Book Description
Get the real-world coding guidelines, expert tips, and rock-solid guidance you need to take your Microsoft .NET development expertise to the next level. Drawing from their extensive programming and consulting experiences, respected developers Francesco Balena and Giuseppe Dimauro share 350 best programming practices for Visual Basic and Visual C#, clearly stating the purpose of each practice, and when and how it should be applied. Youll get practical, valuable advice on the rightand wrongapproaches to using different language elements, programming the .NET Framework, and working with related technologies to create reliable, scalable, maintainable, and security-enhanced solutions.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent Reference Guide !.......2007-08-31
This book was referred to me by a friend that is a very talented developer. I now see why he keeps this text on his desk while developing. The author provides excellent code examples in multiple languages. This is one of the best books that I have purchased in years !
Programmer's Holly Bible.......2007-07-07
John Robbins on the foreword of this book wrote "..No matter how you use Practical Guidelines and Best Practices, it will save you a tremendous
amount of time by helping to reduce those insidious bugs and performance problems in your
code. I've been using it with all my projects, and it's certainly made me a much better developer.."
I'm a simple .Net developer, how can i say more, from when i bought this book it is ever on my desk like the Holly Bible.
I had the honor of met both Francesco Balena and Giuseppe Dimauro it was like a normal violinist could talk with two Paganini.
A very useful book.......2007-05-01
In the [...] environment there are many different ways to accomplish the same result. This book provides information from people who are indisputably knowledgeable in the area that helps enormously in choosing between the various options. One of the most useful parts of it is the explanation that is provided for why one option has been chosen above another, which is to say, why it's a "best practice." I would recommend this book to any .Net programmer who wants to acquire concrete data that will help him in making his programming decisions.
Average book.......2006-05-17
Although there are some good insights here and there, not too much to gain.
Good book.......2006-01-17
I am a reader of Balena's books and appreciate his writings. I have read this book and would only say that the objective of the book if not teaching theory to computer science students but to explain practical guidelines.
I am a computer engineering graduate myself and have studied both thoery as well as working on cutting edge technologies for past 7 years.
There are times where most of the theories are not in line with the practical development life cycle and I have seen best of the architects breaking Mr Codds rule on database most of the times.
This book is one such master piece that gives you information on real world development guidelines and best practices and have recommended this book to most of the fresh developers in my team.
- Techie
Book Description
Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Unleashed is a deep dive into the Visual Studio 2005 tool. Specifically, it will provide you with solid guidance and education that will allow you to squeeze the ultimate productivity and use out of the Visual Studio 2005 development environment. This book folds in real-world development experience with detailed information about the IDE to make you more productive and ease transition from other development environments (including prior versions of Visual Studio). This book will also help you increase team collaboration and project visibility with Visual Studio Team Systems and it will give you straight, to-the-point answers to common developer questions about the IDE.
Chapters include:
- Code Viewers, Explorers, and Browsers
- Refactoring Code 8
- Writing ASP .NET Applications
- Defining Standards and Practices
- Introduction to Visual Studio Team System
- Work Item Tracking
- Unit and Load Testing
Customer Reviews:
No codes samples available.......2007-03-07
An excellent book. Lots of examples. Unfortunately, you will have to type in all the code examples yourself as the Sams Publishing web page does not have any downloads even though the back covers says that they are available.
Great breakdown on the tool for novices and professionals alike!.......2007-02-21
This book did a great job of revealing the breadth of features available in the product. I think this book is quite useful to not only those that are just getting started but those that are seriously considering implementing VS/TFS in the organization. Even if you are an experienced user of Visual Studio you will certainly learn several new tricks. In fact, I reference this book with my clients who are interested in rolling out VS and TFS.
Microsoft Visual Studio Unleashed.......2007-01-10
The book has been a disappointment; it assumes that the reader knows almost everything there is to know about the Visual Studio 2005 program, and the explanations are vague, and far and few in between.
I just wasted valuable money buying this book. I should have checked its contents at the local bookstore first before purchaing it.
This book is poorly written.
Full of insightful information.......2006-12-18
I was very impressed with the content found in this book, there was wide coverage of not only the in's and out's of using the IDE, which is an excellent introduction to any beginner, but also great coverage of Visual Studio Team System and the automation model found within Visual Studio allowing anyone to extend the IDE, which is more in line with an intermediate developer. This book is well suited for the beginning to intermediate developer looking to get up to speed with Visual Studio 2005. Great job Lars and Mike.
Nice information, puts it all in context..........2006-10-08
OK... I can see why Microsoft Visual Studio has been such a popular IDE for developers. Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Unleashed from Lars Powers and Mike Snell does a nice job in explaining the value of the latest version of this classic, as well as being an in-depth guide to the feature set...
Contents:
Part 1 - An Introduction to Visual Studio 2005/.NET: A Quick Tour of Visual Studio 2005; A Quick Tour of the IDE; .NET Framework and Language Enhancements in 2005
Part 2 - The Visual Studio 2005 Environment - In-depth: Solutions and Projects; Browsers and Explorers; Introducing the Editors and Designers; Working with Visual Studio's Productivity Aids; Refactoring Code; Debugging with Visual Studio 2005; The Visual Studio Automation Object Model; Writing Macros, Add-ins, and Wizards; The .NET Community - Consuming and Creating Shared Code
Part 3 - Visual Studio 2005 at Work: Creating ASP.NET User Interfaces; Building Windows Forms; Working with Databases; Web Services and Visual Studio
Part 4 - Visual Studio Team System: Team Collaboration and Visual Studio Team System; Managing and Working with Team Projects; Source Control; Work Item Tracking; Modeling; Testing; Team Foundation Build; Index
For someone like me who isn't a .NET developer, I found Part 1 very useful. The intro and tour gave me a great overview of what the IDE offers, and I could easily relate the different parts to the environment (Eclipse) I'm already familiar with. With that background, I could have easily taken Parts 2 and 3 and become productive in relatively short order. The authors maintain a good blend of text to screenshots to code, so I felt like I was getting a combination of reference and tutorial information in one volume. The argument could be made that all this information can be found in the help files, as is the case with most applications. But it's a lot easier to learn a tool like this (at least for me) when there's a structured guide that puts all the information in context. The Unleashed titles do just that, and this one is no exception...
Book Description
Brilliantly compiled by author Juval Lowy, Programming .NET Components, Second Edition is the consummate introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework--the technology of choice for building components on Windows platforms. From its many lessons, tips, and guidelines, readers will learn how to use the .NET Framework to program reusable, maintainable, and robust components. Following in the footsteps of its best-selling predecessor, Programming .NET Components, Second Edition has been updated to cover .NET 2.0. It remains one of the few practical books available on this topic. This invaluable resource is targeted at anyone who develops complex or enterprise-level applications with the .NET platform--an ever-widening market. In fact, nearly two million Microsoft developers worldwide now work on such systems. Programming .NET Components, Second Edition begins with a look at the fundamentals of component-oriented programming and then progresses from there. It takes the time to carefully examine how components can simplify and add flexibility to complex applications by allowing users to extend their capabilities. Next, the book introduces a variety of .NET essentials, as well as .NET development techniques. Within this discussion on component development, a separate chapter is devoted to each critical development feature, including asynchronous calls, serialization, remoting, security, and more. All the while, hazardous programming pitfalls are pointed out, saving the reader from experiencing them the hard way. A .NET expert and noted authority on component-oriented programming, Lowy uses his unique access to Microsoft technical teams to the best possible advantage, conveying detailed, insider information in easy-to-grasp, activity-filled language. This hands-on approach is designed to allow individuals to learn by doing rather than just reading. Indeed, after digesting Programming .NET Components, Second Edition, readers should be able to start developing .NET components immediately. Programming .NET Components, Second Edition is the consummate introduction to the Microsoft .NET Framework--the technology of choice for building components on Windows platforms. From its many lessons, tips, and guidelines, readers will learn how to use the .NET Framework to program reusable, maintainable, and robust components. Following in the footsteps of its best-selling predecessor, Programming .NET Components, Second Edition has been updated to cover .NET 2.0. This invaluable resource is targeted at anyone who develops complex or enterprise-level applications with the .NET platform--an ever-widening market.
Customer Reviews:
Great, but...........2007-08-24
This book is incredibilly well written and has a very comprehensive way of explaining the ways of Component oriented programing. Explains its differences betweent COP and OOP. You can easily understand what the author has in mind, BUT, I found one big flaw on this book. Not that this flaw will make the book less comprehensive, but it will make it less fun.
In all concepts it presents Examples, but not exercises. It explains the features and then give a short example to it. It doesn't stimulate the reader to actually build a code within a major context. You read, see the example and move on to the next topic. It is not fun to just stay around and read and read and read without actually working with the book. It is still a great book, but the approach to the reader could be better.
Excellent book with an eye for Component Oriented Design.......2007-08-16
While going over component and control design, this book teaches the principles of the component-oriented design philosophy. The author doesn't pander and isn't overly verbose; getting to the point and explaining his meaning efficiently and succinctly. Definitely worth the read.
Good for Newbies.......2007-06-08
Book goes through the entire process of building controls, nothing is untouched. It dwells however much too long on the 'standard' topics of installation, distribution, setting up etc and is rather lite on the the real stuff like building controls that look and feel like commercial controls. Would be a good book if it had 20% of the pages.
Excellent in what it covers.......2007-03-08
Pros:
Material that was covered was done an a very concise, clear and justfied manner. More so than just about any other computer book I have read. As others have mentioned, the explanation of the mechanics of remoting are excellent. The coverage on the other topics was incredibly informative as well its just that Remoting stands out since the topic is not covered as well elsewhere. Several helper/extension class examples are included which help to enforce good practices. I found the coding practices addendum to be a helpful summary of the topics discussed in the book.
Cons:
While remoting is discussed, it defers discussion of the EnterpriseServices namespace (object pooling, transactions, lifecycling, etc) to a previously published book. I find these features a necessary consideration in component design. Instead of feeling like I know everything about dot NET components, I now feel like I have to read another book. Having said that, WCF, at least at first glance, appears to be among other things a rework of ServicedComponents into an attribute driven dot NET framework and less reliant on COM+. I hope that is the case because JEE has already proven that inhertance based component mangagement such as ServiceComponent cramp system architectures. I also feel like the book does not adequately cover the use cases appropriate for designing a distributed application. It covers the mechanics/how fine but it doesn't address the when and where portion of distributed components.
Juval's latest book covers WCF and I am looking forward to reading it and hope it will address the areas I felt still needed to be addressed by this book.
Interfaces Factoring.......2007-02-02
On page 73 of this book the author wrote:
" An in-depth discussion of how to decompose a system into components and how to discover interface methods and properties is beyond the scope of this book".
I would encourage the author to write a book that discusses specifically about interface factoring and to provide more examples on how components should be decomposed and organized in large scale applications.
Book Description
This book will help you solve more than 300 of the most common and not-so-common tasks that working Visual Basic 2005 programmers face every day. If you're a seasoned .NET developer, beginning Visual Basic programmer, or a developer seeking a simple and clear migration path from VB6 to Visual Basic 2005, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook delivers a practical collection of problem-solving recipes for a broad range of Visual Basic programming tasks.
The concise solutions and examples in the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook range from simple tasks to the more complex, organized by the types of problems you need to solve. Nearly every recipe contains a complete, documented code sample showing you how to solve the specific problem, as well as a discussion of how the underlying technology works and that outlines alternatives, limitations, and other considerations. As with all O'Reilly Cookbooks, each recipe helps you quickly understand a problem, learn how to solve it, and anticipate potential tradeoffs or ramifications.
Useful features of the book include:
- Over 300 recipes written in the familiar O'Reilly Problem-Solution-Discussion format
- Hundreds of code snippets, examples, and complete solutions available for download
- VB6 updates to alert VB6 programmers to code-breaking changes in Visual Basic 2005
- Recipes that target Visual Basic 2005 features not included in previous releases
- Code examples covering everyday data manipulation techniques and language fundamentals
- Advanced projects focusing on multimedia and mathematical transformations using linear algebraic methods
- Specialized topics covering files and file systems, printing, and databases
In addition, you'll find chapters on cryptography and compression, graphics, and special programming techniques. Whether you're a beginner or an expert, the Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook is sure to save you time, serving up the code you need, when you need it.
Customer Reviews:
Useful, but also contains filler.......2007-07-09
There are various sections in this book that are pretty basic and unnecessary to even an amateur programmer but there are also lots of other sections that are just chock full of great stuff and even advanced programmers would benefit from them. It also suffers from the common tendency to say very simple things using a lot of words in order to take up a lot of space. I think I even found a tip or two which show up twice in different sections. That being said, there's still a whole lot of worthwhile material in this book.
Perfect For VB 2005 Developers!!.......2007-04-06
'Visual Basic 2005 Cookbook: Solutions for VB 2005 Programmers' by Tim Patrick is a perfect reference and solution manual for any and all Visual Basic 2005 developers. Written in typical great O'Reilly cookbook fashion, this book is chock full of nuts with 700+ pages of goodness.
Chapter Overview
01. VB Basics
02. Development Environment
03. Application Organization
04. Forms, Controls, Other Objects
05. Strings
06. Numbers And Math
07. Dates & Times
08. Arrays & Collections
09. Graphics
10. Multimedia
11. Printing
12. Files & File Systems
13. Databases
14. Programming Techniques
15. Exceptions
16. Cryptography & Compression
17. Web Development
This is simply a fabulous book that any and all VB programmers of today need to pick up. Not only will you save time, you'll enjoy doing it while reading this wonderful guide!!
***** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Outstanding Reference for the "Rest" Of Us.......2007-04-04
If you're new to programming in Visual Basic .NET, but have programmed in some other langauge before, there is always this barrier that one faces when they know, to a certain degree, the task they want to accomplish, but often fall short trying to figure out the syntax or method to implement it here. That is what this book does. It's an essential cookbook, in the language of choice, that bridges that barrier.
It's also a great side-companion for beginners, mainly because the intro books do a fair job of getting people started, but they also need to figure out specific tasks or methods of doing things that tutorial books won't cover. It does not overstate the obvious, and it serves up pretty clear impressions and explanations on what it delivers.
Great ideas for the newbie.......2007-03-17
Very helpful for a casual programmer like myself. Just remember to download the "recipies" to avoid retyping.
Very useful VB 2005 reference.......2007-03-09
I've found this book quite useful. There are lots of practical tips, tricks and techniques for VB 2005. I've gleaned a multitude of ideas for use in an intermediate VB class that I teach.
Book Description
Learn how to build impressive ASP.NET 2.0 Websites in both C# and VB from scratch.
Using a practical step-by-step approach, the authors introduce the ASP.NET framework, teach you about database design, and walk you through obtaining, installing and configuring all the freely available software you need to use ASP.NET 2.0. They then show you how to build several real world Web-based applications that you can put to use instantly in your projects.
Readers will learn how to:
Develop a fully functional Corporate Intranet with a dynamic navigation menu
Create an email newsletter system using ASP.NET 2.0
Build web forms using web controls, validation controls, and rich controls
Program in both C# and VB
Handle unforseen errors gracefully using a range of error handling techniques
Secure applications using form authentication
Use code-behind to streamline code.
This book doesn't force you to choose an ASP.NET language in advance - all code examples are presented in both C# (pronounced see-sharp) and VB. You can choose which one you want to use, and follow-it throughout the book. Best of all, this book doesn't assume any prior programming knowledge!
As an added bonus, this book doesn't force you to choose an ASP.NET language in advance - all code examples are presented in both C# (pronounced see-sharp) and VB.NET. You can choose which one you want to use, and follow-it throughout the book. Best of all, this book doesn't assume any prior ASP.NET knowledge!
Customer Reviews:
An excellent book.......2007-10-03
I have read many technical books and this is so far the best. I know my way around computers and the basics of programming and wanted to learn some more of ASP.NET. This book has been an excellent tutorial. Even the basics of object oriented programming and SQL are explained. Loved it.
There is one caveat. The book was written for Windows XP and IIS 6. If you are using Windows Vista and IIS 7 like me, be prepared to search for some stuff yourself. Do not worry though, some Googling will help you along the way.
good for beginner and semi-experienced asp.net developers.......2007-08-23
i got into dot net when it first came out, when sample codes on how do things you take for granted were scarce or non existent. I was converting an ASP app to dot net. was ahead of my time, ran into too many mundane issues, cancelled my project after 5 months. Now I want to try ASP.NET for real.
I've found this book to be very helpful in connecting the dots. The samples are good enough . Highly recommend it.
I found the right book to learn asp.net.......2007-05-24
I am an asp programmer. And I would like to transform myself into asp.net. after trying one title after another by reading the PDF files that I found on the net, I thought I found the right book ASP.NET 2.0 Unleashed from Stephen Walther. I bought the book and learned from it. But I got stuck somewhere after the basic controls. The author assumes that the reader is either intermediate or advanced level with the .NET programming skill. I am not at that level yet. Again I went back to find other PDF files and I found this one and I knew this was the perfect fit for me. I bought the book and I am very happy with this book. it teaches asp.net 2.0 from beginning level. It explains in details all the basic knowleges that an asp.net programmer needs to know. Then it moves on to ado.net. But all these are just basics only. not going too far into advanced level. One thing that I like is that I build the project while learning. There are minor wording error. If you don't know programming, then this is the problem. If you already know programming (VB,C#), then you can see the wording error and correct yourself.
If you are looking for a book that set you up from start with .NET, this one is the right one. If you already have the basic of asp.net and would like to get to the advanced level, then you may be disappointed.
Its a good book.......2007-02-24
The Book overall is good, but there are some mis-types in the code that, if you follow along, will screw you up. Its also vague about some things, but if you have some basic knowledge of visual studio and/or asp, it is a good reinforcement.
Here's all the information you need to get up and running with ASP.NET.......2007-02-03
Examples, insights, and even code samples pack a reference for programmers working in C# and VB in an updated second edition to a popular step-by-step guide. Here's all the information you need to get up and running with ASP.NET, from how to build a first web site to applying the free code samples within to more advanced projects. It's a top pick programmers - especially newcomers to ASP.NET - won't want to be without.
Book Description
Visual Basic 2005 is designed for productivity…and so is this new addition to Murach's bestselling VB series. It moves at a professional pace to teach you how to develop Windows Forms applications using all the time-saving new features in Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Studio 2005.
That means you'll learn how to:
• create database applications using the new data sources feature and new data controls that are now layered on top of ADO.NET (database processing is the function that's changed most dramatically in this release of Visual Basic)
• use new object-oriented features like generics, My objects, partial classes, and class diagrams that save you time on everyday functions
• take advantage of new Visual Studio features like code snippets, Auto Correction, and ClickOnce deployment that simplify the tasks of creating, testing, debugging, and deploying applications
But if you're new to VB.NET, you'll also gain the core skills that haven't changed. So you'll learn how to validate data...handle numeric, date, and string data…do repetitive processing using arrays and collections…handle exceptions in a structured way…work with text, binary, and XML files…access data with ADO.NET…and make practical use of OOP features like inheritance and interfaces. What's more, these classic skills are seamlessly integrated with what's new, just as you'll mix new and unchanged features in your own applications.
But that's not all! Check out the extended table of contents and index in Search Inside the Book to see all that this book covers. By the end, you'll be producing Windows database applications at a professional level. And you'll be ready to master ASP.NET 2.0 web programming (please see Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with VB 2005; it takes up where this book leaves off).
Customer Reviews:
Among the best beginner VB texts, maybe 'the' best ..........2007-08-23
I've been a self-taught developer off and on for ten years and I've relied on books primarily for learning new languages. And the Murach series are consistently the very best texts for self-paced learning. The latest VB offering carries on the tradition with very clear and consise explanations, along with helpful real-world application demonstrations and exercises at the end of the chapter. And none of the pages and pages of errata you must sort thru with many companies (Wrox ... God, don't get me started. :o( ). I'm giving it a FIVE to offset some of the ridiculous assertions made elsewhere about this excellent text.
One of the best VB2005 Texts.......2007-01-18
My perspective on this book is that of a true beginner. I know a lot about programming and languages, but have no experience designing or writing programs/code beyond following the bouncing ball in books such as this.
This book is great...and not so great at the same time...for a true beginner. It is exactly as advertised, "No other book teaches so much, so fast, so thoroughly," but therein lies the problem for we experience-challenged readers. The pace is quick, i.e., topic-to-topic, and many times I had lingering questions about what I'd just read while finding myself halfway into the next topic. The book assumes a certain level of knowledge and/or experience that is somewhere between novice and expert...and I'm still at the 'step-by-step book' stage...so I expect to get a lot more from it in the months ahead than I have thus far. I know enough now to know that what I will need is in there...
That said...whatta book! It will be among the most used of my reference books because it covers such a wide range of topics so well and because it covers those topics comprehensively. As my understanding of the language progresses, I'll have this book to refer to when I need to learn more about specific aspects of the language and its implementation.
I've wasted some money on VB2005 books, but not on this one. Anne Boehm and Mike Murach delivered the goods.
Not useful unless you have never programmed........2006-12-15
I've worked with C and C++ for a while, but never basic until 3 weeks ago when I started the work on this project. I decided to order this book before I began getting my hands dirty with any of the existing VB that I would have to update. While I waited for this book I started working with VB and found that it was much easier than I had expected. By the time the book came in the mail I had practically no use for the "Language Essentials" or "Object Oriented Programming" sections of this book. All that left was a section on databases and XML, which is not really what I bought the book for. I expected this book to cover some of the extensive library that Visual Basic 2005 offers, but there as no coverage outside of a few number and string functions and the afore mentioned database functions. Do NOT by this book if you expect to ever use multiple threads as this book has only a SINGLE sentence on delegates, the means by which Visual Basic calls asynchronous events, and cross threaded function calls. I found this book to be a mediocre reference book for some of most basic library functions, so unless you have never seen a programming language before, or you want it for its database section I would recommend look for a different book.
Murach's Visual Basic 2005.......2006-10-19
I like the layout of this book. Each topic is explained in detail using paired pages with the first page of the pair containing the detail and the second page of the pair containing a summary of key points. There are also a number of benchmark projects that demonstrate the concepts that have been covered. I was particularly impressed with level of detail contained in the chapters on Database Programming and Object-Oriented programming. I would particularly recommend this book for beginning to intermediate level developers. I look forward to reading other books by this publisher.
Excellent Training and Reference Book!.......2006-10-09
This book should be required reading for any application developer using Visual Basic. The layout of syntax, guidelines, and examples on one page with explanations on a matching page provide an easy and quick reference to information. The "paired pages" format: How-to on the left page and examples on the right makes this a great reference book.
It is a straight-forward presentation of Visual Basic 2005 information and a book that will stay on my bookshelf.
Amazon.com
For the several million developers using "traditional" Visual Basic 6, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Step by Step will put the new VB .NET within reach with a very approachable tour of the new version's features used to build traditional client-side software. If you've been put off by the newfangled books on .NET that spin the new VB as Internet-focused and unrelated to your existing expertise, this title shows you how to leverage your knowledge to get going with Microsoft's newest platform.
The salient feature of this text is the author's patient presentation style, which stresses "traditional" VB programming. (While VB 6 did technically support Web programming, the unarguable reality is that most developers have built form-based programs for years.) This volume shows you how to use the same techniques for the new VB .NET. The author begins his presentation here with a clever slot-machine application to get you started. Other early sections cover the basics of VB .NET from a language perspective, including basics like variables, data types, and flow control statements. This handsomely printed volume makes use of two-toned color (in blue) to highlight differences between VB 6 in VB .NET, making it an invaluable resource for programmers making this transition.
Other essential technologies get their due here as well, from basic control programming with Windows Forms, integrating with ActiveX controls, to a very approachable guide to the new ADO.NET APIs for databases. Coverage of how to bind data to a variety of controls, plus using the new VB .NET DataGrid control, will show you how to do all you did in VB 6 in the new .NET. Instead of getting bogged down in details, the author does a good job of presenting what working programmers need to know. Later chapters delve into .NET APIs for working with files, strings, and collections. This title doesn't pretend to cover ASP.NET in any detail, though there is a useful introduction to the subject, as well as how to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer Object to build VB applications that display HTML and other Internet content.
The reality is that most VB 6 programmers will have to learn a lot when it comes to .NET. Before launching into a whole new paradigm of Web development, this book shows that today's VB has a lot to do with the older VB 6 standard. This text will be nearly indispensable for any VB 6 programmers making the leap to .NET. It even suggests that rumors of the death of the traditional client-side VB application may be somewhat exaggerated. This title shows you that the new easier deployment and productivity features of VB .NET may extend the life of such applications in one of the best-available tutorials for learning VB .NET, bar none. --Richard Dragan
Book Description
For the several million developers using "traditional" Visual Basic 6, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Step by Step will put the new VB .NET within reach with a very approachable tour of the new version's features used to build traditional client-side software. If you've been put off by the newfangled books on .NET that spin the new VB as Internet-focused and unrelated to your existing expertise, this title shows you how to leverage your knowledge to get going with Microsoft's newest platform.The salient feature of this text is the author's patient presentation style, which stresses "traditional" VB programming. (While VB 6 did technically support Web programming, the unarguable reality is that most developers have built form-based programs for years.) This volume shows you how to use the same techniques for the new VB .NET. The author begins his presentation here with a clever slot-machine application to get you started. Other early sections cover the basics of VB .NET from a language perspective, including basics like variables, data types, and flow control statements. This handsomely printed volume makes use of two-toned color (in blue) to highlight differences between VB 6 in VB .NET, making it an invaluable resource for programmers making this transition.Other essential technologies get their due here as well, from basic control programming with Windows Forms, integrating with ActiveX controls, to a very approachable guide to the new ADO.NET APIs for databases. Coverage of how to bind data to a variety of controls, plus using the new VB .NET DataGrid control, will show you how to do all you did in VB 6 in the new .NET. Instead of getting bogged down in details, the author does a good job of presenting what working programmers need to know. Later chapters delve into .NET APIs for working with files, strings, and collections. This title doesn't pretend to cover ASP.NET in any detail, though there is a useful introduction to the subject, as well as how to use the Microsoft Internet Explorer Object to build VB applications that display HTML and other Internet content.The reality is that most VB 6 programmers will have to learn a lot when it comes to .NET. Before launching into a whole new paradigm of Web development, this book shows that today's VB has a lot to do with the older VB 6 standard. This text will be nearly indispensable for any VB 6 programmers making the leap to .NET. It even suggests that rumors of the death of the traditional client-side VB application may be somewhat exaggerated. This title shows you that the new easier deployment and productivity features of VB .NET may extend the life of such applications in one of the best-available tutorials for learning VB .NET, bar none. --Richard Dragan
Customer Reviews:
Easy Learning.......2006-12-06
I have used several books to learn Visual Basic and have used it in writing programs. This book was a real treat. It filled in many gaps that were left by other books and even by college course work. The book is very clear and easy to use. The author goes step-by-step, teaching concepts and working through examples. There are sample programs included on CD or to download to make the process hands-on and understandable. I highly recommend it.
just an ok book.......2006-06-03
This book is great to get your feet wet in VB.NET because it has great tutorials on how to do the basic things in VB. The teaching style is pretty good keeping a good pace through-out the book and almost every single explanation is very well written. Also, all code examples worked for me.
The problem that I have with this book is that it fails to introduce the reader to the big picture. This book will show you how to do all this handy-dandy stuff and after reading it, you will easily be able to build your own applications but you wont have a true understanding of VB.NET. You won't have a clue how all of it works together wich will put a demper in your coding abilities. I would only recomend this book if you buy it along with another book such as; [...]
mindless repetition of the obvious.......2005-10-22
How many times do you have to read that, in order to create a menu item you have to
Press down the arrow key
......
and then
Press down the arrow key
....
and then
Press down the arrow key
??!! the author can fill pages and pages with this kind of "step by step" instruction. It's not a matter of being new or not to VB .NET, it's a matter of expecting the author to assume that the reader has some common sense. Avoid this book!
Casual VB user stepping into VB.Net.......2005-09-23
As a casual programmer in VB I thought this book was good as a refresher for VB and a stepping stone into VB.Net. It is not a book for experienced VB programmers wanting to learn VB.Net. A lot of the examples are strictly VB while telling you some of the differences in VB.Net. Bottom line: If you are experienced in VB do not buy this book. If you are Mr. Joe Blow, "I program once in a while in VB, and need a refresher course, and I want to delve into VB.Net", by all means buy this book.
The Best beginning book I have used so far.......2005-08-17
I am a programming virgin and wanted to learn VISUAL BASIC.NET. I first purchased VB.NET programming for the absolute beginner and the SAMs Teach yourself VB.NET in 24h. These two books were good (SAMs Teach yourself VB.NET in 24h was better) but both emphasized typing in code rather than understanding the code. The explanations seemed lacking in comparison with the Microsoft VB.NET Step by Step book. The Step by Step book actually explained the code in better detail. I also found this book easy to follow and understand. This book was great.
Book Description
Fully updated for Microsoft's Visual Basic .NET 2003, best selling author, Diane Zak gives introductory programming students a solid, successful base on which to begin their programming curriculum.
Customer Reviews:
Not that enthused.......2006-11-11
I purchased this because it was the required text book for a class. I am not at all impressed with it and told the teacher to find a different one for next year. I find her style hard to follow and learn from.
Terrible explanations.......2006-07-24
This book is very poor for teaching students new languages and I would never recomend it to fellow teachers. I had more problems with students trying to do problems from the book than any other. The author provides a nice example problem in each lesson, however she does not explain the purpose of any of her steps. Basically, she says copy this code and it will work. When the students went to do the exercises in my online class they had no idea becasue her one limited example did not give then enough practice or explanation of the concepts. The actual content of the book is not bad, just never use the book for an online class. The author needs to revise and have a number of different examples as opposed to just one.
Good Tutorials but bad for reference.......2005-08-16
I was forced to buy this book for my App Dev course. Im a begginner so im happy that there are plenty of easy to follow tutorials but im not so happy that there is no reference section. The index is really really really poor. You would think that because of the thousands of instructions in VB that half the book would be an easy to find reference. But no!..Diane makes you trudge through the tutorials step by step slowly building your knowledge. Its frustrating! One plus about this book is the included version of VB.net on 6 cds. I guess i saved money in that respect.
Book Description
- Offering authoritative, field-proven advice from a Microsoft insider, this book teaches the underlying commonalities that developers can use regardless of their language choice or development tools
- Extensive use of examples and working code provides developers with practical and authoritative coverage of the CLR (common language runtime) and APIs, the building blocks that make it possible to write in any choice of language
- Primary topics discussed include generics, MSIL (Microsoft Intermediate Language)-based framework libraries, advanced framework libraries, distributed development foundations, and more
- Version 2.0 is the version that provides the foundation for Visual Studio 2005
Customer Reviews:
just simply buy this book... really.......2007-04-15
I could write a lengthy review but it would be useless because I could do the same with just a few words - "just simply buy this book... really". It's really well written and easy to read. Depending on you interest you might find something interesting particularly to you, but I really liked chapters on arrays and collections, I/O, files, internationalization, security, threads and transactions.
Great P2P.......2006-10-18
Before buying this book, I had no idea what .NET was. This book gave me the insight from the ground up to a fairly advanced features of .NET 2.0. Now, I am evangelising .NET to my whole team and pushing to upgrade from (the out of support) VS v6.0 to VS 2005.
I have a very strong background in COM/COM+, C++, and VB. That helped tremendously in my understanding in the discussions on generics, delegates, interfaces, abstract classes, threading, etc.
This book would have gotten a 5-star from me if not for the minor spelling and grammatical errors. But hey, we're programmers not english teachers =)
Pretty good book to know .Net FrameWork.......2006-09-14
I liked this book pretty much. Contents are well organized and clearly described. Lots of pointers to good reference materials for topics discussed and not discussed. Gives an indepth knowledge of how objects are created and handled. It's pretty interesting and you can't just keep the book down.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know .Net FrameWork either a beginner or experienced.
Note: Knowing framework well really helps to write good programming, rather than just knowing a language.
A Valuable and Recommended Authoritative Source of Dotnet info.......2006-08-07
Took me a while to finally review this after receiving this book several months ago, but I felt it definitely necessary to leave my opinion. Joe Duffy strikes a good balance between writing an organized source of solid NET 2.0 reference material, and just simply talking to you as an expert programmer who is sitting in the next cubicle from you.
And instead of trying to stay overly structured (covering a specific subject and nothing else in each chapter like I've seen a lot in computer books), he will sometimes mention a feature of the CLR that has its own chapter later, but that you should look make sure to combine with the current topic for great results.
Joe hit that perfect target of not too many examples, but supplying enough of them. It seemed like in every instance that
I started to get a little ansy and wanted to an example of his dotnet development instruction, there it was, a perfect code example to show me the way, and not too much of it.
Duffy goes out of the way to inform you as to what CLR functionality is especially useful, and compares a particular API feature with the way another language (such as C++/Stl or Java) implements it.
It's very evident that the author is actively using dotnet (even moreso, he is also a Program Manager on the CLR Team), because he will be sure to tell you that something is very useful
(like he said about anonymous delegates), or that something is powerful (the new 2.0 Generics or Contraints. ).
It's just pure programmer to programmer value.
And he'll be sure to alert you as to how to minimize any potential gotcha's when running 1.x apps under 2.0 by telling
you what compatibility switches to use, and he mentions an important one related to exceptions
(by the way, great coverage of exceptions).
It's a very thorough treatment of 2.0. Covers all of the important topics and more, of the DotNet framework.
It would be useless to continue with more here in this review, because it's a given that you need to have all of the quality books concerning a particular language or framework if you plan on mastering it, so no more need to be said.
highly recommended.......2006-07-03
This book is a rare combination: it gives a deep insight into the working of the .NET framework and at the same time is easy to read and understand. No matter if you are a novice or experienced programmer, Joe Duffy helps you to design and/or write healthy source code. My favourite chapters are Dynamic Programming and the Common Type System, as the latter explains the differences between the various .NET programming languages. This is not a HowTo book, it is profound background information targeting everybody from architects to programmers and of course students.
Highly recommended.
Book Description
An in-depth reference for C# developers, this book goes beyond the basics and covers key, advanced topics of C# programming. An ideal base class library reference, this book provides expert insights, hands-on instruction, and practical code samples.
Customer Reviews:
The best!.......2007-07-05
Having sweated through thousands of pages of other C# books, I found Francesco Balena's eloquence as refreshing as a perfectly chilled Corona. It immediately tightened my loose grip on particulars such as string formatting, delegates, generics, regular expressions and interoperability. And it is the best discussion of the base classe I've ever seen. Be aware that this book does NOT intend to teach programming. However, if you're someone who can code in some OOP language, knows C# syntax, and seeks professional proficiency in this language, then in my opinion, there is no better book you could own.
Excellent Book.......2007-04-17
Balena, is an good author in Programming languages. This book explain the different topics in a simple manner easy for the newbie and experienced to keep track on business.
C#, is good for Visual Basic programmers with desires to work in C. The Class is the base in C++ and Balena makes a nice book explaining that.
Fantastic!.......2007-02-24
This is THE book to own if you do any kind of C# programming. Its not oriented towards web controls, or winforms, etc... but explains everything from files/streams, assemblies, attributes, the object lifetime, and ESPECIALLY Generics. The generics chapter alone is worth the cost of the book.
This is a TOTAL "look under the hood" of the C# BCL.
Great Book!.......2006-12-21
This is a great book and a must have for all the .net developers. I recommend CLR via C# along with this book.
Great C# Book.......2006-07-18
This is not a learn how to program in C# book. However, once you have at least some experience in programming with C#, this is the next book you should buy. The chapter on interfaces is worth the price all by itself. After reading it, I finally have a good idea of what interfaces are all about and the circumstances under which they should be used. As long as you keep in mind that it is not a beginners book, you will not be disappointed.
Books:
- Practical Switching Power Supply Design (Academic Press Professional and Technical Series)
- Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#
- Pro .NET 2.0 Windows Forms and Custom Controls in C#
- Professional Ajax, 2nd Edition (Programmer to Programmer)
- Programming Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0 Core Reference
- Programming WCF Services (Programming)
- Real-Time Rendering (2nd Edition)
- Real World Camera Raw with Adobe Photoshop CS2 (Real World)
- Real World Web Services
- Regular Expression Pocket Reference
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
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- unSpun: Finding Facts in a World of Disinformation
- 19 Varieties of Gazelle: Poems of the Middle East
- Washington, D.C.
- Accounting Principles, Chapters 1-13, Electronic Working Papers
- The Essential Gunnar Myrdal
- The Winds Of Time and other stories
C & C++ Windows Programming
| Development
| Microsoft
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 2005: The Language (Pro Developer)
Programming Microsoft Visual C# 2005: The Base Class Library (Pro-Developer)
Programming Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0 Applications: Advanced Topics
Programming Microsoft ASP.NET 2.0 Core Reference
Programming Microsoft ADO.NET 2.0 Core Reference
