Murach's Visual Basic 2010 [Paperback]

Anne Boehm (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2010

Whether you're new to Visual Basic or you're upgrading to VB 2010 from an earlier version, this new edition of Murach's core VB book shows you how to develop the kind of bullet-proof Windows Forms applications that businesses rely on. Along the way, you'll learn how to quickly build database applications by using RAD features like data sources and the DataGridView control. You'll learn how to use object-oriented features like inheritance and interfaces as well as 2010 features like auto-implemented properties and collection initializers. You'll learn how to use LINQ to query data and XML to exchange data between applications. You'll learn how to take advantage of all the productivity features of Visual Studio 2010. When you re done, you'll be able to develop Windows Forms applications the way the best professionals develop them. That's why we say: No other book teaches you so much, so fast, or so thoroughly.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Anne Boehm has over 30 years of experience as an enterprise programmer. She got started with Visual Basic in the days of VB5, and has been programming on .NET since its inception. In the past 5 years, she s added C# to her programming repertoire, and she's authored or co-authored books on Visual Basic, C#, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET.

Product Details

• Paperback: 854 pages
• Publisher: Mike Murach & Associates; 4th edition (September 13, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1890774588
• ISBN-13: 978-1890774585
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 8 x 1.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #34,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #95 in Books > Computers & Technology > Web Development > Programming
  • #97 in Books > Computers & Technology > Home Computing > Internet

More About the Author

Anne Boehm has over 30 years of experience as an enterprise programmer. She got started with Visual Basic in the days of VB5, and has been programming on .NET since its inception. In the past 5 years, she's added C# to her programming repertoire, and she's authored or co-authored books on Visual Basic, C#, ADO.NET, and ASP.NET.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for the computer professional...., May 13, 2008

By 

Marvin Schneider (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murach's Visual Basic 2008 (Paperback)

I have been using the Murach books for a number of years, and have
never been disappointed. I also read many other computer programming
books, but Murach books constantly prove superior.

The one best thing that sets the Murach books apart is the complete
application given at the end of the chapter. It's difficult to learn
a new language by just working with snippets of code. Murach puts
together an entire business application to demonstrate the concepts of
the chapter, and this more than anything else will help the programmer
on the job.

Another good thing about the Murach approach is that the applications
are business-related, which is what most programming is all about
today. Other books have silly applications with animals and games. I have nothing against animals and games, but do not want to see this in a
computer application.

Finally, I have found with other computer books that their code is
often not tested properly. When I try to use their code, the
programs often don't work correctly and are riddled with errors.
These books have many errata on their web sites. But why couldn't
they get it right in the first place. To me this is just sloppy,
sloppy work. On the other hand, with Murach, the code works properly
the first time. Murach took the time to do it the right way.

I completed reading and working with the programs of nearly all the
25 chapters in this book.

My Rating: 5 stars out of five.

Thank you Mike Murach and Anne Boehm for getting it right!

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid intro to VB, but more oriented towards VB2005/2008 than VB2010, January 30, 2011

By 

Madonna's abs double (The jungle camp (or so it seems at times)) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murach's Visual Basic 2010 (Paperback)

I like Murach's books more than the programming series of most other publishers, because of their hands-on style. Other books contain verbose texts, many of which have an uncanny similarity to Microsoft help texts, which tend to be written in a rather lawyerly style, followed by clunky examples, which bury a selected language feature within 50 or 100 lines of other code. Murach's books provide a healthy proportion of down-to-earth explanations combined with simple, short examples showing the correct syntax. Text on the left page, code examples on the right page.
But Murach's Visual Basic 2010 is a disappointment. I have not read earlier editions like "Murach's Visual Basic 2008" or 2005, but to me, it looks as if most of the book has not been updated to include many of the new features that have been introduced with VS/VB2008, to say nothing of VS/VB2010.
2010 features that are not touched by the author:
parallel programming (in my opinion, THE new feature for an IT world that increasingly relies on multicore systems), surprisingly not even the older VB2005/2008 feature of Threads is covered; no multiline lambda expressions and lambdas in general, covariance+contravariance. Nothing on delegates, Regex string manipulation, COM. LINQ, XML (VB2008) and the With collection initializers are covered, though.
The book is still very useful as an introduction and reference for the VB language features known since VB2005, but in order to make it clear that its 800 pages will hardly provide new insights to non-novice VB developers, a more appropriate title or at least subtitle might have been: "Beginner's Visual Basic 2005 plus selected VB2008 features such as LINQ". As such, I'd recommend it to every VB novice.
Is my view biased? 800 pages are not enough to include arcane language features like Parallel.For and parallel Tasks? Maybe - but Microsoft considered their addition relevant enough to sell them as their new VS2010 edition, thus a VB2010 book title should perhaps not omit so many of these edition-defining new features.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for Beginners to Intermediate, June 19, 2008

By 

Owen J. Mortensen "ojm37" (TUCSON, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murach's Visual Basic 2008 (Paperback)

This book is easy to read and follow and doesn't induce sleep even after lunch. One way this is possible is the unique layout of the book: facing pages contain narrative on the left and examples on the right. This makes it easy to glance back and forth between the text explaining some subject on the left page and the example illustrating it on the right. I was a bit suspect of this layout at first, but before the 1st chapter was out I found myself liking it a lot. Another layout difference that I appreciated is the physical size of the book. At 8 inches wide by 10 inches tall, it's a bit bigger than most technical books. This helps get the examples on the page without squeezing the font down to unreadable sizes.

Beginning programmers will find the first two sections (the first 12 chapters) ready for immediate consumption. These chapters begin with an overview of the IDE, move on to basic Windows Forms concepts and then cover VB language basics. More advanced programmers can either skip or skim these chapters: the engaging writing-style (almost tutorial without talking down to the reader) and unique layout (the facing-pages) will hold your attention. You might even learn something you didn't already know.

Later chapters cover Database programming (including bound controls, data sources and datat sets, and ADO.Net), Object Oriented Programming (with copious examples of VB syntax), File IO, XML, and a brief explanation of LINQ.

Note that this book DOES NOT cover asp.net web programming using VB.Net. That topic is covered in other books by Murach books (Murach's ASP.NET 2.0 Web Programming with VB 2005 for one). This is probably a good thing, since - at 797 pages - this book is long (and heavy) enough.

Overall, I really liked this book. It was easy to read, easy to understand and held my attention through its explanations and examples.