The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers [Paperback]

Matthew MacDonald (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1886411824 | ISBN-13: 978-1886411821 | Publication Date: February 2002 | Edition: 1st

Built on the Microsoft .NET framework, Visual Basic .NET allows programmers to create everything from full-featured Internet applications to sophisticated Windows programs with the latest eye- catching interfaces. This comprehensive guide is organized into a series of lightning tours and real- world examples, covering web development, XML, databases, and user interface design. Each chapter begins with an overview of changes from Visual Basic 6. The book also includes extra code examples, references to additional online material, and helpful tips about planning, design, and architecture.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The latest version of Visual Basic is VB .NET, and it's focused like a laser on Microsoft's .NET way of implementing Web Services and other distributed applications. Which is great, except that most of the people who crank up VB .NET aren't so much interested in using .NET as they are in satisfying their customers' requirements. More often than not, these have to do with accessing a database across a network and providing users--probably a couple of different kinds of them--with an attractive, speedy, and easy-to-use client interface. The Book of VB .NET shows how to use the latest version of Visual Basic to satisfy customer requirements of this sort, using .NET capabilities not for their own sake, but as a means of writing better applications that result in happier customers.

Designed for people with an understanding of how things used to be done in Visual Basic, some exposure to the .NET excitement, or a combination of the two, this book assumes less background knowledge than you might think. Matthew MacDonald is tremendously careful to introduce concepts (such as three-tier design of applications, custom exceptions, or ActiveX controls) with a combination of code and explanatory text. Combinations like this help ensure that the reader develops a practical understanding of the subjects at hand--a result of entering and compiling samples--as well as an academic understanding of why things are done as they are. MacDonald keeps one eye on the practical aspects of everything, as well, so trust his advice if you're designing your first VB .NET applications for customers. --David Wall

Topics covered: The VB .NET way of building software applications, including coverage of user interface design, VB-style object orientation, database access via ADO.NET, flat data files (including XML files), and deployment of distributed applications. The coverage of multithreading is particularly nice.

Review

"...a vital guide to the new .net technology." -- THE NEWS HERALD

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Product Details

• Paperback: 468 pages
• Publisher: No Starch Press; 1st edition (February 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1886411824
• ISBN-13: 978-1886411821
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,628,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Matthew MacDonald is an author, educator, and MCSD developer who has a passion for emerging technologies. He is a regular writer for developer journals such as Inside Visual Basic, ASPToday, and Hardcore Visual Studio .NET, and he's the author of several books about programming with .NET. In a dimly remembered past life, he studied English literature and theoretical physics. Send e-mail to him with praise, condemnation, and everything in between, to [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for experienced VB developers who don't know .NET, February 28, 2002

By 

sean birmingham (chicago) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers (Paperback)

The unique cover of this book caught my eye and the excellent writing kept me reading.

Experienced VB developers will immediately be thankful to Matthew MacDonald for assuming his audience is VB savvy and in no mood to again be introduced to the concept of the IDE and the If-Then-Else statement. The author begins his book with an introduction of the philosophical differences between the .NET framework and classic Visual Studio. He then moves onto .NET terminology and concepts. To his credit, Mr. MacDonald does a good job of addressing the why questions one might have of .NET before introducing the how-to solutions. Personally, this put me into a .NET comfort zone, which I expect, many .NET first-time users will appreciate. The author intentionally steers away from building useless Hello World applications and instead focuses on piecemeal snippets of code that highlight exactly the topic at hand. Ive purchased many technical books on a variety of subjects and, by far, this one has been the most readable.

In my opinion, this is a must-have for experienced VB programmers who want an introduction to the philosophy, concepts, jargon and syntax of the .NET framework and VB.NET.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Speaks VERY well & clearly to Experienced VB Developers, March 29, 2002

By 

Julia Lerman (Burlington VT USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers (Paperback)

First plus of this book: ONE AUTHOR. Therefore there is a consistent "voice" throughout the book. He writes as though you are having a conversation and explains things in a way that was easy for me (a VB programmer with many years of VB and many more of other xBase languages) to understand. Additionally, when he is explaining a topic and mentions another process that might be new to a VB programmer, he will address that right away. Even if just to say, "by the way, that other thing I mentioned is explained in Chapter 10". My big test for this book was if someone could FINALLY explain "delegates" to me, and he passed with flying stars. I have read two magazine articles and two chapters from other books on this topic and they were like reading physics manuals. So MacDonald has me as a new fan!

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to move to VB.Net, Buy This Book!, October 9, 2002

By 

M. Naman "GO IRISH!!!" (Morganville, NJ US and A) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Book of VB .NET: .NET Insight for VB Developers (Paperback)

This book was terrific. I usually do not read technical books cover to cover, I usually just go to the chapters I need when I need them. However, this book was so good, that I read every page. The author does a terrific job of explaining the differences between VB and VB.Net. It has great examples and terrific insight into .Net, OOP, Bugproofing and error handling, XML, databases, ado.net, and much more. If you are serious about becoming a VB.NET developer, you must have this book.