Learn to Program with Visual Basic.NET [Paperback]

John Smiley (Author)

Book Description

Series: Learn to Program | Publication Date: January 11, 2002

This guide teaches readers how to program by using a classroom setting and dialogue between students and the teacher to explain important programming and visual basic concepts. Nearly 100 questions are asked and answered in each chapter in the form of a running dialogue between the instructor (John Smiley) and the students. The book anticipates questions students have - and answers scores of others they never thought to ask.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

The easiest technical book you'll ever read. Open it up and see for yourself!

Join Professor Smiley's Visual Basic .Net class as he teaches essential skills in programming, coding, and more. Using a student-instructor conversational format, this book starts at the very beginning with crucial programming fundamentals. You'll quickly learn how to identify customer needs so you can create an application that achieves programming objectives--just like experienced programmers. By identifying clear client goals, you'll learn important programming basics--like how computers view input and execute output based on the information they are given--then use those skills to develop real-world applications. Participate in this one-of-a-kind classroom experience and see why Professor Smiley is renowned for making learning fun and easy.
*Understand computers at a fundamental level, and see how the programs you write fit into the Windows environment
*Get briefed on essential terminology, including memory, data types, and graphical user interface
*Prepare for successful programming by learning the Visual Basic Integrated Development Environment (IDE)
*Learn how to write a Visual Basic program by first developing the user Interface--then write code to complete its functionality
*Understand the proper sequence to events and writing code
*Perform more detailed programming functions like string manipulation, loops, and arrays

About the Author

John Smiley (Cinnaminson, NJ) is a Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP), Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD), and Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). He is also a consultant and professor at Penn State University, Philadelphia College of Textiles and Science, and Holy Family College. John has consulted and created several online programming courses for ZDU, SmartPlanet, and ElementK. Feel free to visit John's Web site at http://www.johnsmiley.com

Product Details

• Paperback: 800 pages
• Publisher: Osborne/McGraw-Hill; 1st edition (January 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072131772
• ISBN-13: 978-0072131772
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 7.3 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,418,592 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I live just outside of Philadelphia, Pa. I am the president of my own Computer consulting firm, Smiley and Associates, and I provide computer services to companies both large and small in the surrounding Philadelphia Metropolitan area.'Currently, I am working on a long term contract programming position doing mostly Visual Basic work, but also some JavaScript and Oracle Database work.

Over the years, my consulting contracts have included contract positions as a Systems Analyst, Mainframe IDMS Database Administrator, Oracle Database Administrator, Network LAN Administrator, UNIX Systems Administrator, and programming positions using these languages: COBOL, C, C++, Java, and Visual Basic (my personal favorite).'

In addition to my work in the computer industry, I love to share my knowledge, and so for the last twenty years I have taught Computer Science at several Philadelphia area colleges and universities---I truly love to teach.

In 1998, I wrote an introductory Visual Basic programming book, and since then, have written others on Visual Basic, VB.Net, C#, Java and C++, and I'm currently working on a book on JavaScript. Writing books is just another way I have found to share my knowledge. In connection with my books, I have also appeared twice on TechTV's Cable show ScreenSavers. Also, my Java book was used as a plot vehicle in one of the episodes of HBO's Sopranos fourth season--which was very exciting!

I enjoy sports of all kind, and have participated in the MS150, which is a two day, 150 mile bike ride from Philadelphia to Ocean City, NJ, whose proceeds will, hopefully, cure Multiple Sclerosis. Two years ago, I started running again, and have recently completed several 5K, 8K and 5 mile races.'

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great introduction to programming and VB.Net, March 8, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Learn to Program with Visual Basic.NET (Paperback)

I am a professional VB developer using VB6. Having read others of Mr Smiley's books, and as I am interested in the new VB.NET framework, I decided to go ahead and pick up Mr. Smiley's Learn to Program VB.Net. I knew it was a basic beginner book from the start (what else would you expect from a book titled "Learn To Program"?!) but I still thoroughly enjoyed the book.

If you're already an intermediate/advanced VB programmer looking for upgrades to the new .NET framework, this is not necessarily the book for you. It doesn't really pretend to be. This is, however, a fantastic book teaching the basics of programming. Even an experienced programmer could benefit from the methodical teaching given in this book. A lot of us in the VB world entered the programming scene in a sink-or-swim scenario - with no idea where to start programming, but with a deadline for something that needed completion and a sinking feeling that we were in over our head. I wish back then I had access to Mr. Smiley's texts - they teach good programming habits, and demystify programming in a way that isn't nearly as soporific as many other manuals you could find.

I highly reccomend his books for the beginner. I even reccommend them for the experienced user who was thrown into programming willy-nilly in the same manner I was. Mr. Smiley does an excellent job of "filling in the gaps."

But please, take the book for what it is - an introduction to programming in the given language.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent BEGINNERS book, October 17, 2004

By 

JSOTWL "Just Some One That Wants to Learn" (Mexico DF) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Program with Visual Basic.NET (Paperback)

(Sorry for the spelling mistakes, English is not my native language)

This book is perfect for the public it was intended for: BEGINNERS. For those who complain about this book not talking about any advanced (or Intermediate) topic or new feature in VB.Net, they should remember that the name of the book started as "Learn to program...".

It is not like by reading this book you are ready to take a examination for an MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) degree, nor will you be able to work on very elaborated programing projects. But you will be able to understand many of the basics of programing, and you will know how to code or read simple (but yet useful) programs. But most important of all, this book will power you with the basic knowledge to start your learning and development as a programer (a knowledge many books seem to expect you to born whit).

By reading this book you will learn in a very understandable way (an also quite complete for a beginers book):

Some things that can be useful to understand programing:
- Software Developing Live Cycle
- A very brief explanation on how a computer works (which would cause any Assembler programer to laugh histericaly, but that can be realy helpfull for beginers.

All what you might learn at a beginners class
- Variables
- Functions, methods, properties, procedures and events
- Aritmetic and boolean operations
- String handling
- Selection structures
- Placing objects and menues
- Using Arrays (one dimension and multidimensional)
- Creating customized procedures and methods

Some things that due to the rush could not be taught properly in those classes:
- Disck file operations
- Error handling
- Debugging
- Writing to the windows registry
- Procedure referencing

However, if your knowledge goes beyond the 50% of this, maybe you should consider chousing another beginners (yet faster) book.

About the classroom format: I personaly liked it. Shure sometimes it sounds as he was underestimating you, and like 60% of the questions might seem too obvious. But it pays in being quite a lot more pleasant to read (as it is your first programing book), and the 40% left of the questions can be really usefull, some few times you would just say: "Hey, I was about to ask that"

Advice?

1.- You are new to all programing forms = buy it, buy it and buy it!!!!!

2.- You are new to windows (and object oriented / object based) programing = strongly consider buying it (you might need to skip 1 or 2 chapters, but you will enjoy the other 13)

3.- You are new to Visual Basic .Net but you come from C++, C# .Net, Java, etc... = You could buy it and you might still learn something from it, but there are better choices in this cases.

4.- You already know to program in VB.Net and you are loking for information about ADO.Net, OOP, ActiveX, ASP.Net, XML = THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR YOU!!!!!


Anyway, if you decide to buy it, you should consider buying another book (Intermediate level maybe, or a faster beginner's one) soon, this is only the first step into mastering VB.Net programing.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This book makes learning VB.Net easy, February 11, 2002

By 

Frank Tierney (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Learn to Program with Visual Basic.NET (Paperback)

I just finished this great book as part of Professor Smiley's online VB.Net study group, and was compelled to write a review--particularly when I saw that the previous reviewer gave it one star.

I'm not sure what book that person was reading when he said the book doesn't cover .Net--this book taught me how to write a VB.Net Windows program, and I thought it covered the subject well. Granted, there's more to VB.Net than developing Windows programs---but I don't think you'll find a book anywhere that covers all of VB.Net, and if you do, it's bound to be pretty superficial.

The book is written for people who want to learn how to program, in the form of a simulated classroom---and that's stated pretty clearly on the front and back cover jackets of the book. The book covers the fundamentals of programming--Programming Logic, If statements, Case Statements, Loops, Error Handling, Menus--in a way that few authors can.

Personally, I like the classsroom format--lots of screenshots, lots of questions, and most importantly, lots of answers. It's well organized, taking you from knowing nothing to being able to write your own VB.Net program.

If you're trying to get up to speed quickly with VB.Net, I can't recommend a better book.