Customer Reviews

Mastering Visual Basic .NET

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I've been trying my hand and programming for a couple of years now, and have picked up the basics of Perl and Delphi. I was always tempted to use VB6, mostly due to the massive volume of books and other resources dedicated to it -- but I never found a newbie book that I could read all the way through. The books I tried typically covered specific concepts well (i.e., syntax, controls, events, procedures, etc.), but failed to tie everything together to show me how to build a sophisticated application. Couple that with code errors and writing that failed to "grip" me, and I was left with several half-read volumes and no real desire to use VB.

With this book, and the incredible changes to VB that come with .NET, all that's changed. This book starts with an awesome overview of the IDE, including in Chapter 2 a walkthrough of two relatively simple programs that demonstrate how applications are built in VB .NET. The author walks you through the creation of a loan calculator, then a math calculator, all the while explaining the components used, how to code them, and how to run, debug, and build your project with the VS .NET tools. If that weren't enough, you learn to combine these projects in a multiple form solution in which you create a separate form that can call the forms created in the first two projects. Finally, the author shows how to create the loan calculator project as a web application. This is all pretty amazing stuff, and it's all in Chapter 2! While some concepts aren't thoroughly detailed, the author notes where you can learn more about each topic in subsequent chapters of the book. So, if the material in Chapter 2 is too difficult to grasp the first time around, jump to Chapters 3 and 4, where the VB .NET language is introduced, and then come back to Chapter 2 after you've learned more about the language and how it works.

This book is a masterpiece -- it is clearly written, and all the code samples I've tried have worked. Although the text claims that some programming experience is required, I think a smart, curious reader will be able to learn how to program from this book -- the above-described Chapter 2, for example, teaches more about programming in VB than some entire books on the subject. If you're a complete newbie and the material is daunting, try one of Greg Perry's beginning programming books to get your feet wet, then come back to this to learn VB .NET.

I agree with other reviewers who say that web apps get slightly short shrift -- web apps are covered, but this book is definitely geared more toward desktop apps. For me, that's no criticism, and I agree that web programming in VB .NET could be a separate volume all together.

In short, this book is one of the best I've ever seen on programming in general, and I've yet to see a better volume on VB .NET, especially for beginner to intermediate programmers.

By listening to all the Microsoft hype about how easy the transition would be for experienced VB6 programmers, I was sorely deceived about how steep the learning curve would be. This is a whole new language! After struggling to get oriented using the documentation that came with Beta 2, I gave up and went to the bookstore. Of the many books that I perused, this looked like the best.

I went straight to Chapter 21: Building Database Applications with ADO.Netm and what a relief! The author leads you from the simple to the complex. The writing is very clear. I have not needed to resort to the sample code on the CD.

The author clearly understands what typical Windows applications need to do. His examples are exactly what you want to do in the real world. For example, on one form, the user enters part of a customer name in a textbox. The adjacent listbox is immediately populated with matching customer names. When you click on a customer name in the listbox, the first data grid shows orders for that customer. When you click on an order, the second data grid shows the order details for that order. Every detail of creating the connection, data adapter, and datasets is included, both using the wizards and doing it in code. How to populate the data grid from the data set, how to synchronize all of the controls. Terrific stuff!

The author is very helpful in providing further suggestions about real-world applications. For example, he cautions you when using data sets that you must limit the results returned to the client (and he shows you how to do that). He advises on error handling steps that are needed. He points out weaknesses in the tools. Very helpful advice for when you move beyond the examples in the book, which are simplified by necessity.

I'm not sure how good the book is for absolute beginners. But it is very thorough. Chapter 20: Databases: Architecture and Basic Concepts explains the fundamentals of databases, SQL queries, stored procedures, just an excellent overview.

Yes, the book is lite on Web applications, but it has an "HTML Primer", covers development of Web app's, database access, and XML. Plenty to get you started. And, you really do need another whole book to learn the details of ASP.Net.

And, yes, there are some errors in the book, and as of mid-March, there is zero in the publisher's errata page. But this is so typical of programming books. And, I haven't run into any problems that I couldn't figure out.

So, if you already have some experience with VB6, I can heartily recommend this book as the place to start for VB.Net. Just an excellent book.

I found this book to be riddled with errors both in the text and the programming examples. The exercises left out key information and required additional debugging and programming just to make them work correctly. Several of his screen examples did not display the correct information and were misleading. Other screens examples might have been semantically correct, but were not correct within the context they were presented.

In my opinion the book also presented the information backwards, the concept of creating custom controls and such was covered in the beginning of the book while database access and file access were covered at the end.

This is definatly a good beginners book for visual basic .net. You don't need to know anything about programming at all to get started. It covers all the commonly used controls and objects. As far as the word "Mastering" in the title, I'm not so sure. It gives you just enough to get by, then you need something else to get further.. For that I recommend Troelsen's Visual Basic .NET an advanced guide. For beginning and intermediate VB programmers this is a GREAT book, everyone else take the other.

After reading this book, I still had to read two more to get real world applications developed.

This book could be usefull for an absolute beginner, but even if you had never seen VB .Net in your life, you could benefit more with other books.

I gave it three stars because the chapter on the TreeView, and the ListView controls were usefull because there were important changes in the way those controls are used, but the ADO chapters just get you confused, I had to read another book on ADO .Net to fully understand how some of the examples worked.

The sample applications on the CD-ROM are completely different from the code that is printed, so there's no way to know what the thing is doing after you've spent too much time figuring out on you own.

If you're a beginner, get it, you will find some things helpful, but if you know your stuff, just avoid it.

No matter who you are, Visual Basic .NET is as new to you as it is to anyone else. Even those of us that have explored it since it was first released to the public for beta testing find new things in each release. This title, just like it's VB6 predecessor, is the perfect instructor to anyone wishing to learn VB.NET. The author presents the material on Visual Studio .NET, Visual Basic. NET and the .NET framework efficiently and informatively, giving the user something to take with them from each and every page. Regardless of your prior experience with VB6 or VB.NET (or even programming in general), this title will give you the understanding of programming within the .NET framework and the ability to immediately create in VB.NET. The book and accompanying CD-ROM is a must-have, valuable tool for the VB.NET programmer, and one that you will hold on to as a reference long after you have finished reading it.

Well I am a seasoned VB family developer, I read his vb 6 version book, it was great and helped me a lot, then his vb6 database programming book was super, both contained explanation for real world senarios. His vb.net version is on the same lines, thick like vb6 book , contains theory and pratical examples, I like his way of explaining. It contians info for any level of programmer. I am also looking for his database vb.net programming book to hit our town stores. I buy Evangelos books without evaluating them. Good coverage.

I'm an intermediate programmer having worked sporadically in a variety of Object Oriented languages (Java, C++ etc.). I have to ramp up very quickly in order to do a VB.NET app, and bought this book for two reason. First: I wanted to gain a quick familiarity with the Visual Studio IDE, which I had never used before. I also needed a quick primer on the syntax and functionality of VB.NET.

On the first score--understanding the IDE--the book did a fine job of quickly getting me up and running with the basics. That was a few hours of work.

On the second score, I found this book to be alternately easy going and profoundly infuriating. Petroutsos' writing style is fluid and colloquial, essentially talking through many of the basics of the language. As a non-beginner, this served me well. I was able to read through chapters such as the overview of the VB language, quickly identifying areas which I understood from previous programming experience.

However, that easy-going writing style seems to lead to an absolutely unforgivable lack of attention to structure, rigor and detail. Despite much of the book being conceptually familiar, several areas were brand new to me. In the area concerning variable scope, Petroutsos introduces the idea of module level scope without defining a module or explaining what it is. Frustrated, I consulted the Contents and the Index but was unable to find any other place in the book where a module was discussed. Eventually, I pretty much got it through context in other chapters (and a background in OOP). I can't imagine how someone who wasn't already intimately familiar with OOP would fare trying to get through such a concept.

This book also doesn't do much hand-holding through the construction of the code samples, often leaving the reader on his/her own in assembling the code and figuring out what each line/routine does. Again, fine for an experienced programmer--not so fine for a beginner.

And this book is just rife with oversights such as these. This book is clearly targeted at relative beginners (if not absolute beginners) as it explains concepts which are familiar to all programmers (i.e. what is a variable?). And yet I can't imagine a beginner who wouldn't be very frustrated trying to figure out what the Petroutsos merely glosses over.

Finally, the editing of this book is horrible. While the prosaic style generally reads well, the author often re-states the same explanations several times within a chapter. It's clear that this is not for emphasis (since it doesn't read that way) but bad editing. A good editor will strip out such redundancy and help make a much more concise book.

Ultimately, this book served its purpose: a quick primer on a new software platform. I got what I needed out of it. However it was frustrating at times for the reasons I mentioned above. It doesn't succeed as a beginner's learning tool, nor can I imagine that it would succeed well as instructioin on advanced programming techniques.

This is an excellent book for beginners or intermediate programmers.
Good points:
This book explains subjects that most other books on VB .Net ignore. If you are considering buying any other book on the dot net environment, look in its index and see if it covers FileStream, ArrayList, SortedList. Most do not cover these, but Petroutsos's book does and they really simplify life. They add to the power of your programs and cut down on the amount of work you have to do. This book has a lot of other similar features of the environment that other books skip.

Bad points:
I am appalled by the number of errors in the programming examples and descriptions. Be aware that when he writes "to the right" he often means "to the left" and vice-versa. Be aware that he likes to declare variables that do absolutely nothing in his code segments: they are declared, they use up memory, and the program never refers to them after they are declared. Be aware that the code given in the book does not always conform to the code sample in the CD that accompanies the book.
There iss an errata sheet for the text on the Sybex web, but I have never succeeded in getting them to correct errors I point out to them.

Conclusions:
You can overcome the bad points above so they are minor speed bumps, however annoying. What you cannot do is find a better text for learning the basics of .Net and also learn to use the tools that make you never want to go back to VB Version 6..

Anybody can write a book, but not everybody can teach what they know in a simple and very didactic way, this book does just that.

The book is good if you are a beginner, because when you are reading the first chapter when they explain Visual Basic functions, procedure, classes, and so on, you feel like you are reading a magazine.

My favorites chapters are 20 and 21, in which they review the Access database Northwind, explain SQL language then mix it all together in a very comprehensive way. The following ASP chapters are also incredible.