Customer Reviews

Microsoft WSH and VBScript Programming for the Absolute Beginner

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

 

 

The core concept of teaching Windows Script Host (WSH) and VBScript through the creation of simple games is solid. But the execution is awful.

Ultimately you should know both WSH and VBScript to be an effective scripter. But author Ford takes you on a tour of the WSH object model before he actually introduces VBScript. He lays out table after table of WSH objects, methods and properties without any real explanation, just the caveat that you'll learn more later. Great technique: confuse the student first, explain later.

The early example scripts are direct lifts from the Microsoft TechNet Script Center. Worse yet, Ford makes mistakes in his description of the WSH objects - and there is no errata on the web site.

Ford spends 62 confusing to the beginner pages on WSH before he gets to VBScript basics. This makes no sense to me. What makes this section entirely laughable, however, is that at its end, Ford "challenges" the reader to make modifications to the sample programs. He has explained absolutely nothing that would assist the neophyte scripter in making these changes. In fact, Ford has said precious little about any WSH specifics.

When Ford finally reaches "VBScript basics" he immediately repeats the mistakes of his WSH chapter: 124 tables listing VBScript objects, methods, properties and other information are introduced . . . without detailed explanation. Ford essentially describes his sample scripts in the manner of "Line 1 says . . ." and then repeats, verbatim, Line 1 without necessarily explaining just what Line 1 does.

Finally Ford should have taken more care to separate his instructions each of the technologies. Literally by combining WSH and VBScript "for the absolute beginner," he is putting far too much on the plate of said beginner - and Ford is not capable of keeping things simple, much less explaining them.

This is defintitely not a book I would recommend for a beginner. And since it never attempts going significantly beyond the most basic concepts, it isn't suitable for more experienced scripters or programmers either. Frankly I wish I had gotten into the book much earlier when I could still have returned it. My copy is headed toward a rummage sale somewhere. Obviously my impression of Thomson Course Technology's "for the absolute beginner" is negative and I won't be considering any others in the series.

Jerry

This is a book that I like a great deal, yet at the same time have a couple of problems.

Chapter 1 starts on page 3 and is Getting Started with the WSH and VBScript -- Great. Page 4 shows screen images of what we are going to program first, a simple take off on the KnockKnock game. -- Great. But then we have to take a detour as he wanders off doing things like "Introducing the WSH Core Object Model." This contains the usual introduction to OBJECTS that object missionaries seem to have to put in.

For instance he says: "The Windows operating system can be viewed as a collection of objects. For example, a file is an object. So is a folder, disk drive, printer, or any other resource that is part of the computer. What the core object model does is expose these objects in a format that allows scripts to view, access, and manipulate them." -- What BS! -- I have a printer. It's sitting right on top of the computer. I can view it by turning my head just a bit. Yes, I'm wearing glasses to help me view it, but how is the WSH Core Object Model going to help me view it?

He then goes on to say that if this is confusing, don't worry about it, we'll talk about it later. I realize that OBJECTS are Mr. Ford's religion, but I want to get on with programming a little VBScript. He doesn't go on to doing this until page 15 and 16 where we write a little "Hello World" program.

Then we go on to a bit of history. We don't get back to programming the KnockKnock game until page 28.

When he gets to programming he does a great job of getting the program running. In fact his concept of starting with a dead simple program and then building on it is about the best I've seen. One of the hardest things about programming is getting the first program running. Here he does it easily, quickly, concisely -- just great. But what good did it do me to spend all those pages reading that "Microsoft first released VBScript in 1996 as a Web-based, client-side .... ?"

Chapter 2 gets us to programming another neat little game that gets us into a bit of logic. Great! But first, you guessed it, before we get to programming there a bunch of pages on the Core Object Model. Does it really help the Absolute Beginner to read that WshUnnamed provides access to a set of unnamed command-line arguments or that RegDelete() deletes a registry key or value? Do you really want the Absolute Beginner to even be thinking about the registry? Finally he gets to programming, and then he does great once again.

He gets to Chapter 3 and as best I can tell, he never mentions the Core Object Model for the rest of the book.

Conclusion: Great approach to teaching programming to the absolute beginner quickly. Perhaps Mr. Ford, you could put the programming of Chapters 1 & 2 into a chapter by themselves, and then you could put in a new chapter: "The Zen of Objects and Some History."

If your not an Absolute Beginner... If you have at least some background with programming... This book probably is not for you.

I'm only through the first 9 chapters of this book and I'm having a hard time staying awake while reading it... Perhaps if I was a true beginner I'd appreciate his methods, but to me it seems like the author was paid by the word. Which is to say he uses three paragraphs to say one sentence of meaningful information. And he repeats himself several times (at least in the first three chapters of the book)

I wish the guys who wrote the PHP manual could do one for VBScript.

I had done some programming 20+ years ago and wanted an introduction to VBScript. The idea of a review of current programming practice seemed like a good idea, too. There were some interesting errors in the code in a few lessons, as I found. They provided practice in debugging, for what that was worth. The lessons are pretty clear and I found some interesting ways of modifying the scripts as given. It worked for me.

This book is chok full of learning projects that solidify the concepts presented. The cd that comes with the book includes an editor tool that has proved invaluable. I'm getting a second copy as mine has gone missing.

With no experience in WSH / VBScript this book quickly brought me up to spead and allowed me to writing a number a administrative scripts to control my WinXP environment when similar AD controls were not an option. Recommended as a good building block for one with NO experience. The nature of the book would bore those with even a moderate level of VB experience.

I hate it when I see people trashing perfectly good books, especially books that I really like and have really learned a lot from. This book is well written and it is a lot of fun. It is well organized, providing necessary background information first and then building slowely from there. Don't let those that over analyze every little typo mislead you. You will not find a better book covering VBScript and the WSH.

This item has served its purpose. It provides insight about the newly release VB Script explaining the features and how to effectively use them.

The examples are wrong which is making things harder to understand and the web site for the book doesn't have an amendment section but it does have the scripts which seem to be working, so far anyway.

I know just enough about scripting to steal somebody else's working script and get it to work for my needs but I was looking to get a true understanding of VBSripting.

I have not yet completely finished the book but I feel I have wasted my money.

I'll update when I have finished but want to give others a heads up.

Have to admit that I decided to learn VBScript - It seemed to be a powerful language and I've come across it many times in my work with networking and desktop computers. Having programmed mainframe computers for 30+ years, used basic on PCs, and published and supported many web sites for the last 10 years, I decided to purchase as many books as possible to teach myself this language and keep some for reference. I was disappointed. I expected a clear, simplified, and example-driven approach to this subject. Instead I found it confusing, un-engaging, and I lost interest in it after a few pages.
If you are in the same boat as I am and want to learn the language, try VBScript for the world wide web (visual quickstart guide, about 150 pages) by Paul Thurrott. Of the 7 books that I got, it is the absolute best for a beginner and will teach you what you need in order to get you started.
I did not give 1 star to the book because I have written two books and I know the effort that sacrifice that goes into writing one.