Customer Reviews

Beginning Visual Basic 6

5 star:		(49)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(16)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

Peter Wright's writing style may not suit everyone but it worked for me. Unlike many learn-to-program books, Wright doesn't spend much time explaining theory. He briefly explains complex topics like variants, arrays, and classes in a few pages, and then jumps right into coding. From the first chapter to the last, he brings the reader through a series of hands-on tutorials, which is great if you like to get your feet wet immediately.

Personally, I like this style. I learned more by following the exercises and trouble shooting them than I have from other learn-to VB books that spend the first few chapters explaining theory and then walk you through a few tutorials. There was a couple times when I was pulling hair from my head trying to get the examples to work, but in the end I was able to figure everything out.

But I could see where someone who doesn't have any programming experience might have trouble with this book. I am a self-taught JavaScript and Perl programmer and have some basic understanding of programming, but I think if I picked this book up without this background, I would have been frustrated. If you are a complete beginner, you might want to consider another book that does a better job explaining the basics, and if you are the type who learns best by doing, this is the book to buy.

After a couple of months I finally finished this book. I have to admit that there were some places I felt lost (object variables, creating your own objects, creating your own controls). However, I feel like I've gotten a good grasp on the VB6 language through this book. I decided to write a simple application to help me out at work and ended up spending an entire week on it and using nearly everything (except database access) that I had learned in this book - pay special attention to error handling. I didn't read it that closely and when time came to create my own program, I had to bone up on error handling big time. I take points off for the subject of writing and reading the registry missing from the lessons of the book. It *is* covered, in one of the case studies, however, but I would think nearly every application would need to write to the registry to save application settings. All in all, there are probably not many better books for the VB beginner out there. For the next level, I've been finding 'Expert Guide to VB 6' from Sybex to narrow the gap between beginner and advanced.

I have been trying to learn VB for the past couple of years. I have been looking for a book that will do just that. I am a mainframe programmer (cobol) and therefore I am new to this type of programming. I searched and bought several books on how to learn VB, learn VB in 21 days, learn VB step by step etc. But none of them really taught me VB. I was so confused with all those books. Most of the time the author (after the 3rd chapter) will assume that you have become an expert on the subject. So I will be lost after that. What many authors do not know, is to TEACH a person who DOES NOT know the subject. But Peter is a true teacher. Reading this book is like sitting in a class and following the teacher step by step. He takes the time to re-iterate subjects covered before so that we can re-enforce what we have learned so far. The book is Sooooo organized that by the time you are done with the book, you have learned the VB beginning (basics). Initially VB was like a puzzle thrown at me with no pictures to follow up. But, this book was like showing a picture so that we can put that puzzle together. It helped me a lot. Now I am working on Peter's another book (VB6 Objects). I have not finished it yet. But these books have given be a good head start on VB 6. Great job Peter!!

Wrox Press seems to be thriving. If this book is representative of others they publish, I'm a little astonished at their success. From a strictly editorial point of view, the book is terrible. Layout does not take the reader into account, ignoring current trends in information design. For instance, sometimes code is illustrated above its explanation, sometimes below. Also, inconsistent text formatting and poor copy editing add to the reader's frustration and confusion. Clearly Mr. Wright knows his subject, however, the impression I'm left with is that Wrox doesn't spend a lot of time refining the text so to benefit the reader. Three examples of this: (1) Mr. Wright's habit of introducing concepts and topics, and then saying he'll explain them later; (2) Mr. Wright's constant failure to define what he's talking about. (When he first introduces the Mod operator, for instance, he fails to define the term (MODerate? MODernize? MODify?) and then goes on to suggest that the reader might want to read up on it -- without referencing to where the reader should turn; (3) the "How It Works" sections are not sufficiently detailed in their overview of their review of the code. That is to say, he doesn't really deconstruct the code line by line and explain how it works. Additionally, his approach doesn't provide sufficient conceptual background information. Rather he prefers you just reproduce the examples and extrapolate how they can be used in a broader or different context. Popular as these books are they cannot hold a candle to O'Reilly's well-designed, thoroughly edited, and informative books. Too bad they don't have a primer for the uninitiated VB 6 developer.

I browsed through gobs of VB6 books with a background in programming, but knew jack about VB. Most fell into one of 2 categories. The first explaning too much about coding and logic flow and not enough syntax to be useful, and others that didn't explain the example code and were little more than souped up help files.

This one was different though. Here are specific reasons:

1.It assumed you knew practically nothing about VB6 2.It gave screenshots and STEP-BY-STEP instructions to help with doing examples 3.It anticipated questions and possible errors that may occur and gave reasons 4.Very few written mistakes (I found perhaps 2 minor ones) 5.It touches on enough topics to get your feet wet for more powerful applications, but doesn't bog you down.

Oh, and to those who complained that the book was too easy for them or useless for making powerful apps: That's why it's called BEGINNING Visual Basic 6. Sheeesh.

... or possibly "to be a dj at a rock-n-roll radio station."

If you're a beginner, you'll be confused by the casual explanations, fuzzy definitions, unclear intent, not to mention language that is intended for pre-schoolers, not adults. And you'll relish spending just as much time debugging the examples and test-cases as you will building and understanding them. I suppose that's also a way to learn. Save your time and spend your money on a better book. I truly believe Amazon should create a five-negative-stars rating for this one.

This book takes you from no VB knowledge to a rather indepth level. This book is best for people who are accustomed to computers and have a general understanding for what computers do and what computer programming is. If not, the book might be a tad fast. I have and will reccommend this book!

If you already have done some programming, it'd be better to spend your money on a book with a little more serious approach. However for complete novices, who are new even to programming this book may be of good use. All in all this is good buy for those who don't have any experience in programming at all

I bought this book because of all the great reviews it got here. Unfortunately, it proved to be a disappointment. After reading over the reviews again I saw one that summed up my frustration. Someone complained that the only thing one can learn from this text is to mimic the author. It does not give you the skills necessary to really accomplish anything on your own. I think all of the other positive reviews this book got were from people who still don't quite grasp what they're doing but don't realize it. I eventually found an outstanding book called "Visual Basic 6 from the Ground Up" by Gary Cornell. I highly recommend that book a worthwhile alternative to Begining VB 6. My biggest gripe is that I didn't start there to begin with.

Don't believe the hype.

I'm using this book to teach visual design courses at a university level. It is by far the best introductory book on Visual Basic that I've ever seen.

What separates this book from other VB books is the detail concerning the nuts and bolts of using the language. Most books really just explain the stuff you probably could figure out yourself by reading the manuals. This book does a nice enough job of explaining the simple stuff, but it really shines in explaining the things that Microsoft does a poorer job with -- such as data access, creating classes, using ActiveX and even using the Windows API. And all of this is done with clear, concise explanations.

If you are struggling to get past the basics with VB, this book will help.