[.ca] Visual Basic.NET How to Program (ISBN 0130293636)

Don't believe the negative reviews:
This is simply a great book (and the best I have found for learning VB.net from scratch). Unfortunately for me, I paid too much attention to the negative reviews on this book, as well as the higher (relative to other VB.net books) price. You get what you pay for, and this book is worth it, even though it is more expensive. I don't know the authors from adam, and I am not their friend. I simply want to help others who are learning VB.net from scratch, like me, and do not have the flexibility in their schedule to take a college course. (I already have an engineeing degree, I don't want more classroom time!) I ended up buying this book almost last, after buying Visual Basic.net by Petroutsos, the Microsoft press books (VB.net Step by Step is a JOKE), VB.net bible, and Karl Moore's Tutorials. Dietel's books simply blow all of the above away. Also, Dietel's books are used in serious VB.net college courses, while none of the above are. Makes you think. By the way, I ended up reselling many of the other books I mentioned on Amazon, and bought more books by Deitel. I noticed that there are some Microsoft employees giving Deitel's books bad reviews. Can you say "COnflict of Interest" ??!!

The Greatest:
I just got this book in the mail yesterday, and I love it. It is laid out perfectly for the novice .Net programmer. It is ideal for those of us who learn by doing (i.e. exercises and examples). Most books on programming just pack in tons of examples and text, but no exercises. Not Deitel. They load you up with exercises at the end of each chapter. Also, I like the full color lay-out. The VB 6.0 version isn't in color, so this was a delightful surprise. Some might find this distracting, but to me, it is refreshing. If you want to learn VB.net from the ground up, GET THIS BOOK!!

Exhaustive, and worth every penny.:
I am experienced with 'Top-Down' programing in Basic. When I finally bought Visual Basic.NET, I discovered that it was a whole different animal from what I was used to, and the Object oriented approach to programing is something I'm still having trouble getting my mind around. (Too many old habits to unlearn.) I needed a thorough book to guide me. That is what I have found in Visual Basic.NET How To Program (Second Edition) by Deitel. The authors cover a tremendous amount of material. The topics and Visual Basic key words are presented at a swift pace, yet the authors cover each subject in depth. As a result, the book is thick, information dense, and a bit of a dry read. Some of the more interesting features of Visual Basic wind up pushed off until deep in the book by the depth with which the fundamentals are covered. For example, Timers are not introduced until almost midway through the text, at roughly page 600. And while a simple type of page-flip animation is introduced in the later chapters, bit map graphics, collision detection, sprites, masks, and other game-oriented essentials are not covered at all. This is understandable considering the intent of this textbook. Arcade game programing is simply outside the scope of the book, and had they been included with the same depth, we would probably be looking at a $150 book of 3000 pages or more. The best way to deal with an information dense book such as this one is to keep a highlighter and supply of blank index-tabs at hand. As each new key item is presented, make and place a tab, encyclopedia style in rows, along the edge. This allows you to instantly flip open to what ever topic you need to review as you study and work with your own programs. I have almost three full rows of tabs (70 in number) for the first 400 pages of the book alone. There have only been two places in the book I struggled with due to lack of sufficient explanation. As an aid to anyone who plans to buy this book, I will include a couple footnotes at the end of this review to help you over those two areas. Another very strong point for this book is that the example codes are current and compatible with the latest version of .NET. Many supposedly '.NET' texts were written using beta versions of .NET, and as a result are often not fully compatible. There is nothing more frustrating then trying an example code only to have it blow up because the author used a VB 6.0 command which is no longer supported. The Deitel book does not suffer from this problem. So, 5 Stars! And if Deitel ever decides to write a book on .NET graphics, I'll be first in line to buy one, even at $70 a copy. This leads me to my one real gripe, which is not associated with the content of the book itself. My gripe is that I paied a LOT of money for a 1500 page paperback. The book itself is worth the price, but this is a book which deserves a hard cover; especially considering the fine quality of the paper, the colored texts, the cost, and the information dense content. It is a book I will return to again and again, so it pains me to see the edges of the paper covers starting to show foxing and wear in spite of my best efforts to protect them. This is a university textbook after all, worthy of any library, so why not put a hardcover on it?? -Science_1 ** FootNotes ** Note: Page 65 &67, Changing the name of a module: In Visual Basic.NET 2003 there is a third step you must take to change the name of a module or the build will fail and you will get the error message "Sub Main() not found in module...." The error is the result of a broken link. The compiler winds up looking for a module with the old name and fails to find it because a module with that name no longer exists. After changing the Program file name and the module name as instructed on pages 65 and 67, you must also change an application property to fix the broken link. Step 3 then, is to click on the console application name in the Solution Explorer window, and then click on the 'Properties' icon at the top of the window. (The Properties icon is the small button on the far right, at the top of the Solution Explorer window.) The 'Properties' window will open. Look for the field labeled, 'Startup Object'. You will see that it still contains the old module name. Change the name to your new module name and click the \oOK\c button. This will fix the broken link and the name change is complete. *** *** Note: Page 188 Creating the GUI interface for the example code. The procedure could have been better explained. Here is what you need to do: 1. Start a new project. (Windows App.) 2. Use the tool box to build the GUI interface. (Add Textboxes, Labels and Buttons to match the book illustration. 3. Change the names of all components to those used in the book, using the properties window. 4. Double click on the 'Maximum' button on the Form, and add only lines 29-43 from page 191 of the book. (The rest of the code you see in the book is added by Visual Basic.NET and is normally hidden from view.) 5. Build and run. ** End Footnotes **

Excellent how-to and textbook: but skim before buying:
This book has a very distinctive layout seemingly intended to make it easier to read their extremely dense content. It is packed with useful introductory and moderate level VB.NET information, presented in a systematic teaching format more than a reference format, although it seems to be a compromise of both. I recommend considering this book as a combination introduction and one-volume reference to VB.NET for those who are going to be primarily using that language for their work on the Dot Net framework, and especially for those who already have some programming experience. It covers programming basics well, but very concisely. The basics of Web Services, Web Forms, and various kinds of applications are covered in a solid fundamental way with useful but simple examples. I also recommend peeking inside first to be sure that you don't find the distinctive layout too distracting. Their visually dramatic use of different colors and fonts (for example, they often use a larger font in addition to bolding, making the key terms jump out at you visually) makes it easier to find useful things quickly, but I think many people will find it tiresome when reading large portions of the book at once. For those who find the layout too distracting but are impressed by the content and organization, another book in the same series, "Visual Basic .NET for Experienced Programmers" has much of the same content presented in a more subdued style more similar to most reference guides. The book is a mixture of "how to" and textbook and contains a CD with code, and so will particularly appeal to those who want a strong formal background in the concepts but also want to get started immediately with programming. This book builds on working code samples in an effective way so that you can apply the concepts as you learn about them. This approach is obviously most fruitful if you already have the Visual Studio Dot Net installed and are ready to begin learning VB Dot Net. This book is expensive but people who are reasonably comfortable with the way textbooks are organized will find this mixture of formal teaching and practical examples a very effective way to get involved in VB Dot Net programming and will refer back to this book frequently as a reference as well. I do not recommend this book for people already moderately experienced with VB Dot Net, as they will probably not find enough useful content to justify the price, even though it would help them solidify their basic understanding of the language.

A High Price for Ineffective Training Techniques:
The content and organization was pretty bad (just look at the cover). It was pretty cool that the whole book was in color, but that was negated by the ineffective use of color and the author should consider not bolding so often as it makes it difficult to read. On that note, publishers should consider using Arial font versus Times Roman. It makes it easier to read when one is tired. The range of topics was good, except for the above-mentioned inadequacies, one can get real (I assume) information out of this book, though you would need to do so in a quiet room and concentrate really hard. Code samples & illustrations are where this book really shines. Since I am already familiar with programming, I can make my way through the material, but this book also has a chapter on what is a computer. At its heart, the main problem with this book is that it tries to be all things to all people. Perhaps they should have a separate book for beginners and experienced people. The author should really review the material presented in this book for ease of reading and logical flow. Often times, I don't read a technical book from beginning to end, but look for specific topics when that need arises. I do not appreciate the convoluted layout they chose for this book. After reading this book, I feel like the author just typed a bunch of things and took a lot of snapshots from their desktop and voila...a training book. I expected a lot more from a book at this price range. My advise to the potential buyer is to keep shopping and let this expensive paper weight stay on the shelf.