Customer Reviews

Dan Appleman's Visual Basic 5.0 Programmer's Guide to the WIN32 API

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

After several recommendations I found on the internet, I spent the $40.00+ and purchased the book. Very disappointing. Many of the declarations found in the code are never explained - some are never even mentioned, even though they reside in the demo code. Constant references to his "Spyworks" software in the book and megabytes wasted on the CD with self-serving "testimonials" and hawking of his software - complete with video! What a waste. I kept thinking that the CD would have been an excellent tool for highlighting the more difficult complexities in the book with either audio/video or audio only explanations, but instead I watched an infomercial on a product I will never buy. In addition - on my system at least - some of the demo programs crashed. "MenuLook", as an example, gave me page-fault-arama whether it was run straight from VB5, or even compiled and then run. IMHO, that's complete horse pudding. At least make sure the demo will run before you put the price sticker on, and cheerfully hand me the book. In a word - disappointing.

I really enjoyed reading this book to get up to speed on Win32 programming before jumping into Visual C++. For any Visual Basic programmer who would like to get the most out of a program, the Win32 API is a must, and this book clearly shows how to call on the Win32 API for maximizing the potential of any Visual Basic project.

I was disappointed that enterprise APIs were completely ignored. Windows NT networking and WNET... APIs are not here. If your writing single user GUI type apps, this book is fine.

I use it as a dictionary. I tried reading the first 4 chapters, but found it to be full of stuff I'll never remember. I use it frequently as a reference guide, but there are times (rare times) where I've not been able to get the help I need. Definately not for the beginner.

Must have for VB programmers using Win32 APIs. I read the first 4 chapters completely after that it has served me as a refrences in my professional developement career.

Not at all recommended for novices.

The best book I've found on API's for VB5. Needs to be updated. Not for beginner.

Dan Appleman is the top dog when it comes to VB and the API. No other book comes close. My only complaint, and as such it is quite small... is that he does not cover ALL api calls. However, it is a small complaint because the book is already a monster in size and obviously if you wanted to include EVERYTHING in the various APIs you would need a SET of guides... not one book.

This book is definately a must for windows developers. It contains easy to find references with concise implementations. This book has saved me hours of development time.

At the time of writing this, I have 8 programming books dealing with different languages and different aspects of each language. So far, this is THE BEST book I have ever read, by far.

I am a starting new VB5 programmer who read Sam's Teach Yourself VB5 in 21 days. After reading that I was amazed at the Dan Appleman book. This is simply the best book to learn win32 API and take control over your computer. I give it 5 stars without a thought.