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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Down-to-Earth, good for reference, July 1, 2004
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 in 21 Days (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
I found this book to be a superbly written manual for learning Visual Basic and as a reference. The language is very clear and easy to understand. Chapters are well structured, making it easy to skip and search through the book if you forget something. Most important, this book is quite comprehensive and has writing on nearly everything you will encounter in the Visual Basic syntax.
In addition, the later chapters focus on some features that most VB books dare not explore. These features include detailed tutorials to databases, web applications and custom user controls. Those later chapters have come in handy and have made this book an all-in-one reference. It eliminated the need for other specialized books, such as an introduction to ASP.NET. Not only does this book teach Visual Basic, but it is an excellent all around reference for the entire .NET platform.
Novice programmers may find this book too straightforward and boring to read. If you can be easily confused with programming, or prefer to learn at a more humorous and relaxing environment, then I recommend one of the "Visual Basic for Dummies" books. If you already have some experience writing software and are interested in getting to the hardcore Visual Basic right away, then "Sam's Teach Yourself Visual Basic .NET 2003" is an excellent choice.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not for the beginner, August 8, 2005
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 in 21 Days (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
Are you new to programming? If yes, then Visual Basic is a great place to start. This book, however, is not. The first day introduces you to the Integrated Development Environment. From that point forward, it's all about the code. This is a good book for slightly more advanced programmers instead of newbies, but I feel the title is very miss leading. If you are new to programming and want to lean Visual Basic.Net 2003, try Microsoft Visual Basic .Net Step by Step written by Michael Halvorson (ISBN 0735619050). It is a much better place to start for the true beginner.
After you have gone through the step-by-step book, come back to this one. It really is a good book. (Score should have been a 4 not a 1.)
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not for beginners, May 1, 2006
This review is from: Sams Teach Yourself Microsoft Visual Basic .NET 2003 in 21 Days (2nd Edition) (Paperback)
I teach an introductory programming class in college and will be looking for a more introductory book. Those things that are essential to programming, a class-worth of learning, are taught in ONE DAY of the 21 days. That one day became 1 1/2 month. I also think the order of the days could be better: Simple subjects should come sooner than more complex ones.
Now for you techies here is what I am saying: Control Structures such as if/then, loops, arrays, and such are taught in one chapter. Then functions and subroutines and classes in the next. If this is your speed, go for it!
In short this is for either experienced or enthusiastic programmers. Those programmers could finish a day in one whole 8 hour day. But if you are a beginner don't start here.
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