Customer Reviews

Programming Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0

5 star:		(69)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Maybe my first review was too technical, so I'm trying again.

It is clear from the positive reviews that this book is a success for an audience of fairly advanced VB programmers. Those of us that are less advanced (I'm a beginner) might question whether the book will suit our needs, or if we are going to have the " two-star review" experience.

An example might help you decide. On p. 178 the author describes an example of an "array of arrays" using an appointment calendar with appointments stored in the array of arrays named "apps(day)". As part of the code, the statement appears:

If IsEmpty(apps(day)) Then

According to the on-line help, the IsEmpty function will always evaluate as false unless apps(day) is an empty variant. (Do you know this? If not, you won't understand how the If-statement works. The author doesn't explain, so you'll have to figure it out.) But apps(day) is an array of arrays; can it be an empty variant? The above If-statement works if:

apps(day) = Empty

which you might deduce as what the author is thinking, but if instead the reader imagines that

apps(day) = Array(Empty)

then the "IsEmpty" line must be changed to

If IsEmpty(apps(day)(0)) Then

(What do you know about array notation? The author mentions it, but not in the context of this code.) The author never spells out the constituent elements of apps(day), so the specifics are the reader's guess.

What does all this have to do with evaluating the book? The above example is not unusual. If you are happy to read at an abstract level, the gist of the examples is interesting and clear. However, if you want to implement the author's ideas using his code, his elliptical approach has gaps and ambiguities. He doesn't dwell on VB details. Depending on your background in VB, this fill-in and clarification can require a lot of head-scratching.

Bottom line: as a stimulus to imagination, definitely go ahead. As practical coding advice, be prepared to fuss.

I anticipated this book being an excellent resource for advanced study of Visual Basic programming techniques because of Mr. Balena's frequent high-quality articles in Visual Basic Programmer's Journal. He seems to me one of the very few writers who can really communicate the theory, structure, and problem-solving techniques required to use VB's object-oriented, ActiveX, and Web related functionality ... with enthusiasm and great source code examples that are immediately useful.

Studying this book and using and learning from the source code examples, libraries, and classes included on the cd-rom is, for me, like a one-on-one with an ideal mentor. I like his tone, his frequent use of sidebar notes and special explanations. He is, I think, by nature an envelope-pushing kind of a programmer and his solutions to many of the ... odd ... lacunae in VB are immediately useful in real-world problem solving. And they are delivered without diatribes against Microsoft or agenda-ranting.

For example, his coverage of the TreeView control, gave me some valuable ideas that I could use right away to solve a problem I was working with in implementing drag and drop.

I've found, to my delight, that this is really about six books in one.

As an introduction and overview of Visual Basic as a programming language it's excellent and I'd recommend it for any programmer who wishes to evaluate Visual Basic's facilities and structure.

As a tutorial on the Object/Class aspects of VB, etc. I found it to be the most lucid writing I've encountered ... and he addresses, with source code examples, polymorphism and inheritance ... areas in VB that have been problematic because VB does not offer true inheritance.

I have only begun to skim and study the detailed section on ADO, but I noticed that his explanation of hierarchical recordsets seemed immediately understandable to me in a way that various articles and white papers I've read have not.

Book number 4 ... I found Balena's approach to explaining ActiveX and COM, dll's, etc. lucid and clear and very helpful. I personally am not at the level where I can grok Dan Appleman's books, and I felt that Balena's focus ... and the gradated source code examples ... are exactly what I need to increase my competence in this area.

And, Book 5 ... I really like Francesco's approach to the new Web features of VB6; there's just enought html content to warm me up to the content on DHTML and he includes his own tools (with source !) for exploring DHTML.

Book 6 ... Distributed applications, ASP, IIS Applications. I hope I can get there, eventually.

What you have in this book is a kind of a "core dump" by an enthusiastic and innovative programmer who wants you to learn what he knows.

Of course, no book is perfect. There are some things on the cd-rom that are mysterious and do not execute as they are obviously designed to do. There is some deficiency in the indexing of the book.

The "heroic" scope of the book does leave you wishing for even more detailed coverage of certain areas like the Windows Common Controls, sub-classing, API call-backs, etc.

The frequent use of re-dimensioning arrays as a solution to problems of the "sparse matrix" type will raise some questions for programmers hell-bent on memory-conservation.

I'm going to be studying and using and having fun with this book and its source code examples for a long, long time. 1250+ pages, 2 megabytes+ of source code : this book has more content than ten of the typical rehashed VB5 books popping out like mangy prairie dogs with VB6 stamped on their foreheads.

When my boss told me that he needed an application developed using Visual Basic, I went hunting for a book that would tell me what I needed to know. Am I ever glad that I found this one! I've had plenty of experience with languages such as C, C++, Java, Perl etc ... so for me, most books are usually too basic or very general. This book is an amazing blend of basic concepts and advanced techniques. Never before have I seen an author give so many useful and insightful tips and guidelines. There is so much contained in this book that you may never figure out on your own, even with years of experience. One of the VB developers in my office continually asks to borrow my copy of this book, and he's been using VB since version 1.0!! The greatest thing about it would have to be that it is not simply another book that tells you everything you could find in the help files. It also makes a wonderful refercence. Don't expect to get rid of this book once you finish it. You will find that you are referring to it again and again, I know I do. Seriously, I'm not one to tell people to waste money on a book that teaches them what they could very well learn somewhere else for free ... but if you plan an doing any Visual Basic development at all, you absolutely must own this book. My only advice to you is to hang on to the CD in the back cover. The actual book may not last as long as your need for the information in its pages.

Francesco Balena has written the definitive book for existing and new VB programmers! The author has distilled his very great technical knowledge of VB, very pleasing writing style, and tremendous feel for organization and presentation to create a gem of a programming text. A VB book with no equal and no substitute, it is a true classic. I wish there were a category higher than 5 stars!
FOR C/C++, Java (or even Cobol) programmers wanting an intelligent introduction to VB: DON'T LOOK ELSEWHERE! This single book will quickly teach you VB without insulting your intelligence.
FOR Programming Novices: Hey guys, don't start your journey on the trash-laden "made easy" paths; don't be misled by the tons of rubbish promising to get you there in 24 hours, a week, or whatever. Pick up this serious programming guide, slog a bit, and you will surely get there.
Thank you Mr Balena. Yours was the BEST computer book that I read in three years.

I am a moderate VB programmer- I spend more time working with technologies like ASP and DHTML. I was fortunate enough to attend VBITS and even more fortunate to hear Francesco give a couple of talks. After those sessions I decided I must have his book. The book is clear and concise while it still ventures into the detail that is absolutely necessary for those of us who use VB. The book is thorough; each page contains information that is pertinent and usefull. Not only that but it covers almost every dimension of the core product, Visual Basic. The book is for people who want to master their craft. If you are trying to learn a programming language in 21 days, this book is not for you because it is written with the technical detail that is absolutely necessary for mastering all the dimensions of a programming tool. Other books that promise the 21 day approach disguise the seriousness and power of Visual Basic. In short, if you are interested in mastering Visual Basic and you want a guide that will be as good in 2 days as in 1 year, buy this book!

Balena has done a great service by writing this book. His explanation is clear, concise and very few authors can write the way he does---complicating things brought to down-to-earth level. This book is both great for programmers trying to learn VB for the first time and also for experienced programmers. He explains how and why things should be done in certain ways... and I greatly appreciate that... which enables me to understand VB better. Experienced programmers can also learn as there are simple things that they may have overlooked; easier ways to perform certain tasks than one would imagine. Well-written. To me, this book is a good investment.

I just started reading this book and am on page 120. For anybody that has VB experience, this book is a treasure. I've already come across at least 10 things that will save me time in my programming. I plan to read this book from cover to cover (which I don't normally do with programming books). It is clearly written and gives reasons for doing things one way as opposed to another. For example:

"Using a controlling variable of a specific object type usually offers better performance than a generic Variant or Object variable. Iterating on the elements of a collection using a For Each...Next loop is generally faster than a regular For...Next loop because the latter forces you to refer to individual elements using their numeric incdices, which is a relatively slow operation."

Personally, I love this kind of information. However, in my brief examinations, the book has already shown two shortcomings: its index and its code.

I've found the index to be a little skimpy at times. I've already found on a couple of occassions that it took a while to find the simple answer that I was looking for. I suppose that this is because the book was written to be more readable than as a reference book.

I've also found a few things in the code that don't make sense. For example, in the function GetFiles (p.239) the variable path2 is defined (dimmed) as a string. However, this variable is never used in the function. Because this is the first snippet of code that I've examined with any detail, it kind of raises my eyebrows. I wonder what else I'm going to come across in the code.

Overall, the book is very readable. I would reccommend it at an Intermediate level. The book would be perfect for anyone who has programmed some VB and is starting to get a little deeper. It would also be perfect for someone with a large amount of programming experience, but with little VB experience.

I am totally new to V.B. and am attempting to write a fairly complex application straight off. EVERY time I have been stuck I have refered to this book and it has so far always helped me out. As a beginner I do not always immediatly grasp the code samples, but after searching through some more basic texts then returning to this book, I have so far always got the results I am aiming for. It is almost as though the author has looked at what i am trying to do, then sat down and written an example or two of how I can accomplish it!

If I could only recommend one VB 6 book, this would be it. Great stuff.

It is clear from the positive reviews that this book is a success for an audience of advanced VB programmers. Those of us that are less advanced (I'm a beginner) might ask whether we are going to have the "two-star" or the "five-star" review experience. How much VB do we need?

An example I ran into might help you decide. On p. 178 the author describes an example of an "array of arrays" creating an appointment calendar with descriptions of appointments stored in the array of arrays named "apps(day)". As part of the code, the satement appears

If IsEmpty(apps(day)) Then

I was surprised to find that IsEmpty ALWAYS evaluated FALSE, making this If statement useless. Once this problem was discovered, I found from the online help that IsEmpty always evaluates false unless apps(day) is a simple variant. (Do you know this? I had to find out.)

Can apps(day) be a simple empty variant? It's supposed to be an array of arrays. Well, if you initiate apps(day) with

apps(day) = Empty

then the If statement works. But if you initiate apps(day) with

apps(day) = Array(Empty)

which is how it's done when apps(day) is NOT empty, for example,

apps(day) = Array("First meeting of day", "Second meeting of day")

then the If statement won't work unless it is changed to

If IsEmpty(apps(day)(0)) Then

(What do you know about arrays, array notation, how empty array notation changes when it fills? I had to find out.)

What does this have to do with evaluating the book? The above example is not unusual. If you are happy to read at an abstract level, the gist of the examples is clear, and the examples are interesting. In the above example, it's clear what the IsEmpty is about, and the "array of arrays" idea is great. However, if you want to implement the author's ideas using his code, his elliptical approach leaves gaps and ambiguities. Depending on your VB background, the needed fill-in and clarification can require much head-scratching.

Bottom line: As a stimulus to the imagination, definitely go ahead. As practical coding, be prepared to fuss.

I do not know how I can emphasize this point any more, this is the best book on Visual Basic programming ever written. Francesco's understanding of Visual Basic is amazing. While I have worked with and programmed with Visual Basic for years, there are few times I open this book and do not learn something new.

Even more important to me is Francesco's ability to put complex things into plain and understandable English. He has a gift for writing about programming that is rarely seen. His coverage of the intrinsic controls alone is worth the price of admission, yet that is only one small facet on this diamond of a book.

There are other books which cover more esoteric Visual Basic topics better, but no book covers the entire language as well as this one does. It is the true "Programmer's Guide" to the language. "Programming Visual Basic 6.0" is not for the beginner as it is pretty advanced in some places, but it is accessible to programmers of all levels as a reference and to mid-range programmers wanting to improve what they have learned in the beginning books. For advanced VB programmers this book again is a good reference though I can imagine even the seasoned veterans of us will find some new gems in these pages.

Rock On Francesco! You are incredible!