Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET [Paperback]

Diane Zak (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0619217189 | ISBN-13: 978-0619217181 | Publication Date: December 22, 2004 | Edition: 2

Best-selling author, Diane Zak, teaches the latest .NET platform, Visual Basic .NET 2003 with this innovative book for beginning programmers. Unlike other titles, this book teaches programming from a task-driven rather than a command-driven approach. It includes extensive hands-on end-of-chapter materials and exercises. By working through the chapters, individuals learn how to use VB .NET applications found in the workplace. The content, organization, and approach of this book exploit the popular Windows environment. Master the latest programming tools with this highly successful, newly revised book.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Diane Zak is a best-selling CT programming author of VB6, Intro to Programming with C++, and a forthcoming book on Visual Basic for Applications. She is also a professor of CIS at College of DuPage.

Product Details

• Paperback: 777 pages
• Publisher: Course Technology; 2 edition (December 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0619217189
• ISBN-13: 978-0619217181
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,435,741 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Tutorials but bad for reference, August 16, 2005

By 

R. Hook (Alstonville, NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic.NET (Paperback)

I was forced to buy this book for my App Dev course. Im a begginner so im happy that there are plenty of easy to follow tutorials but im not so happy that there is no reference section. The index is really really really poor. You would think that because of the thousands of instructions in VB that half the book would be an easy to find reference. But no!..Diane makes you trudge through the tutorials step by step slowly building your knowledge. Its frustrating! One plus about this book is the included version of VB.net on 6 cds. I guess i saved money in that respect.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring, poor reference, February 10, 2003

By 

Douglas Wilson (Does it matter? Really?) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming With Microsoft Visual Basic .Net (Paperback)

Like every book I use, or read, I don't judge it by the cover, but content speaks loudly. While one reviewer puts users in extremes, I am at niether. I am no novice, but also, while I have built my own machine, I'm not interested in knowing every in and out of the project on which I'm working. ...

I was required to buy this for a class and have to say that the book may walk you through the tutorials in an okay manner, but it falls far short of what any true technophile might want in that that the author just spouts out information and how to perform certain tasks without giving full explanations and there isn't even a glossary. So much for reference...about as good as [a software company's] help files...

So, for the techies, I'm not buying this is the best reference. For those not so interested in the fine mechanics, but definitely in learning the program solidly with at least some minute understanding, it falls short here also. It is not only as dull as your tongue covered in chalk, but doesn't explain very well why the reader is doing certain tasks or what the base purpose of these simple tasks really is. I'm already looking for other reference materials and we're only five weeks into a fifteen week class...

...bummer. If you're able, shop around and read the reviews carefully.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Why Buy???, January 30, 2003

By 

Steve Cabral (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Programming With Microsoft Visual Basic .Net (Paperback)

If you are like me and got stuck buying this book for a programming class at school, you probably have a number of welts on your forehead from how often you fell asleep while reading only to have banged your head against a wall or some other dangerous object that caught your face as you drifted into slumberland.

Hey, some teachers really should think before forcing students to buy books like this. Times are hard folks and money should be spent properly. Let's face it... the average student taking a computer class falls into one of two groups:

The first group has never seen the inside of a computer, would never know a memory chip if it slapped them in the face, thinks Microsoft Works is the same as Microsoft Office, and for some reason gets mad at a computer manufacturer when there dinosaur, 233 MGHz processor, 32 MB RAM, 2 GB hard drive (with 1.5 GB already clogged by multiple AOL installs) will not install their bootlegged copy of Windows XP.

The second group loves to sit at a computer for hours trying to make a program work instead of using a working program. This group is not satisfied with being told that a textbox is an object, but instead wants to understand what an object is and fully explore all facets of the object. For this group, being given a fish or a fishing pole is just not enough... instead, making their own fishing pole is what this group wants.

For those students that fall into the first group, this book is for you. It is like training wheels on a bicycle.

For the student in the second group, curse the day you signed up for class with that teacher and make a trip to a good bookstore and buy a book that boldly goes where no one in group one has gone before.