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83 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You'll have experience writting VB.NET apps when finished!, March 24, 2004
This review is from: Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)
The fact that you are reading the details of a book titled "Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the Absolute Beginner" means that this is the book you are looking for! The review saying this book is not for a beginner must have a Visual Basic .NET book of their own on Amazon! IMPORTANT: Not all books claiming to be for "BEGINNERS" are what you think! Because VB.NET is a NEW language and not a new version of Visual Basic, even advanced VB programmers are "Beginners" to VB.NET. However, all the terminology and concepts are still the same, there are just new ways to write the code. If you are a true beginner and buy the wrong book, you'll be back on Amazon looking for a book on Visual Basic 6.0 so you can understand your book on Visual Basic.NET! This book is for TRUE beginners with NO past experience with Visual Basic! That said... If you are like me and learn from "hands on" experience, this book is for you. I was on a mission to learn VB.NET and I had absolutely no experience with Visual Basic or Visual Studio. I spent $1000 for an ElementK subscription because they offered two separate eLearning courses on VB.NET that were created by Microsoft. After a full day of taking a course, all I had to show for it was 30 pages of notes that contained nothing but definitions and snippets of code. I never saw a single example of code that made up a complete application. Frustrated, I decided to see if I could find a good ebook from Books24X7. Since there were over 50 of them on VB.NET, I had to play "Eenie-Meenie-Minie-Mo" on several occasions. Luckily I didn't have to pay each time I chose a book because all the ebooks seemed great until I realized after a couple chapters that I was supposed to have experience with Visual Basic or Visual Studio version 6. Then I came across this ebook in the ElementK Resource section. I learned more about VB.NET in one hour than I did using Microsoft's training! Each chapter ends by having you create a program using what you've learned. After a few chapters, you've subconsciously learned the same information and more through repetition rather than trying to memorize your way to VB.NET. (So you don't get the wrong opinion about ElementK, only the VB.NET courses are made by Microsoft. All the others they offer are excellent) Trust me! You can't go wrong with this book if you are a beginner. And if you have a background in VB, you an jump to Chapter 5 and start learning new information right away. You won't just learn how to program with VB.NET, you'll have EXPERIENCE programming VB.NET applications. I have never taken the time to write a review on ANYTHING! (And seeing how much effort it took to write this one, it will be the last! ha ha!) But, I know what it feels like to have a sea of books to choose from. It's like putting your all your money on "Hope This Is Useful" to win in the fifth! Not to mention that you don't won't know what they meant by "Beginner" until you open the book. I wish someone pointed me to this book from the start, so I figure I might as well be a pointer for someone else. Thanks for reading my lengthy review...
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57 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not for beginners, nor entirely for .NET programmers..., January 19, 2003
This review is from: Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)
The "Absolute Beginners" series is typically great for learning a language if you are a complete newcomer to programming. The title "absolute beginner" suggests this. It's also great because the programming samples are in the form of games. This book, unfortunately, would probably completely confuse or scare off a new programmer. It is likely to confuse even those who are not new to programming. I have a fair amount of experience with VB6 (medium sized database applications with SQL Server backends) and some with VB.NET (I bought the book mostly for the games, but also as a refresher course), and I found this experience necessary for understanding the first few parts of this book. The book consistently uses concepts before they're introduced, and in one place even suggests skipping ahead to the next chapter if what you're reading doesn't make sense. The author makes numerous references to C++ and there are way too many comparisons between VB.NET and VB6. The first few chapters of the book would be way over the head of any brand new programmer. Assembly and machine language are brought up, as well as client/server networks. Why? The author also uses some VB6 in his .NET programs. For example, the "MsgBox" function is not officially a .NET function (it's part of a library .NET keeps to maintain backward compatibility). Sure you can use it, but it may or may not be compatible with other .NET classes down the road (e.g., if you wanted to use it in conjunction with a C# program). It would be best to stick with the more .Nettish "Messagebox.show" command which is entirely compatible with the .NET libraries. Also used are the VB6 "Len(String)" (instead of "String.Length"), "Instr", "Left" and "Right" functions from the VB6 library. After 5 or 6 chapters I wondered if I was really learning VB.NET or a hybrid of VB.NET and VB6. This wonder turned into a fear: would I have to unlearn anything I picked up in this book? This fear burgeoned to the point that I couldn't continue with the book. I stopped a little more than half way through and returned it to the store. On the bright side, it was really fun programming the games included in this book. And to be entirely fair, I did learn a lot from this book regardless. His description of variables in VB.NET actually being objects was insightful and well thought out. Nonetheless, the fear that I was absorbing wrong information about .NET eventually overpowered me. It's unfortunate, it could have been a great book. Hopefully there will be a second edition that is more in line with VB.NET and does not mention VB6 or C++ once.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than most VB.NET books..., January 24, 2005
This review is from: Microsoft Visual Basic .NET Programming for the Absolute Beginner (Paperback)
Here are the ADVANTAGES of this book:
1) This book is TRULY designed for programming beginners! In other words, you do not have to have prior programming experience in order to be able to learn from this book.
2) Each chapter provides clear, easy to understand, programming examples which are throughly thought out by the author. Due to this, it makes learning a lot of fun -- and quite entertaining!
3) The coding samples are clearly explained. For a fact, this is my first programming exposure to the .NET platform and I am rapidly learning to write neat software with this book.
4) Don't listen to the others who are giving this book a bad rating. The only truth to their statements is that this book does use (in some chapters) older, and well-known programming commands, which Microsoft would prefer went away. However, these statements are perfectly legitimate to use -- and are frequently used in software developed to this very day. Besides that, the rest of their complaint's are mostly unnecessary nit-picking...
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