Customer Reviews

Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 Learning Edition [Old Version]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

A couple of people have made critiques about the "book". What book? There is no book! You get a leaflet on installation and oh yes, there is this thing that gives you sample chapters from three actual books on Visual Basic 6.0. They were Microsoft Press products, of course. The entire program is via a CD.

It was slow going for me at first, I had to constantly adjust the various windows from both the tutorial and from the actual Visual Basic 6.0 compiler to view everything I needed. I was using 1152 by 864 resolution. Fortunately after a while, I learned how to size and place things so that I would need little readjustment later. You will spend the first 10% to 20% of the course becomming familiar with the Visual Basic programming environment before delving into actual code. It took a bit of getting used to. I had been previously using C++ and QBASIC compilers for short math/physics related programs (I am getting a mechanical engineering degree). At first you will spend most of your time learning what icon does what and what window is for what.

The tutorial became easier after I knew what icon to click or what window to open. There are "videos" of programming that you can just watch but should either mimic step by step or follow making your own variations in code.

There are tweleve quizzes with about seven questions each. If you had done some programming before, you can usually guess most of the answers after only skimming the text. I wish the program gave me more objectives, however (writing my own versions of what I was SUPPOSED to write wasn't enough). I completed the course still a bit weary about starting a project. I'll have to go back over some parts of the course before starting something even remotely complicated.

Keep in mind that this course really only covers the fundamentals. It ends with the basics of object-oriented programming. If you want to learn enough Visual Basic to be capable of professional work, you'll probably need to buy an intermediate or advanced level book on VB 6.0.

Microsoft provides the Learning Edition in my opinion as a starting point for programmers in Visual Basic (VB) and the other languages they sell IDE enviroments for, as I do not know of any other learning edition products by them.

The product comes boxed up for $... as of now, and this is a very good price for an integrated devleopment enviroment (IDE), especially by them - the professional edition costs several hundred dollars more, and the enterprise edition - a thousand or so more.

The learning edition comes with several tutorials, but those aren't mine to speak of because I skipped them 9 I bought Visual Basic Step by Step by Micheal Halvorson, Microsoft Press instead).

Moving along, the learning edition does not have several things that the professional edition offers, just as the enterprise edition has several things the professional edition doesn't have available.

The learnign edition is meant for beginners who don't plan to do any higher scale programming - it doesn't come with the MAPI email control nor the Internet transfer control, so internet programming with Microsoft controls is not an option - Also not available are "User Controls" these are a special type of Visual Basic project that are similiar to regular ActiveX controls. These things allow reusable graphical interfaces which are pre programmed to be inserted into the program. Also not available are property pages - something used when creating a compiled ActiveX control. And finally for soem odd reason User Documents aren't insertable - Not sure why though.

The Professional edition comes with extra controls such as the MCI audio and Internet/MAPI controls. These can be useful, and I use third party controls for doing these tasks as I do not need the extra features of the Professional Edition, which I will discuss briefly in a moment.

The learning edition is meant for beginners, hence the name 'learning' edition. As such it does not include any of the more advanced compiling options and project types. There are things such as what kind of CPU code should be outputted ot the binary, or what type of machine it shoudl be compield for (16 BIT or 32 BIT)...

As the editions move up in broadness and price, more project types become available. In the professional edition the option to make compiled ActiveX controls and Dynamic Link Libraries is available. Moving up to the biggest - the Enterprise Edition, things such as Management Console snapins can be written (a tool for managing large networks).

Overall, Microsoft's Visual Basic development enviroment is not the most powerful, and there is much better out there. The things possible in VB are canned routines - getting deeper into the Windows Application Programing Interface (API) requires declaring long winded blocks of code with HEX constants and other values to call them.

Note: The API is for performing functions directly related ot controllign the Windows enviroment (i.e. making a program window stay on top at all times)

I've tried to sum up the differences and the reasoning behind how Microsoft constructed their Visual Basic product line as best I could, and if I am incorrect, I apologize - and please let me know.

I was fortunate enough to have my company pay for this book forme. After finding it online for almost half off and then the upgraderebate kicked the final price down [considerably]. That's a deal for sure.

I am about halfway through the tutorial segment and so far, I am pleased. Although it gets a bit dry at times, once you suffer through it, it does give you very useful information.

It starts off by explaining the environment of Windows and then moves into the program, itself. It introduces all the tools and windows inside of the program. It walks you through the entire process of building three programs. If you show a large desktop (I used 1024x768) and reduce both windows to be shown simultaneously, you can watch the tutorial for what to do, pause it, and then go over to VB6.0 and do it! What can be more simple than that? You get to learn by doing. That's one thing that scored this program big points with me! Later on, more advanced topics (advanced for a beginner, anyway) are introduced.

Also, since you have all of the tools you need to start programming right away, it is very useful, indeed. There are some features in the Professional and Enterprise editions that are not available in this edition, but I believe there is an upgrade rebate to move from this version to those.

Thank you for your time in reading this review.

--Daniel

This product was very good at showing the basic principles of Visual Basic but after the initial example program, the text became very technical, defintely not for the first time programmer ( there was absolutely no help in learning to write code).

The examples were next to impossible to find on the accompanying software. File names were different from those cited in the book.

Overall I would not recommend this product but would steer the beginner towards John Smiley's products.

This product is visual basic 6 for beginners. Do not think that this software will teach you how to write vb code, it wont, I know, ha ha. Im a senior in college who learned how to write vb from a book called, visual basic 6.0, step by step, the author is Michael Halvorson. This is an excellent book for the "beginner", who wants directions on how to do everything. Its a very well written book, and if you by that book with this software, youll be and intermediate level vb programmer in no time. Just remember, buy the step by step book, unless your not a programming beginner.

This product is excellent to learn to program. It gives you the feeling of the internal workings of a program. But, once you get past the beginning stage, it becomes very annoying. There are too many variable types and makes programs slow and take up much memory. Must use good programming style and techniques to prevent many possible errors. Still, I use it for a lot of my programs using large databases.

I bought Visual Basic knowing only a smidgeon of QBasic and found out that not only is this programming language much easier to learn, but you get to create modern-looking programs with great ease.

I wish that Visual Basic wasn't so expensive (I bought it for nearly $100) and I wish it came with a more understandable and substantial learning guide (after all, we are supposed to be learning this!)

Overall, I'm more than happy that I learned how to use this programming language because now I can create beautiful and complex programs in a few hours! If you're looking to learn a Windows-based programming language, this is the best place to start!

This product is not as hard as C, or C++. This product, easy to use, and even fun! You can control all elements with the click of a mouse and dragging it! So easy, you can learn it yourself! Make programs and sell them. This product is #1, for novices, and even experts! I Reccommend this product to any begginer in programming, and even any expert! So easy to use, and fun. Get this, it will be worth your time! I am a begginer programmer!

I bought this book in hopes that I would be able to "pick up" VB since I had programmed for many years: COBOL, various assembly languages, etc.

VB, of course, is a different kind of language -- more like an RPG than a COBOL because so much of VB consists of canned routines that you can either find in the interface or you cannot. A lot of using VB efficiently is a matter of being able to remember which pull-down menu has what you need on it, and what the options (properties, I think, is the right word) for each control are.

As far as leading you through that maze, the book is pretty good.

One huge limitation in the Learning Edition is that you can use it only for learning. In other words, you cannot make an executable file with it. I finally got frustrated and took a college course in VB. At the first lecture, the professor warned us against getting the Learning Edition -- because we would not be able to e-mail him the executable from the labs we would be doing for him. The Professional Edition lets you do this.

In other words, buying the Learning Edition is a little bit like buying a car without an engine. You can practice all you want with it, but you can't drive it anywhere.

Best advice is save your money and buy the real thing.

I have been using VB since it came out right after VC. I have owned every upgrade and am a professional C++ programmer, and I love VB. It's like candy. It's so easy to use. Just a medium amount of programming experience can create wonderful programs. In the earlier additions there was some confusion about global variables, user written procedures and subroutines. They were in separate locations causing confusion, but everything is on one page now. You can see every bit of your code by scrolling up and down a single page.

Now for the down side, there is a lot left out of the learning edition. I can't really fault Microsoft. If they are going to have lesser and better versions then they have to leave something out of the lesser.

Finally and perhaps most important don't forget to use the wealth of help and information found on the online help section. Leave you Internet on and while in VB go up to help and select online help. There is an entire library at your disposal. Try a search, or read general information on a topic. Anything and everything you might want to know is there. Unfortunately in the learning addition most of the advanced functionality is left out. So this wonderful library just tempts you.