Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual Basic 6 in 24 Hours

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

Extremely Disappointment.

First: the title should be "Learn Microsoft Access Programming with Visual C++ 6.0 . . .", because that is all the author seems to know about. Unfortunately for me, all of us who bought the book, and by the author's own admission, Access is very slow, indeed. I wanted to use Microsoft's FoxPro Format (which is part of the Visual Studio ! ). 100% no help in the book. And, e-mail to the author resulted in the reason: he doesn't know how to access it ,either! Actually, clueless ! (I saved this e-mail, if you want a copy). The line-by-line commentaries in the code seem to be helpful, when you want to go on beyond what was fed to you, it's not to be found. Similarly, visual C++ 6 comes with a neat dBase Binding Control feature: Not mentioned!

Second problem: author assumes (all but requires!) that you have the Enterprise Edition of Visual Studio - A major expense to begin with, and should be warned about in the description her at Amazon.

And More: For me, I would like to be able to connect to a database WITHOUT first having to register it with the system - an obvious need, if you think about it - but this author just feeds you to her own examples which you have to register via you Control Panel: Try tell a customer to do that!

The author is some sort of cheerleader for Microsoft's products, especially those that remove you future connectivity to other vendor's dBase products and operating systems in the future. Also, lots of stuff looks like it was cut right from MSDN (or nearly so).

The tragedy is that I didn't know better, or I wouldn't have bought this type of book. I wish I had never broken the seal on the CD ! This book would have been sent back Amazon!

I don't know how SAMS could publish a book like this! The author of this book seems that he does not know anything about VB. I did not believe what was said about it until I "unfortunately" bought it and discovered that those guys were 100% right about what they said. BTW, this book is full of typos, incorrect code, etc. and the source code is not available anywhere! I am very sad to say that this is the worst book I have ever bought in my life and I wish if Amazon can remove it from their shelves or add a negative (-) rating option, because this book does not even deserve the lowest rating (1 star).

I agree with the other reviewers, this book is a waste of money. It appears to have been written before the final release of Visual Basic 6.0. The examples use incorrect object names and syntax. Unless you want to be frustrated--Save your money!

I enjoy reading all types of programming books but could not make it through this one. You are constantly frustrated by errors in the code. I don't think this book was ever edited even the chapter headings for chapter 18 "Using SQL" are wrong and say "Using SLQ" there was nothing good I can say about this book. If you are a new comer to Visual basic database programming go get yourself a book that teaches you not confuses you more.

Well, I have made it to Chapter 12 of this book, and am disgusted. Sams feels no obligation to edit its manuscripts or to post code corrections. There are only two errata on its web site for this book, one of which is for chapter 12 on multitable forms. The Errata give code corrections for page 162, and of course page 162 actually has no code on it and concerns itsself with interest calculations, not the project/to do list illustration of Chapter 12. As a beginner, I'm just tired of correcting the author's sloppy code. He seems to be quite prolific, but I hope his next publisher asks for proof that his code works. Its really a shame, I like the author's writing style but until I learn more about VB, I just can't waste anymore time with something that doesn't work

My title of this review says it all. It's a shame. The chapters are well organized and the text I found very helpful. But how frustrating to type in the examples just as they are in the text and have it error out. On the bright side, I was forced to discover the errors so I learned a bit. But there were quite a few.

Overall, I found this book to be extremely useful. The lessons were clear, concise, and right on target. The book starts out using the new technologies in VB6 instead of dwelling on the older technologies then advancing to the newer ones. The older technologies ARE discussed later in the book to allow for conversion of older projects.

A few points though. First, there are numerous errors in the text of the book (although the code is quite accurate). I found most of these to be obvious, but they may cause new users to stumble a bit. Secondly, the book does not go into great detail on large enterprise-wide database systems. It will brush the surface from time to time then explain that it is "beyond the scope of this book." This is understandable since the book is designed as a crash course.

One last note. This book assumes at least an operating knowledge of VisualBASIC. This is, in my opinion, a good thing, but may cause new VB programmers to stumble a bit at first.

The author has committed the unforgiveable sin of using buggy code samples. Shame on Sam's publishing for not revising the text. Keep looking, this isn't the book you want - especially if you're a beginner.

Very poorly written book. The examples were hard to follow. In addition, I found many examples of incorrect code. The author must have been using a different version of Visual Basic V6 than me. If they bring back book burning, put this one first on the list. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll kiss your [money] goodbye. A book written for dummies by a dummy. I am giving it 1 star only because there's no 0 star.

A money waste! Why? 1. you can NOT learn how to program databases in 24 hours, no matter how much of a VB wiz you are. 2. This book is poorly written. 3. The examples are misleading and infested with bugs. If that's not enough, then I guess this book is for you. :)