Customer Reviews

Introducing Microsoft Visual Basic 2005 for Developers (Pro-Developer)

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

This "book" is like a rough draft of a sales brochure. It appears to be mainly a sales promo aimed at VB6 programmers. It is a very brief overview that is filled with errors. The code download and errata are not available on the given site. The code in the book is mere snippets that constantly refer the reader to the nonexistent code download. Net framework 2.0 is frequently referred to as version 1.2 making it difficult to know if they meant version 1.1 or 2.0. It is not possible to run any code with the snippets they provide. The book has little value except as an error filled sales brochure for nonprogrammers. The authors and MS Press should be ashamed to put out garbage like this book.

This book did not teach me very much more than articles that I read on MSDN or what I learned by myself using VB 2005 beta. One interest that I had was the new partial classes concept and the book does not talk about it. It mainly describes the new bells and whistles of VB 2005. It is only a brief introduction of VB 2005.

1) Assumption of mastery of OO concepts despite fact that many developers may *not* be coming to VB2K5 from, say, Java... Given that Microsoft is famously Balkanized internally and regards VB programmers as beloved-but-second-class, you'd think the approach and assumptions would be different.

Also, as per point #4 (below), given "conceptual" orientation of the book, you'd think more weight would be given to clarity and depth of expression for actual underlying concepts (as opposed to, say, simply how things differ from the last version of ASP, or whatever).

2) Disturbingly self-congratulatory: "Gee, the whizzes at Microsoft have really topped themselves with [whatever whacky feature]!"

3) Obtuse references to difficulties of the environment: "Sure there are a kabillion esoterically-organized classes in the Base Library. Now that's not a problem because we've got the 'my' object!"

4) "Walkthroughs" rather than exercises. Code examples are "representative" rather than runnable.

You can't appeal to everyone all the time. However, this book will appeal to no one.

I've read the first couple of chapters of this book, and so far I find it a very readable introduction to VB.NET 2005.

This book works best if you have prior VB experience either with VB 6.0 or VB.NET. I have experience with VB 3.0 through VB 6.0 and made the switch to VB.NET 2002 in Beta 2.

I personally am not interested in examples prior to VB.NET but the author sometimes includes VB 6.0 examples.

The author does a fine job of comparing and contrasting collections in VB 6.0, .NET Frameworks 1.0/1.1 and .NET Framework 2.0.

The book offers a to the point introduction of generics. He explains the benefits and how and why they should be used. This particular chapter has sample code to compare the performance of a fixed length array to an Array List to a generic List. The only problem with the code is that it uses an undefined function to compare the resulting execution times. It was easy to write the missing code, but the code shouldn't be missing.

It's true that you can eventually find everything the book says either on the web or by experimenting with the product, but the book does a good job of leading you through the new features in a meaningful way.

The author refers to .NET 1.2 which today doesn't exist. We know it as .NET 2.0, but in the early days it was referred to as 1.2.

I'm going to read this book as a review to help prepare me for a VB.NET 2005 class that I will attend soon. If you already know a lot about the new features of VB.NET 2005 then you probably don't need this book.

After I've finished reading the book I'll edit this review to let you know if my feelings have changed.

I must say that this book is one of worst I have ever seen. It doesn't teach you anything you cannot find out your self after playing with vb for a week.

Interesting book, but somewhat superficial.But gives good
examples of the new language enhancements.