The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers
by Matthew MacDonald
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Book Summary Information
Author: Matthew MacDonaldEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-02
ISBN: 1886411824
Number of pages: 468
Publisher: No Starch Press
Book Reviews of The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers
Book Review: Good idea, good concept, sloppy implementation
Summary: 3 Stars
This book has a very good intention and concept - to introduce VB6 developers to VB .Net. In general it is a very good book. Not very deep, but good enough to start working with VB .Net and bee reasonably productive. So, if not for sloppy writing, I would probably give that book all 5 stars.What do I mean by sloppy? For once, author uses terms object and class interchangeably throughout the book. Sometimes it is contextually understandable what he means, but often it might be very confusing, especially for people relatively new to OO. Then there are errors and typos in code examples. Some of them are also very confusing. For example: on page 80 author introduces the new VB concept - delegates. For VB6 folks this is something fundamentally new and strange.
In code example author defines delegate type and calls it ProcessFunction. Then he defines variable of this type and calls it ProcessDelegate. After that on the same page he shows how to use delegates and assigns value to ProcessFunction and retrieves value from ProcessFunction.
From the context one should understand that in the last two cases the variable ProcessDelegate should be used instead, and that this is just a typo. Yet, given that VB .Net now supports shared properties and methods, when Class (Type) name can be used where one expects to see Object (Variable), this types of mistakes are very confusing and annoying.
I would not go here into more examples of books imperfections. There are some more. Not terribly many, but enough to frustrate.
Would I recommend this book? Yes, if you have patience and some other VB .Net book to resolve inevitable confusions.
This could become a great book in its next edition if author takes time to make it a bit more accurate and precise.
Summary of The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers
Built on the Microsoft .NET framework, Visual Basic .NET allows programmers to create everything from full-featured Internet applications to sophisticated Windows programs with the latest eye- catching interfaces. This comprehensive guide is organized into a series of lightning tours and real- world examples, covering web development, XML, databases, and user interface design. Each chapter begins with an overview of changes from Visual Basic 6. The book also includes extra code examples, references to additional online material, and helpful tips about planning, design, and architecture.
The latest version of Visual Basic is VB .NET, and it's focused like a laser on Microsoft's .NET way of implementing Web Services and other distributed applications. Which is great, except that most of the people who crank up VB .NET aren't so much interested in using .NET as they are in satisfying their customers' requirements. More often than not, these have to do with accessing a database across a network and providing users--probably a couple of different kinds of them--with an attractive, speedy, and easy-to-use client interface. The Book of VB .NET shows how to use the latest version of Visual Basic to satisfy customer requirements of this sort, using .NET capabilities not for their own sake, but as a means of writing better applications that result in happier customers.
Designed for people with an understanding of how things used to be done in Visual Basic, some exposure to the .NET excitement, or a combination of the two, this book assumes less background knowledge than you might think. Matthew MacDonald is tremendously careful to introduce concepts (such as three-tier design of applications, custom exceptions, or ActiveX controls) with a combination of code and explanatory text. Combinations like this help ensure that the reader develops a practical understanding of the subjects at hand--a result of entering and compiling samples--as well as an academic understanding of why things are done as they are. MacDonald keeps one eye on the practical aspects of everything, as well, so trust his advice if you're designing your first VB .NET applications for customers. --David Wall
Topics covered: The VB .NET way of building software applications, including coverage of user interface design, VB-style object orientation, database access via ADO.NET, flat data files (including XML files), and deployment of distributed applications. The coverage of multithreading is particularly nice.
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