IDE; this requires VS .NET Enterprise. If you have a different version of VS .NET (I have Academic), then get SQL Server Developer Edition (it's reasonably inexpensive) and use the Enterprise Manager to do these parts. Trust me, while you can use Access to do some (not all) of the work, the information in the book is intense enough that you're better off not making things even more complex by trying to use a different database from the examples.

   4) It's slow going. That's normal in a nearly 1000-page book which is, unlike most computer books, packed full of information. Don't get discouraged. Realize that you may come to subjects you know nothing about (say, XML) and may have to set the book down, go do some reading, and come back to it. Realize also that if you're used to skimming content-lite books, you'll have to resist the temptation here, or you'll miss a lot.

   With all that in mind, if you're a so-so VB .NET programmer looking to make a career of it, or a VB5/6 programmer wanting to learn what's new about .NET, this book is _the_ book you need.

   However...I do have to take away a star because of typos in the code. There aren't many, but they seem to occur especially in sections where very similar code is repeated. Think of them as code-reading practice!




2. This is a good book. The authors know a great deal about the subject. The only draw back is you need to have some VB.NET coding and store procedures writing before attempting to read this book: some of the codes do not work and will require your knowledge to correct them first !
   
   Still worth it, it keeps you mentally alert.



3. The publisher has not seen fit to publish an errata for this book. It certainly needs one.
   
   In chapter 9 the ExplorerStyle sample program demonstrates how to implement custom sorting via a ListView's ListViewItemSorter property and a class implemented using the ICompare interface. Their claim, that the ListView.Sorting property can be used once a ListView.ListViewItemSorter has been assigned, is incorrect. It's impossible to sort the list in descending order by setting the ListView.Sorting property.
   
   Later in that chapter they demonstrate a technique to persist and to reload data using the serialization tools of the .NET Framework. Their sample code is able to persist the data but their code to read and to rebuild the TreeView from the saved data is incorrect. The resulting structure is wrong and the content of the final node is wrong. In addition the data they store in the TreeView.Tag property is not reloaded and assigned to the proper nodes.
   
   In chapter 12 they attempt to demonstrate the use of the Inherits keyword by creaing a child class and supplying a unique Method (CheckDigit) in that class. Unfortunately they didn't think through their example. Later they can't use the child class in their sample code. In order to demonstrate their Method they have to create a dummy instance of the child class so that they can invoke that Method on an instance of the parent class.
   
   Now you might say that my review reflects only two chapters of the book. I reply that I've only read three chapters (chapters 8, 9, and 12) and so far I am mightly unimpressed. The topics of chapters 9 and 12 are not that advanced. The fact that the authors can't get the basics right doesn't give me much confidence in their knowledge of more advanced topics.

2 comments about Microsoft Office 2000 Visual Basic Language Reference (Microsoft Professioal Editions).

1. I've been working with MS Office 2000 for several months. The extended Object Models have become more powerful for the end user, but more complicated for the developer. I recently purchsed this set of books. Wow! What a difference. This library unfolds all the mysteries of the Microsoft Office 2000 suite as well as some very helpful guidelines for Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). With these books, I've been able though to walk through examples, and create customized solutions for my users. Can't wait for the sequel! Well worth the money. I expect to reap benefits ten-fold over the costs.



2. It's about time MS put out a reference set that covers the most important topics, not abstract one's. I like this reference set alot so far because of it's thurough coverage of the Document Object Models (DOM) for Access, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, etc. I haven't gone through the whole thing yet but the only left for me to find is where they talk more about automation, something pretty much left out of the Office 97 reference set. Overall though, this is a great set of books to have at your disposal. It has already helped me come up with solutions for the custom-business applications and macros I create. There is also alot of material that wasn't in the last series. A great asset to any company with VB or VBA programmers.

5 comments about Inside Microsoft Visual Basic: Scripting Edition (Microsoft Programming Series).

1. As I have developed my expertise in this area, I put the book down and use other resources. I end up coming back to it at a higher level.
   Eg First I was interested specifically in scripting syntax, then the object model (IE3). Now I'm making sense of oleisapi servers etc through the book.



2. As a programmer I have purchased dozens of books on computer languages, and this book is one of the best. I just got the book yestarday(!) and my pages are already

   FILLED

   with interactivity. I now have the countrol over my sites that I have always wanted. Soooo much better then my JavaScript book.



3. I've had this book for an entire year here at Microsoft and have yet to use it to any satisfaction. Currently it is making a good door-stop. Instead I have found much more support for vbscript in my web pages from books like Professional Active Server Pages (both 1st and 2nd versions).



4. Maybe I was looking for the wrong type of book, but as soon as I looked through it, I realized this book wouldn't be very helpful at all and promptly returned it. This isn'y for you if you want to do ASP.



5. This book was printed in 1996. Just the foreward talks about the "recent release of Visual InterDev 1.0." The language syntax and the scripts used in the book are still valid, but there are many books that are much more recent which cover today's topics. This book is defenitely out-of-date!

5 comments about Hands On Visual Basic 6.

1. I found this a great book for beginners who want to actually DO something with the language once they understand something about it.



2. This book has been reviewed at VB Techniques (vbtechniques.com). The book takes a unique approach to teaching VB while at the same time showing how to build realistic applications. The user will be able to take skills from both tasks to future projects.



3. If you are beginning Visual Basic then I highly recommend this book. Ms. Podlin presents basic Visual Basic in a way that is light and fun . The flow of the projects are very good, with a real-life small project feel. The book gives the fundamentals of the language and Environment in a clear and hands-on manner, and then gives the reader a taste for a number of different ways in which VB 6 can be used: automation with Office apps, objects, and database access. From these projects, you can decide which was the most fun or intriguing for you and pursue that usage of the language. The downside of the book, as mentioned by another reviewer, is the need for more explanation on the integration with Excel and Word. I guess, though, that this gives more insight into the intricacies of the language.



4. Based on the title and content, this appears to be aimed at beginners (to VB, or programming in general).

   I have quite a bit of programming experience, but not in VB. I found the book useful, but other books would definitely need to accompany this one to get a sense of the possibilities with VB6.

   There was barely a reference to the rich function library VB6 has, and v. little emphasis on reusability (controls) and developing components vs. implementing them - understandable for a beginner's book. Knowing more about the capabilities of VB6 than the book revealed, I found it was a little "lite." However, my perspective is as an IT professional so perhaps I'm being unfair.

   I would have rated the book with a 4 had it not been for the following shortcomings:

   1. The projects, though useful, did not go far enough. Again, they didn't leverage many built-in functions (or show how to browse them), and the discussion of the ADO model was v. high level. Didn't get down to fields/items levels which any real application would need to do.

   2. Project 2 (even the solution on the CD) had run time errors when adding and deleting records. This is because the authors had not taken into consideration the child recordset. In other words, adding and deleting parent records gave no consideration to the impact on the associated child recordset. Just testing each option would have quickly revealed the problem, and it would have been a GREAT example had the authors included what it takes to sync. parent and child recordsets.

   Definitely a worthwhile introduction, and the hands-on approach was beneficial.




5. Overall good book after a slow start. The book claims to be intended for "Intermediate to Advanced" users but is too simple for anyone with any experience. It's five chapters before the reader launches Visual Basic and then continues to move fairly slowly. I didn't expect so much hand holding in a "hands on" "intermediate to advanced" book. Author occasionally meanders during tutorials when the meandering material would have been better served in an appendix. There are some good tips and the author points out good programming practices/conventions but inconsistently follows them. There are some misspellings, omissions and inaccuracies between the text and the CDROM but nothing that should preclude the reader from finishing the tutorial projects. Overall a good primer.

5 comments about Visual Basic 6 Mts Programming (Vb Com Series).

1. This is an excellent Book. I have bought this book almost a year ago, and this book is one of the few books that I was encouraged to finish it from cover to cover. I did not only benefit from it getting to know Microsoft Transaction Server (since I never got the chance in real life to develop an application that uses it), but it teaches you how to think logically and usefully to utilize the latest technologies in the most efficient manner. It was my first real encounter with multier technology, and it was the book that encouraged me to change my application development from the ASP tier to the VB COM tier. Finally, the examples presented was very helpful



2. The only regret I have is that I took a class and read another book before I picked up this book. This book covered everything I needed to know to get started writing MTS applications. And this is a first for a computer reference book, it was easy to read. Wrox's web site is very useful too. Full code examples for easy download and a message center for communicating with other programmers. In this case, this book was just what I needed.



3. I bought this book couple of months ago, as i needed a solution with vb6, mts, sql server and com...difficult task, i said that to mkyself, only just the names conjunction frighten me. But i read this book, file by file, thinking a bit about what i just have read, i tried some small examples and when i finished the book, what i have to do was clear. the problem was 50% solved. i started developing and also reviewing some chapters. the book is well written, it takes you from the basics of mts, com, sql til complicated matters. there are many examples that can help u better understand it. so, when u need vb and mts, read this book! some improvements could be done, e.g. the chapters treating the transations done with ado objects and very important, the transactions between com objects. though these things, i gave it 5 stars.



4. Somehow, this book, doesn't really warrant a Professional Tag to it, I was expecting a more exhaustive treatment of MTS particularly in improving performance. Which is very important when it comes to developing in ASP and VB COM. The author treated this area rather trivially, glancing through the topic with some minor tips that any God fearing vb programmer already knows.

   Rename it as Beginning VB 6 MTS programming and it will really fit my expectations as the author pretty much touched the surfaces of MTS on a very broad basis.

   The book will be really beneficial though for folks who's been programming in VB6 client and moving towards COM developement.

   Do hope that wrox can come up with a very 'PROFESSIONAL' book on ASP, VBCOM and MTS to tackle topics like program design and performance.




5. In my opioion, Professional MTS VB Programming is the best MTS book on the market. I have purchased several books on MTS and find that this book is the only book that does more than a satisfactory job in covering both theory and hands on.

   Briefly, this book takes a beginner by explaining the basics of COM and leads the reader through the ins & outs of MTS. Many advanced topics are covered including an awsome section regarding debugging and administration. Don't get the wrong idea, I have been working with MTS for over 3 years, and as a seasoned MTS developer, I learned many new techniques. Simply this book is for both the beginner and the advanced programmer who wants to "really" learn the ins & outs of MTS.

   Because this is a very comprehensive book, the best advice I can give you is for you to try it yourself!

2 comments about Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) Beginning Course.

1. well I'm studying computer scince and I've read this book.. I would recommend this book after reading an introduction book like MS VB step-by-step..



2. I've done some limited programming with earlier versions of WordBasic and Norton's scripting language -- neither of which work with Office 2000. I bought Mr. Sestak's book and spent six or seven hours with it this weekend, hoping to learn how to use VBA for tasks like those I'd done with the older tools. Alas, I'm afraid I wasted the six or seven hours!

   The book shows you how to write macros or VBA programs to do useless things: add a new slide to a PowerPoint presentation, change the font in an Excel column, create a Christmas card in Word. The point is, if I want to add a new slide to a PowerPoint presentation, there's a button in PowerPoint that does exactly that. Why on earth do I want to write complex code to do something I can do simply by pressing a button?

   Nor does the book give you a clue about how to expand into more intersting activities. It seems to me it would have been far better to create a book that shows you how to do useful things, that makes you think, "Hey, that's neat!" after doing one of its examples. After all the hours that I spent with that book, I still don't have any idea if I can use VBA to do anything I want to do.

   But there were a lot of more constructive -- and fun -- things I could have done with those six or seven hours!

5 comments about ASP.NET: A Beginner's Guide.

1. This book is horrible, it seems to assume that the reader has no knowledge of web development at all (it has sections called "ask the experts" that consist of really elementary HTML questions and questions about the web), yet, if the reader has no knowledge of web development, why would they want to read something specifically about asp.net? It references examples before they occur in the book, and it seems as though the author has no grasp at all on what he's talking about. It's amazing how this book can be as long as it is without actually saying anything. Any other asp.net book is better than this.



2. Bought this in a bookshop while browsing.

   This book is poorly organised and gives information too quickly without giving the reader a chance to practice. Code snippets are incomplete.

   Maybe there are some good things in it, but I'll have to buy another book to learn from and maybe go back to this one later.

   Don't buy!




3. I wasted several hours on an Example from Chapter 4 that I couldn't get to work. In frustration I thought I'd check out Amazon's Reviews and saw a reader says that Chapter 4 is "way off the mark". I wish I had read these reviews before I got this book. If the book had a website that listed "corrections" to the book, I would have been more forgiving and continued on but I'm through with this book. (I've never seen a book get such a bad rating from several people).



4. This book doesn't even attempt to teach you ASP.NET.
   First of all the book is not even close to be "A Beginner's Guide". It's a good thing that I have a descent background in programming and it didn't take me much to understand what the author "tries" to say. However, I don't think that beginner could easily comprehend the content.
   From a teaching style that author uses you get the feeling that he attempts to make an idiot out of everybody (the terminology + explanations makes you say "WHAT?!!!")
   And of course, this book is as far from .NET as you can get. ASP maybe but not .NET. The author doesn't even attempt to take object-oriented approach in tackling the applications.
   Oh yeah, by the way most of the code doesn't even work.



5. I tried about 5 examples out of this book and the only thing works is the debugger on visual studios telling me I have errors everywhere. Please avoid.

3 comments about Visual Basic .NET! I Didn't Know You Could Do That....

1. I have a little exposure with VB6 (3 weeks last year). I do mostly C++.
   This book is the best I found so far in terms of examples and cost. If you need a book to learn the differences between VB6 and VB .NET in a week with plenty of practical intermediate/advanced examples, this is the book. With the information I get from this book, I can understand the material from Microsoft's .NET jumpstart course with ease.

   The examples in this book are really remarkable and don't expect toy programs. If only WROX books are like this book, I will not need to spend so much time reading!




2. Is this cover along the lines of Wrox where the author/s are featured on the cover.

   I don't mind the look of this author, although he does look rather intense and he could do with a shave.




3. This book shouldn't be sold anymore because its based on the beta version of Visual Studio.NET (which the authors states in the introduction) - so some samples won't run without small modifications which is very confusing for beginners. And putting an ape on the cover isn't very approiate either.

   I like the authors other books 99 code samples for Visual Basic.NET much better.

No comments about Microsoft Word 97 (Visual Reference Basics).

5 comments about Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers.

1. This is an excellent introduction to SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic 6.0 developers. I used this book and Robert Vieira's Professional SQL Server 2000 Programming (Also by Wrox) to study for the Designing and Implementing Databases using Microsoft SQL Server 2000 exam (70-229). The 2 chapters on XML were especially good. Thearon does his best work when he works solo and this book is one of his best. I have his SQL Server 7 book and both books are well-written. I really like the "Hardware Tracking" tutorial that he follows for most of the book. This tutorial will also help with your Visual Basic skills. I have learned several new VB tricks just by following along. I hope that Thearon writes a Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic.Net Developers.



2. I had to learn SQL programming with Visual Basic 6 in about a month's time for a project. This book taught me everything I needed to know to deliver the application. Everytime I came across a stumbling block in my code or in SQL Server 2000 I found the answer in this book.

   This book will make you feel that you not only know how to make Visual Basic talk to SQL Server, it will make you feel you know more than the basics of SQL Server itself. Previous to reading this book I had no idea what a stored procedure was, or how a query works in SQL Server (I had worked extensively with Microsoft Access, and these skills were not necessarily transferable to SQL Server, though many of the concepts are similar). Now I know my way around SQL Server 2000. This book fulfilled a dual purpose.

   There are chapters on Database design, SQL Server installation, SQL Server security, Querying, Stored Procedures, the SQL language, IIS, and XML. Most of the book is taken up with what developers do everyday: the storage and manipulation of data. Over 300 pages of the book is dedicated to data in general, and how to get the most out of it using VB and SQL Server.

   If you need to create a VB6 (there is no discussion of VB.NET since the book predates it) database application using SQL Server, this is the book to start with. Its bulk pays off.




3. It's very good Books with good Price and (Wrox Press)



4. OK for beginners who want to know some of the innards of SQL server, but there are two major faults. One is that newbies to networkable machines will find themselves crushed under the weight of networking and communications jargon that the author never explains, and Win98 machines can't handle half of the book. Second, the last third of the book for some 200 pages has nothing to do with VB: the samples are written entirely in XML, DHTML, and a mere snippet of VBScript. There are better VB tools for creating Web apps that can handle big datasets and ActiveX, whereas XML has enfuriatingly slow performance and an unattractive and inflexible interface that looks like something pounded out on a typewriter (remember those?). 5 stars for the first two-thirds, zilch for the remainder.



5. I have used this book and it has proven to be a highly resourceful Visual Basic and SQL Server book, that I am anxiously waiting for the release of Beginning VB.NET Databases by the same author!!!.