Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic (DV-MPS General) [Paperback]

James D. Foxall (Author)

Book Description

Series: DV-MPS General | Publication Date: February 26, 2000

The same attributes that make the Visual Basic development system exceptionally productive and easy to use can also inadvertently lead to sloppy programming. But "Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic" introduces developers to the proven practices that allow them to exploit the power of rapid development -- without creating hidden land mines in performance and maintainability. Designed for the recreational as well as the professional programmer, this book uses illustrative code samples -- many from real-world commercial projects -- to demonstrate practical solutions to programming just about any process -- with better, more reliable code!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It's no secret that Visual Basic is a popular choice for today's developers, but it's also true that there is a lot of bad code out there. Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic seeks to remedy this situation with a compilation of dozens of useful hints for writing clearer, faster, and more maintainable code. Presented in a simple, easy-to-understand style, this is a book that can benefit any VB programmer, regardless of expertise level.

The most important suggestions in the book have to do with naming and coding style. The author recommends using Hungarian Notation, in which prefixes are used with variable names to describe the scope and data type of all variables. Tables and sample code show you how to get going.

There are many suggestions for writing more maintainable code. A chapter on writing effective comments is a standout. Throughout this book, the author provides examples of correct and incorrect code practices. (This edition makes good use of two-color presentation and highlighted text to illustrate key concepts effectively.) A final section looks at the importance of source version control with Microsoft Visual SourceSafe.

While more expert programmers may quibble with some of the ideas presented, there's much to mine in Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic. Whether or not your shop adopts all of them, there's little doubt that you'll benefit from this compilation. --Richard Dragan

Topics covered: Problems with Visual Basic code today, advantages of coding standards, using custom object and project templates, effective module design (cohesion, fan-in, and fan-out), naming conventions and Hungarian Notation, creating descriptive names, constants vs. magic numbers, enumerations, error-handling tips and techniques, indenting code, using white space, a guide to writing effective comments, end-of-line comments, flow control statements, user interface design hints, form and menu design, consistency, using system colors, user input, mouse and keyboard interaction, version control, using readme files, and installing and using Visual SourceSafe.

About the Author

James Foxall is vice president of development and support for Tigerpaw Software, Inc. (http: //www.tigerpawsoftware.com)--a Microsoft Certified Partner in Omaha, Nebraska, specializing in commercial database applications. James manages the Tigerpaw Business Suite, an award-winning CRM product designed to automate contact management, marketing, service and repair, proposal generation, inventory control, and purchasing. James's experience in creating certified Office-compatible software has made him an authority on application interface and behavior standards of applications for the Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office environments.

James has personally written more than 200,000 lines of commercial production code in both single-programmer and multiple-programmer environments. He is the author of numerous books, including Sams Teach Yourself C# in 24 Hours and Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic .NET, and he has written articles for Access-Office-VBA Advisor and Visual Basic Programmer's Journal. James has a bachelor's degree in management of information systems (MIS), is a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, and is an international speaker on Microsoft Visual Basic. When not programming or writing about programming, he enjoys spending time with his family, playing guitar, doing battle over the chess board, listening to Pink Floyd, playing computer games (Raven Shield multiplayer), and (believe it or not) programming! You can reach James at http: //www.jamesfoxall.com/forums. ) Copyright Pearson Education. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 450 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (February 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735607338
• ISBN-13: 978-0735607330
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 1.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #504,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

James Foxall, President of Tigerpaw Software, has been involved in commercial software development for over 20 years and was instrumental in the development and creation of Tigerpaw's award winning product suite, serving over 28,000 users in 28 countries. In the 20+ years since joining his family's company full time, James has helped transform Tigerpaw Software from a small "garage" business to one that employs more than 44 people and produces business automation software servicing the IT/Networking, Telecommunications, and Systems Integrator industries. In his current role, James provides the vision and management to keep Tigerpaw focused on its customers and properly serving its markets.

James has a Masters degree in Business Administration and a BS degree in Management of Information Systems. These two degrees dovetail perfectly as James is devoted to creating better businesses through technology. James has written 14 books on technology which have been published in over a dozen languages around the world. He is considered an authority on application interface and behavior standards of Windows applications and serves the business community as an international speaker on Microsoft technologies and best practices for automating business processes in the SMB environment. Viewed as a business and technology expert, James has been featured on several television news shows, as well as in various trade publications and newspaper articles. James' goal for the future is to grow Tigerpaw by continuing to provide software and services that allow customers to not only meet their challenges, but to excel in a constantly changing market.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Every Visual Basic Developer NEEDS This Book, February 16, 2000

By 

Michael R. Myers (Pennsylvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic (DV-MPS General) (Paperback)

James' presentation of the material and solid examples of the subject matter are worth many times the retail price of this book. Any devloper who works with a team of developers will see results and value in implementing even just a few of James' suggestions. Even if a developer is not in a team environment, implementing standards will allow the code to be easier to understand to others or to the same person in the future when changes will need to be made.

I wish more developers would follow the suggestion of the book to take steps to increase the readability and maintainability of their code. Being in a position where I have inherited numerous projects from numerous developers, i can only dream of the hours I would have saved had their code been formatted in a similar fashion, and using a standard for variable names would have been like winning the lottery!

This book is a great foundation and starting point for the Visual Basic Developer (new to programming or with experience) to begin to implement Code Standards and increase the readability and maintainability of their code.

I cannot express eloquently enough the relief I felt in finding a standards book aimed solely at Visual Basic since most standards books are aimed at C/C++.

I highly recommend this book to every Visual Basic Developer and believe that every developer should keep this book within reach at all times in their developing environment.

A sincere thank-you to Mr. Foxall for taking the time to do what we all *know* needs to be done in standardizing our code and releasing his findings to us in such a well-designed format and proving his assertions with real code blocks to show the incorrect vs. a more correct way of accomplishing the task.

If you are a Visual Basic programmer, you *NEED* this book. The e-version of the book on the included CD-ROM is just awesome and makes this book even more useful since you can have an electronic copy at your disposal when you need it.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally! This book is long overdue..., February 9, 2000

By 

Mike Huntington (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic (DV-MPS General) (Paperback)

Thank you thank you thank you! As a person in charge of 5 programmers, I can tell you that managing code of 5 people sometimes feels like I'm managing 5 different projects in 5 different languages.

Mr. Foxall has put together a book that will now allow code to be written consistently and efficiently. Now, if someone quits, it will be so much easier to have someone else take over their code. That isn't to say that it's going to be easy to get our older code up to using these standards. Actually, it will take a bit of work (we should have been doing these things all along, but never knew exactly what to do). I'm going to get a copy for all of our developers.

Kudos!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined to be a classic!, February 15, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Practical Standards for Microsoft Visual Basic (DV-MPS General) (Paperback)

The author has obviously written Visual Basic code for a living. His work has a definate 'been there' feel to it. He offers practical advice on writing better code and creating better user-interfaces.

I found the chapter on architecting modules and procedures particularly helpful. While most books don't lend themselves well to an on-line format, this book's on-line format on the CD is exceptional in that it makes it easy to reference the material - which you'll want to do often.

I keep mine with my staples: Code Complete and Dan Appleman's Guide to the API.

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