Customer Reviews

Hardcore Visual Basic

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been a VB programmer ever since VB 1.0 and a C/C++ programmer before that. With all of the "Teach Yourself xxx in 7 Days" books for beginners and the regurgitated help files with 80% of a 1000 page book taken up with code samples, Hardcore Visual Basic is hands down the best book ever written about programming with Visual Basic. Yes, it doesn't cover specific targets in depth (e.g., database programming, Internet programming, etc.), but it gives you the tools and the knowledge to really utilize the language and environment to its full potential. I haven't released a commercial or internal product without the VbCore.DLL and the Win.TLB support since I bought the book. If you don't have this book yet, be sure and get it while copies are still available. It is a true shame that it is going out of print...

I have been using VB off and on for 5+ years to develop very application-specific front-ends for embedded systems. These front-ends have typically been developed for a small group of users, under severe time constraints. I've found VB to be an efficient tool for this kind of development, and I've found this book to be one of the most useful for figuring out how to do things with VB that are unusual or unexpected. Several other programmers I work with, using VB to build non-business, "unorthodox" front-ends have had the same experience. The book is not a substitute for a comprehensive VB reference, nor was it intended to be, as far as I can tell.

The author has been criticized for complaining too much about what he perceives as deficiencies in VB. In my opinion, this is one of the things that makes the book valuable. All tools have limits -- it's nice to have a sense of what they are, before one embarks on a coding project, let alone making time estimates for a manager. Software development is about the tradeoff between development time and application specificity. VB is a something of a general-purpose tool and it's good to be warned about the things that are hard to do with it.

Even though this book is out of print, I would like to review it. Better late than sorry. This is the best book about VB I have ever read, and a tremendously inspiring book about programming. Even though VB is not my preferred programing language, this book really gave me a kick and I started to appreciate VB in a way that I had never done before.

Bruce McKinney does not only reveal all those sneaky details about VB that you whish you had known long before, but also teaches you a lot of useful stuff about the windows API, type libraries and COM. It is not a book for beginners, but should be read as soon as possible after passing the beginners level. Read it carefully from cover to cover, because it will reveal important details about windows and programming that you don't find in other books about advanced VB.

Unfortunately, this book is about VB 5.0, which means that it has lost its relevance in the ever changing world of Microsoft Visual Basic. It's a shame that Bruce McKinney did not write a programming book about a more stable programming language. With his knowledge, passion and inspiring writing style I'm sure it would have been a classic book about programming.

Definitely not for beginners. For a VB book, a lot of API stuff is well-covered. Also includes a very clear, if high-level, discussion of COM. The examples are well thought-out and executed. The real gems are the Windows type library and his VBCore and VisualCore DLLs. Win32 is essentially VB-unfriendly and Bruce McKinney has solved that problem for you. Just the time saved Declaring and cutting from win32api.txt cost-justifies this book. He's written a VB wrapper for almost everything that you would want to use. He even shows you in the sample code how to build your own vtables in VB. This book comes on the MSDN disk for VB6. Updates to the type library and his DLLs that work with VB6 can be found in his article. Buy it anyway and read it cover to cover. You'll be a better developer for it.

This is a book for people who consider themselves accomplished Visual Basic programmers. It is chock full of great ideas and concepts.

To me, programming is a war of ideas. There are as many great ideas in a single chapter of Hardcore VB as in most other entire books on VB. This will equip you well for that "war of ideas".

This book is humorous, and the author imparts a great deal of knowledge at the same time. This is one of the best VB books ever, and is head and shoulders above the rest. I highly recommend this book to ALL my students.

A book that could well end up as a door stop waiting for you to be ready to read it. In the meantime a CD full of Type Library's and source code that can with little or no tweeking be used in your own apps. Put 1% of Bruce's book into practice and you will be a better programmer for it. With a deeper understanding of Windows and Visual Basic, classes defined and discussed in the book and supplied(CD) open up a wealth of answers and understanding. Look at any VB news group, Browsing files, API calls, String handling are all common questions and a just a few of the items that you will become quite expert in, and look back at those news groups with a knowing grin, if only they knew of Hardcore Visual Basic.

Hardcore Visual Basic is a fantastic title - one that any experienced VB developer should have at least read (if not OWN). Now that it is out of print (and MS has taken it off the MSDN CDs), locating a copy will be harder than ever but keep your eyes open. McKinney has a great writing style and pulls no punches. Not all of it is immensely practical, but if you want to deepen your understanding of VB and really sink your teeth into some technical detail (which VB so often hides from you) this is the book for you.

Hardcore Visual Basic is a fantastic title - one that any experienced VB developer should have at least read (if not OWN). Now that it is out of print (and MS has taken it off the MSDN CDs), locating a copy will be harder than ever but keep your eyes open. McKinney has a great writing style and pulls no punches. Not all of it is immensely practical, but if you want to deepen your understanding of VB and really sink your teeth into some technical detail (which VB so often hides from you) this is the book for you.

This book will almost certainly be of no use to you unless you're a full time, fully fledged VB programmer. If you are, then there's a wealth of information in here about to do things VB was never designed to do. It describes how to do many things 'properly' but, in my experience, it's weak on how to do things simply. More often that is what is more important in the long run.

This book will enable you to develop the fastest, most versatile VB applications ever but unless you're a concientious as well as a competent coder, no-one will ever be able to maintain you're code again.

WARNING! FOR HARDCORE PROGRAMMERS ONLY! If you don't know Visual Basic do not buy this book. But if you have some extra time and the patience you can know exactly what VB can do. The authors writing style made getting through it easier also.