Customer Reviews

Programming Microsoft® Visual Basic® .NET Version 2003 (Pro Developer)

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I suspect most people who have reviewed this book are experienced developers, and I imagine this book is great for them. However, I found that the book was not very useful for a less-than-experienced reader (specifically, me).

The main thing that bugged me was that the cover makes it sound like a complete reference for everyone, but if you dig deep enough into the introduction, you're told that the book is written specifically for VB6 developers - and the rest of the book very much bears that out. If you are not a VB6 developer you may feel like this book was not written for you, and that's correct - it was not.

This VB6 slant is so pronounced that I believe the front or back cover should have stated - very clearly - that this book is wirtten with the VB6 developer in mind. Better yet, the title should have "for VB6 developers" in it somewhere. In either case I would have (correctly) avoided wasting money on a book that is not written for my needs.

If I had to have only one VB.NET book, this would be it. Certainly, it is not the only one on my shelf, but it would do well on a deserted island (where a social life doesn't matter). It covers a wide range of topic areas and covers them well. It is not terse, but it still can be easy to gloss over important items. Big and heavy, but opens flat so that it is easy to place in front of your monitor as you read along and try out the topics. Excellent.

Edit: now that I have gone through another dozen or so VB.NET books, this is the ONE book that I would keep on a deserted island.

Let me just say that I have tons of Visual Basic .NET books which include my previous beloved Applied Microsoft .NET Framework Programming in Microsoft Visual Basic .NET (what a mouth full) that also author by Mr. Francesco Balena together with Jeffrey Richter.

Well, I don't know why I waited so long before getting Programming Microsoft Visual Basic .NET by Francesco Balena. It has something to do with the fact that I already have a copy of the Framework programming book, or so I thought.

Let's just say after reading countless books on the framework and the .NET idioms etc I still find the concepts somewhat elusive, until one day I accidentally flipped throught this book and it instantly made all the concepts clear to me. I put this book in the same category as Mr. Ted Pattison's outstanding Programming Distributed Applications with COM+ and Visual Basic 6.0 book.

I got to go study now, but will write some more after I'm through with it.

Thanks Mr Balena, and keep playing that Jazz saxophone. By the way, I am a Jazz guitarist as well.

I have been using Francesco Balena's "Programming Visual Basic 6.0" (also by MS Press) for several years. That book is clearly written in an understandable way and flows well.

Like its predesessor, Programming Visual Basic .NET is clearly written, flows in a logical order and most importantly makes sense!

The book is well edited (has very few mistakes/typos) and comes with this book as well as Francesco's VB 6.0 book on the companion CD (as well as all the example code).

I also like that this book doesn't try to build a "super app" chapter by chapter as so many books do. In those books, if you want to just read up on a particular topic, you've got to aquaint yourself with everything the author has done up to that point just to understand what you were looking for in the first place. With this book, you can open up to any chapter and not have to have built some application that started 20 chapters back to get it!

Everyone else here has covered the technical aspects about this great book, but I just want to emphasize the writing style. This author, Francesco Balena, is absolutely a brilliant writer. His conversion of thoughts into words is truly incredible. And so is the organization. If you have the earlier edition of his first book by the same name, you would benefit from the upgrade. Definitely worth the money.

This is an amazing book. Language is clear and to the point. A lot of code samples, which makes the reading through the concepts a lot easier. The book also has a wonderful eBook on supplemented CD. It's in PDF format, hence searchable. I am keeping it always open and no longer wander to web - everything I can ever dream of (yet) can be found there.
***Warning: This book is not for the beginners. Author assumes the reader already has a basic level of VB understanding.

First off, let me say that this is not a beginner's book. It does touch a bit on the basics of each topic, but it is not a tutorial. There are plenty of those out there anyway. This book is for the programmer that has had enough of the basics and is ready to advance. I have read some reviews claiming this book talks too much about VB6. I do not agree. I started out learning VB.NET and never had much exposure at all to VB6. As a real world programmer trying to do more advanced things, such as interface with the WIN32 API, the VB6 content is required. When trying to make some of these API calls work, I have had to search out solutions on the internet. Most of these VB solutions are written in VB6 or earlier. While I don't think it is required to know everything about VB6, it is very useful (required in my opinion) to know how to read it. In addition, the explaination of how data is marshalled between the managed and unmanaged environment is very easy to understand.
To sum up, I have been long searching for a book to bring me to the next level in VB.NET. I believe I have found it.

I have spent at least $1000 on programming books and this book by far is one of the best I have read for .NET. If you are a VB 6 programmer or even have an understanding of basic programming concept you will get much more from this, but it does briefly explain the basic concepts (variables & functions) as well. Ranging in topics from the .NET composition, OOP, Databases, Security, Remoting, Graphics, Custom Controls, and so much more, this is the book you're looking for!

This is best book, if you have experience in programming some language ( I am a Java Programmer) and wants to jump in to .NET using Visual Basic. This book specifically targeted for hardcore programmer.. and not beginners

This book is the most complete I have found on .NET (I have 4 other books). Beware this isn't a beginners text as Balena outlines very early on. The book is written with experienced VB6 developers in mind. However, it should be usable if coming from other languages as well.

The book is very complete and covers everything from forms to data access, ASP.NET, web services, classes, file access and custom controls. It's also very well organized and reads very easily for a reference book. The index is well organized so it's easy to find what you're looking for. The book makes reference to VB6 a great deal to help those coming from that environment. This book and Balena's VB6 book are included on CD.