Customer Reviews

Advanced Visual Basic 6

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Not too long ago I wrote about another VB book, the one we had for our first VB class at Scottsdale Community College, in Arizona (Programming With Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, by Diane Zak): talk about a bad book! Now, for the VBII class we're using this one. I have to agree that the evolution of the topics is not the best there can be (i.e. there is a jump between somewhat unrelated topics), but saying that it's the worst book or that you should not buy, etc. are not statements that do justice to the book, in my opinion.

The one thing I found about the book that I'm very happy with is the step-by-step way in which it presents the topics covered, no assumptions made. Plus the companion CD it comes with contains ALL the samples discussed in the book, which make things easy at the time of figuring out components of a program that are not visible from the code alone, because they are set within the Properties of an Object.

All in all I am taking away one star because of the way in which it's organized, as I mentioned before, but each topic covered is done in a very clear way, which leaves the programmer with no doubts about it.

This book will make you work!

Won't spoon feed you the information, more like a graduate level course: concepts are given, but you must apply it. If you are willing to put in some effort it provides a good foundation in advanced topics of VB 6.0.

Note:Recommend installing service pack 3 and using oledb 4.0 rather than 3.5.1. Found 1 database problem where the oledb 3.5.1 connection would crash the program, changing to the oledb 4.0 solved the problem. All the example programs thus far have compiled an run without a problem with SP3 loaded.

Good: Covers advanced topics like ADO,SQL,Toolbars, Active X, API calls,intro to the internet,trees and many other useful subjects. Assumes you know the basics already- NOT for someone just starting out in VB- so it doesn't waste a lot of time and pages reviewing what one should have learned in an introductory course or book. Has chapter review questions, practical problems which help re-inforce the material in the chapter. Complete example problems on the companion CD.

Possibly a problem : A good instructor would be a help. Does use code snippets which some may find inconvenient. Looking at the complete listing on the companion CD compensates for this. At times presentation can be somewhat brief. It really helps to take a concept open a new project, and play with the ideas presented as well as working problems.

I used this book in an Advanced VB class I took at Austin Community College. At first, I got down on the book but the more I keyed in the examples and did the homework projects, the more I learned - even if things didn't go 100 per-cent as advertised. I find VB a very complicated and volatile subject. Some of the examples may not work but for varied reasons. One of the problems I kept running into was fixed by downloading Visual Studio SP3 from Microsoft. Others seemed to be inherent in VB - not the book. Keep reading and doing - it's worth it.

I have a degree in mathematics; I am a teacher; I have been teaching all of my adult life. I am probably old enough to be your father - in some cases - your grandfather.

I used this book for a course at a local community college. The authors may know the subject, but they are not teachers.

I sincerely believe that you would be better of simply using Microsoft's documentation. That is bad enough. This book only compounds the confusion.

This book gave me current information that other books don't offer, and the exercises and programming projects are excellent. The topics on database, ADO, DRD, the SQL query language, ActiveX Controls, and OOP are right on. I had no problem with this book.

Great work!

I am currently taking a class and the book that Instructor uses is not really useful. I purchased this book to complement that and I started with chapter 8(class module). So far I find this book useful but poorly written. You could read and try to punch the code in but it does not compile. Care must be taken in writting books since people use it to learn.

Rather than showing how the pieces of the program come together, this book only gives snippets of the code and often the instructions appear to be incomplete or vague. Concepts as a result are difficult to understand and a person would need to be in a classroom where the instructor could fill in all the gaps in this book. Does not show any complete code for the projects. Disappointing

Ms. Littleton's review correctly points out that many of the code examples are "snippets". On the other hand, there are complete code listings, listings of class modules, and so on. If you've ever tried to read a programming book containing code listings that go on ad nauseum, you know how distracting that can be. Authors use code snippets to focus your attention on parts of a program that are essential, and not waste time looking at redundant code. The book's enclosed CD contains the complete source for many programs, including ADO/SQL database applications, ActiveX components, and a dynamic HTML application. I definitely think that it's a good idea to learn advanced Visual Basic with the help of an instructor. There are numerous tricks and traps that are difficult to enumerate even in the most detailed book. --Kip Irvine

The authors start out well by giving a review for the students on VB, and they even provide a test to make sure the student's knowledge level is where it should be to go further in VB. There is a good range of more involved topics than what you find in a beginner's course. The book covers DataGrid, DataCombo, and DataList, plus, ADO, ActiveX Data Objects, SQL, DataReport, MSGFlexGrid, MSChart, FlexGrid, Class Modules, Collection Class,Windows API, and some Internet FTP and Winsock control topics. Many of the sample programs and exercises are pretty lame, but none the less give the student a chance to see the technique applied. The reader or student will struggle using this book to learn more about VB. It is so poorly written that the student would be better off consulting other VB books on the same topic, or go to a VB web site or MS's web pages. The authors often start to explain a topic but go on to another topic before finishing the discussion of the previous. There are typos and erradata in the text as well as the sample code. There is a CD which does help to straighten things out. There are much better books on VB such as "VB 6.0 Advanced Topics" by Ekedahl, "Murach's VB 6 Beginner to Pro", "Pure VB" by Fox, "VB 6 Unleashed" by Thayer, and "Mastering VB 6" by Petroutsos, and "VB 6 Black Box" by Holzner. Irvine's & Liang's book is probably an example of the publisher's attempt in making sure they had an Advanced VB textbook for the many tech schools, colleges, and universities to use for a very popular course.

This is an awful book! This is an awful, awful, awful book!!!The authors jump around from subject to subject never really tying up or clearing up loose ends they have started. They do not have a clue as to how to lead students from subject to subject. This is probably a typical case of two instructors / professors being given a book contract to write a much needed "ADVANCED Visual Basic" textbook for colleges, universities, and tech schools to teach from. Unfortunately, not all VB programmers can write or explain what they know. I found lots of code typos and errors. Better books are: "Visual Basic 6.0 Advanced Topics" by Ekedahl, "Murach's Visual Basic 6.0: Beginner to Database Pro" by Koop, Prince, & Murach, "Pure Visual Basic" by Fox, "Visual Basic 6.0 Unleashed" by Thayer, et al., "Mastering Visual Basic 6" by Petroutsos, and "Visual Basic 6 Black Box" by Holzner. There is a lot to VB. Don't expect to find all of the answers in one book!