Accelerated VB 2008 (Paperback)

by Guy Fouché (Author), Trey Nash (Author)
Key Phrases: new processor, new random, lock owners, Shared Sub Main, Imports System Imports System, Public Class (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Visual Basic 2008 offers powerful new features, and Accelerated VB 2008 is the fastest path to mastering them, and the rest of Visual Basic, for both experienced Visual Basic programmers moving to VB 2008 and programmers moving to Visual Basic from another object–oriented language. Many books introduce VB, but very few also explain how to use it optimally with the .NET common language runtime (CLR). This book teaches both core Visual Basic language concepts and how to wisely employ VB idioms and object–oriented design patterns to exploit the power of VB and the CLR.

Accelerated VB 2008 is both a rapid tutorial and a permanent reference. You’ll quickly master VB syntax while learning how the CLR simplifies many programming tasks. You’ll also learn best practices that ensure your code will be efficient, reusable, and robust. Why spend months or years discovering the best ways to design and code VB when this book will show you how to do things the right way, right from the start?

• Comprehensively and concisely explains both Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Basic 2008 features
• Focuses on the language itself and on how to use Visual Basic 2008 proficiently for all .NET application development
• Concentrates on how VB features work and how to best use them for robust, high–performance code

What you’ll learn

• How VB works with and exploits the CLR
• How to use arrays and collections
• How to handle events with delegates
• How to design and use generic types and methods
• How to thread efficiently and robustly
• How the new VB 2008 anonymous types, lamba expressions, and extension methods work and how to use them

Who is this book for?

If you’re an experienced VB programmer, you need to understand how VB has changed with VB 2008. If youre an experienced object–oriented programmer moving to VB, you want to ramp up quickly in the language while learning the latest features and techniques. In either case, this book is for you. The first three chapters succinctly present VB fundamentals for those new to or reviewing VB. The rest of the book covers all the major VB features in great detail, explaining how they work and how best to use them. Whatever your background or need, youll treasure this book for as long as you code in VB 2008.

About the Author
Guy Fouché is a business intelligence and decision support system consultant based in Dallas, Texas. He's developed many Visual Basic systems in a variety of industries, supporting companies of all sizes. His VB programming experience dates back to Version 1 (yes, Version 1).

Trey Nash is a principal software engineer working on PC Bluetooth solutions at Cambridge Silicon Radio. Before focusing on .NET, he specialized in COM/DCOM programming in C, C++, and ATL. Trey earned his bachelor of science and master of engineering degrees in electrical engineering from Texas A&M University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Apress (January 28, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590598741
• ISBN-13: 978-1590598740
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #196,678 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Classic Language Reference Book, March 27, 2008

By	J. Huang "A humble programmer" (Mobile, AL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Accelerated VB 2008 is a classic language reference book. It follows the pattern of language reference book. It begins with explanation of types and variable, namespaces, statement, control flow constructs, and iteration and looping constructs. Then it goes to class, class state, method, and interface. Then it goes down the path to operator overloading, exception handing, collection, delegates and events, and generics. It finishes with threading, best practices, and introduction to LINQ.

A few thoughts after reading the book:
1) VB 2008 is finally an object-orient language. Every object must inherit from System.Object. Java has the same feature 10 years ago.
2) With a little bit help, VB 2008 (binary form) can run in Linus box.
3) Extension method can add method to an existing CLR type. This enables us to expand the functionality of a type without needing to create a subclass.
4) Mr. Fouche and Mr. Nash explain a way to deal with exception handling elegantly. The basic idea, I believe, is from traditional database programming concepts such as commit and rollback, at the expense of more space and more programming. The details can be found at chapter 8.
5) In delegates and events, the authors point out that delegate can be an alternative to interfaces in implementing simple `Strategy' design pattern. For a complex `Strategy' with `Composite' or hierarchy interfaces, I imagine that delegate solution might become very ugly.
6) LINQ. It is very useful for XML and in-memory object manipulation as long as the object implements IEnumerable (of T) interface. It might only work with Microsoft SQL database.
7) Mr. Fouche and Mr. Nash also point out the VB 2008 is not exempt from bleeding edge of new technology issues such as compatibility, etc.

In sum, it is a classic language reference book for the VB camp developers. I would give it four stars. I reserve one star for those books having real-world complicated projects being built step by step as we move across each chapter.

4.0 out of 5 stars VB Language Extensions Reference, August 17, 2008

By	Donald J. Triplett - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This edition is obviously designed to enhance the knowledge of experienced VB .NET developers by relating the features of the latest version of VB.NET. It concentrates on new features in the VB language itself, not on the enhanced version of the Visual Studio and .NET Framework products that it is inherently tied to. It does, however make sense to show how the language structures are enforced by the framework, and the book does this well. Code examples are complete yet concise.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Possible problem with Kindle edition, July 14, 2008

By	Peter N. Dobson Jr. (Honolulu, HI USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Potential buyers of the Kindle edition should carefully check a sample download to see if a problem I found has been corrected. A number of sections of sample code, or portions of sample code, were rendered in a tiny typeface that does not change when using the Kindle Text key. Amazon has said they will inform the publisher, who provided the electronoic version, but unless they fix it you may find the book quite difficult to use.