Customer Reviews

101 Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET Applications

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

These are 101 code examples, provided by Microsoft, offering various "how-to"'s in the form of code samples. Some of the topics are:
* creating menus
* validating listboxes
* how to use reflection
* receiving and processing data using a SQLDataReader
* comparing data binding in winforms and webforms
* creating a Windows Service
* how to use role-based security
* the try / catch / finally block for exception handling
* understanding the garbage collector
as well as dozens others (101 in all, right?) including several examples of using GDI+ in Winforms.

Code, documentation and, where needed, support files (e.g., .txt or .xml files) are provided.

This is good stuff but the fact is, you can down the entire set of code and documentation for free at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/downloads/default.aspx

In fact, Microsoft has updated these 101 Code examples (originally designed for VS.NET 2002 and originally released in early 2003) for release 1.1 of the .NET Framework and VS.NET 2003. Both the original and updated 101 Samples are available for download along with 101 Samples for C#.

I recommend these code examples, but I suggest you just download them rather than buy the physical book.

The code, itself, get 4 stars for usuability. If the book was free (or the material was not already free), then the book would get 4 stars, too. I won't take stars away just because you can get the material for free.

Why not 5 stars? Some of the explanations could be clearer. Some of the code examples are more like snippets than fully usuable components, programs or apps, so you will need to study the code, but customize it for your own use.

Jerry Bucknoff wrote a review where he says skip the book because you can just download the code. I don't get this. I buy a book for more than just the CD stuffed in the back. This book has 500+ pages that taught me how to do in VB.NET, the things I knew how to do in VB6. Maybe if you're a rocket scientist, you can just stare at the code and learn everything, but those 500 pages really got me up to speed on .NET.

I've been developing .NET apps for just about two years since beta 1 and really wish this book was around when I first started. The only thing I can say bad about it is that I would have liked it before I spent a lot of time trial-and-erroring my way through things. I can't blame the authors though, books this cool take a while to write!

It's really a cool layout and and you feel yourself caught in the momentum. Example after example and very concise and to the point. Few books make their point(s) so quickly and succinctly. Not a lot of fluff or general comments (which certainly belong in many books), but it really gets to the point on each and every example. I found it very easy to read, it made me want to read on, it was very well written and all of the code worked flawlessly.

If you are starting out in .NET, this book will save you HOURS, and in many instances, DAYS and perhaps weeks. If you are an experienced developer, there is still a lot that you may have not come across yet and this book will certainly have some great information for you.

I've never purchased anything by Sean or Campbell, but if this is any indication of their work, I'll definitely be buying whatever else they write.

I've found this book to be one of the most useful that I own. It has, literally, tons of code that (for once) is designed to be "real world", and includes actual error checking! As I migrate myself over from VB6, it's been really nice when I think "I know how to do this in VB6, I wonder how I do the same thing in .NET". I highly recommend.

The person who wrote the previous comment didn't read the book's opening pages in the introduction. All of the 101 Samples in the book are online! Each one is very cool and runs right away. The samples in the book are snippets from those examples with plenty of explanatory text for each sample.

This is the most PRACTICAL book I've seen on VB.Net. I've been working with VB.Net since it came out, but there were still a lot of problems with common situations. For example, he explains and illustrates Crystal Reports bettern than the only book I've found on Crystal Reports. He gets into the arcane world of forms that update SQL databases and the black art of binding with a "here's how to do it" approach. Generally speaking, he seems to have gone through the million-or-so class libraries and told you about the ones you really should know about and how to use them. A joy and a relief!

few words for a book organised withs tons of examples
which work. this is one of the only books which
have tons of information and no need to look elsewhere
the author has outdone himself this time

it looks like a great book but it doesn't seem very useful without the companion content. It gives the URL at MSPRESS on the back cover.
BBUUUUTTT, when you get to the download, the file is no longer available.

One of the reviews above told how to get the material another way,
it didn't work either.

OBSOLETE

101 Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Applications
It is a good book with a lot examples to learn from.
But examples require some extra work if you use .NET 2005

I bought this book just a few weeks ago, and WOW. Thre is such a range of information here! This book is especially targeted at programmers that aren't particularly familiar with what all VB.NET can offer.
Granted, this product does not cover any of the topic very extensivly, but that's not what it was written for. 90% of the topics covered in the book are explained in more detail in the MSDN library.
All in all, this book is one of the best ways to find great ideas to improve functionality in all your VB.NET projects.