Customer Reviews

Hitchhiker's Guide to Visual Basic and SQL Server: William R. Vaughn (Microsoft Programming Series)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Just when you think he might give you some useful information, he blurts out some attempt at humor. I'm trying to learn access to SQL/Server from Visual Basic and he' trying to be funny. And by the way, where's the code! Be forewarned, this book has very little code examples of whatever it is Mr. Vaughn is trying to explain.

This is a ½ inch book compressed into nearly 2 inches. Take out the author's chatty and "colorful" asides, and where's the beef?

Maybe there's some good stuff on the CD-ROM. Nothing in the book led me to believe so, and I haven't looked.

There are some interesting historical and business sidelights, however this does not compensate for the lack of solid technical information. The author is now a Microsoft employee, and has taught VB. I certainly would not pay Microsoft's prices for training of the same quality as this book.

This book does cover a lot of technical details about how VB and SQL server work together. However it is filled with non working examples, lacks practical examples, contains boring and unnecessary history, assumes that you have worked with VB and SQL from VB 3.0. The book is more the author's experiences wth development at Microsoft and not the real day to day application for us programming consultants who need answers and fast. I have spent 10 hours with the book and only have managed to read 40% of it because of it is slow reading. There is an enormous amount of repetition in the book. The abundance of sidebars such as the IMHO detract from continuity. Also I have 3 hours into the first example in chapter 2 which was published incorrectly.

This book was recommended to me by by a Microsoft Trainer. I bought the book, but didn't really use it for almost 6 months. I felt it was a little 'talky' and did not address specific issues I was interested in at the time. However, as I've progressed with SQL server, I've realized how good this book really is. It gives an excellent understanding of the underpinnings of SQL server and the different VB interfaces. It helped me through some difficult problems by giving me a better understanding of what was going on at the server level. You cannot rerally use this book as a reference tool. There is not much sample code. You need to read it cover to cover to get all of its benefits. I highly recommend this book.!

I have read many of Mr. Vaughn's books, attended his lectures at VBits and have personally conversed with him on SQL issues. Simply put, this book is a must-read for all serious VB developers looking to unleash the power of Visual Basic when dealing with SQL server issues. Written with a nice touch of humor, Bill does a great job of singling out both good and bad methods of data access. Previous commentors who bashed his books obviously have not even read them. My recommendation: BUY THIS BOOK!

Make sure you get the 6th Edition for the latest ADO stuff.

Vaughn's practical approach continues to entertain and educate with his from-the-trenches perspective. You can tell that he's really sat at the keyboard and tried to do real development with VB6 and SQL Server.

Not a tutorial or a complete reference, but chock full of technical nuggets, MS insight and practical advice.

This is a good book for experienced programmer. I found it very useful. It, however, does have some examples do not work. Don't recommand to the novice.

but it lacks many programming examples to the things that need more (working) explanations. I hope the sixth edition doesn't go so much into the history of VB and SQL. I really don't care how it came to be what it is today, just explain to me how it works right now.

I enjoyed the objective and informative style of the writer. He clearly understand his topic and is able to also explain it to others. Buy !!

This book is chock full of everything you might ever want to know about VB & SQL Server. My major annoyance is that there are not enough code examples. Many times in the book Mr. Vaughn tells you that he knows how to do this and you can do this and that but he fails to provide example code and leaves you pretty much on your own to figure it out. The book would be much better if there were more practical solutions and less banter about his days at Microsoft. He also goes into too much history and evolution. Who cares how the Jet 2.0 used to do things? I want to know how to do things NOW. Perhaps this is very interesting to some folks but me, I buy books to get answers, practical solutions, "How To" scenarios. Mr. Vaughn just beats around the bush too much, and in many instances never illustrates the very thing most programmers want to know; where is the code?