Customer Reviews

Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6

5 star:		(234)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I am interested in pursuing a career change to the world of programming and have been told by friends in the know that Visual Basic is a good language to start out with for its ease of use compared to other languages and its applicability in the business world today. I therefore went out and bought two different introductory Visual Basic books and Microsoft's Visual Basic learning edition. What I found in reading these books is that they give a good introduction to VB, but then at some point, the authors of the books forget you are a beginner and start introducing topics that seem somewhat advanced with very little explanation. After a while, your head starts to spin and you give up.

I then read some reviews on Amazon.com about other VB books and a lot of folks mentioned the John Smiley series as a good one to start with if you are new to programming and VB. So I picked up his first book. And I'm glad I did. True, the classroom dialog that makes up a fair portion of the book is occaisionally inane, tedious and repetitious. However, if you hear about the same concept again in Chapters 2, 5, 6, 10 and 14, it burns in your head and you aren't as likely to forget it. Generally, this repetition is only for a sentence of two to refresh our memories. But it works. I also think the use of dialog of getting the information communicated allows for a more relaxing way of learning the material than paragraphs chock full of technical data that may take you a half hour just to get through six pages. I agree that you'll probably get more information out of the typical 700 page VB book than Smiley's book, but I'll also bet you aren't as likely to get through that book either, especially if you are a beginner. I was able to get through Smiley's book in less than two weeks at about two hours a night (working through all the many examples he provides). I am currently in the process of skimming the book a second time to strengthen my understanding of some of the tougher concepts of the book (i.e. arrays took a little bit to understand - for me at least).

I have picked up the other three books in the Smiley VB series, which I hope to get through over the next couple of months. Then I might pick up those "beginner" books I started out with again and pick up some more concepts to expand my knowledge base in VB.

Overall, Smiley's book is a great way to start learing VB programming, but only if you are agreeable to a new teaching approach and you aren't expecting to learn advanced concepts in VB.

I posted my first review for this book almost a year ago, at which time I gave it a five star rating. I have gone on from there into a deeper study of Visual Basic. The wisdom of hindsight allows me to honestly say that this book has provided the foundation for all my subsequent Visual Basic skills. Prior to discovering this book, I "attempted" to work through the first chapter in several so-called beginning VB programming books only to give up in utter frustration because the author "assumed" his readers to posess far more knowledge than most beginners actually have. John Smiley really does start at the beginning without making the reader feel like an idiot. If you are even thinking about learnig Visual Basic I strongly recommend that you start with this book. Don't waste your time with any other books...You can use the other books later and you'll actually be able to understand them because of the foundation you will acquire from doing the project in this book.

Since I have completed this book almost a year ago I have purchased the other 3 books written by John Smiley. I have posted a five star review for each book in the series. As good as this book is, the other John Smiley books are even better. This book however, is the best palce to start!

John Smiley presents a complete learning environment that builds a solid programming foundation. Each book individually and collectively engages and immerses the novice programmer into the richness of the Visual Basic development environment without overwhelming you in its complexity. From Learn to Program with Visual Basic, through Databases and Objects I found learning VB programming fun, and instructive at the same time. John's use of examples to support the development of a "real world" programming task proved important in understanding VB programming, the Integrated Development Environment and it various features or tools. Using the same program, you helped create, through three books dealing with different aspects of VB programming helped solidify the programming experience, and enhance learning. More than anything else, John comes out of those pages as your guide and mentor allowing you to pick up those intangibles that come from a skilled programmer, and educator. He leaves you, and encourages further study, having given you the fundamentals to go on and tackle more advanced VB topics, because you now know how to program with VB. I kid you not. I jumped into learning VB using the MS Visual Basic Programmer's guide, and various MSDN materials. It was like going up hill in snow and ice, I wasn't getting anywhere fast! After going through John's three books, MS VB programmers guide, and other materials just fell into place, because I now had the VB skills and knowledge to appreciate and understand the presented material.

My title for this review says it all; this book is the "Real Deal" for anyone new to programming, as are all John Smiley's books in the "Learn to Program" series. I have read lots of computer related books over the years, but in terms of thought preparation by an author, this one is without peer. Not a single time throughout the book does this author seem to forget who his target audience is - beginning programmers. Absolutely NO assumptions are made concerning the reader's knowledge of coding, nor any other facet of computer program development. If you have ever considered a career change into the field of programming and I.T., but felt you never knew where to start, START HERE - DEFINITELY START HERE.

Before I make my final statement, let me say that I have no vested interest of any kind in promoting John Smiley's books, nor those of his publisher. I had not even heard of either until I bought "Learn to Program with Visual Basic 6". I now look for the latest "Learn to Program" title each time I am at Amazon's site.

Oh, that final statement: If you TRULY want into the field of computer programming but have always felt you were completely outside your element even thinking about it, John Smiley's books will change your life. They did mine.

I have been curious about computer programming ever since I began using them and have attempted several times to learn on my own, not for a career or profession but just as a hobby. I tried to read a few introductory to VB books, learn to program in ... days, and I was so totally confused and bored I was ready to throw in the towel until I saw the reviews on Professor Smiley's book here on Amazon and thought I would give it one more chance. Well I actually finished this one cover to cover and really enjoyed every page and had fun completing the exercises and designing the program. I had a few problems and questions along the way and E-mailed Professor Smiley and he responded and got me through. How many authors do you think would actually be that concerned and dedicated to teaching to take the time for that? I can not say enough about this book or Professor Smiley. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good foundation in VB programming just as a hobby in my case or as a start to a career in programming. Thank you Professor Smiley.

Let me start by saying that I'm not a beginner--I've been using Visual Basic 3 and 4 for programming on-and-off for several years now. In fact, the only reason that I bought this book in the first place was for the CD, which includes a fully functional version of Visual Basic 6 (vastly improved from 4). But my curiousity got the best of me and I did look through the book, and what I saw delighted me! This book teaches Visual Basic in a really inventive way--putting you in a class of beginners like yourself. You start from the bottom, learning about how your computer makes the code you write work, and then you learn increasingly complex code. Along the way, the students ask questions that most beginners might find themselves wondering. There are reviews, quizzes, everything! Most books *say no programming experience is required, but this one means it. I threw away over 3 years of programming experience in favor of starting from scratch because this book was so great! You won't find a better book for beginners. If I could have rated it past 5 stars, I definitely would have!

This book is truly a great place to start learning Visual Basic 6. It is aimed at individuals who have little to no programming experience and provides a step-by-step approach covering many of the major topics used in Visual Basic. Note, however, this book does not cover all of the topics that one might wish to use in Visual Basic. More advanced topics are better left to more specialized books. John Smiley does introduce topics including data manipulation, selection structures, loops, string manipulation, disk files and printer operations, arrays, error handling and he even talks about the Windows Registry. This book is written in an easy to follow format that makes it enjoyable and informative for the beginner. Intermediate programmers will also find this book useful because the topics covered will help to clear up certain points of confusion that one may have concerning basic programming techniques and conventions used in Visual Basic. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a quick and easy way to start learning Visual Basic.

I needed to learn VB quickly so this looked good. After purchasing the book it was apparent that the audience is beginning programmers, not programmers who are new to VB. My mistake, not his. If you are new to programming, this is your book; if you are an experienced programmer who needs to learn VB, look elsewhere.

If you're a complete beginner to programming, this is an excellent book to get you started with Visual Basic. Even if you're not a raw novice (I already knew SQL, PL/SQL, and a little VBA), it's a fine quick-start into the language. The storyline style of writing is unintimidating (one of the students in Smiley's imaginary class asks all the simple questions you're afraid to!), but it can be irritating if you're looking for a book that gets straight to the point with no fluff. This book has a fair bit of fluff. Type As, beware!

There are a few drawbacks. First off, although it does provide a working copy of Visual Basic 6, this version does not have online help enabled. However, this probably keeps the cost of the book + CD low; if you decide you enjoy VB programming, you can later spend the bucks for the learning edition of VB6 (and if you decide you don't like VB, you haven't wasted a lot of cash).

Second, this book includes one major project, plus some very quick exercises on specific topics. I would have liked more projects to try out, or perhaps a companion workbook with additional exercises and projects.

And third, this book is purely for introductory instruction. It is not a reference book, and you will need to purchase something more substantial to continue learning VB.

That said, Smiley's book is a quick and gentle intro to Visual Basic, and great for anyone who wants to learn it on his/her own.

Let me begin by saying that I'm the author, so let's get that out of the way.

I'm posting here to point out that the book has a tremendous amount of support materials that have never been advertised. Each of my books has a support page containing a current list of errata, downloadable files (completed exercises from the book), extra links to extra materials I have written and my email address in the event you have problems. I also run a series of online classes so that if you would like to learn with me in a more structured setting, you can do that also. You can access those materials via this link

http://www.johnsmiley.com/books.htm

I should also say that this book isn't for everyone---and you can read through some of the other reviews posted here to see why and why not.

I wrote this book for beginner level programmers, and the book is written in a unique style.

You (and I) can thank the now defunct Wrox Publishing house for the style of the book that some people absolutely love and others (primarily hotshot programmers with lots of experience) hate. The book is written as if you are participating in an actual classroom---many people, particularly those learning on their own or in an Independent study setting find comforting.

My thanks to the many people who have written to me to tell me how much they've enjoyed my books and how they have helped them achieve their goals of learning to program.

John Smiley