[.ca] Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers (ISBN 1590592735)

The book has been marvelous!!!:
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!!!.

Taught me everything I needed to know...:
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.

OK for starters, but 33 percent irrelevant:
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.

Excellent introduction to SQL Server 2000 for VB Developers:
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.

Beginning SQL Server 2000 for Visual Basic Developers:
It's very good Books with good Price and (Wrox Press)