Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself Visual Basic 2008 in 24 Hours: Complete Starter Kit

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

 

 

I love this book! The only programming I had had was Basic back in 1984-85 so obviously I am starting from the beginning. I needed basics (like general definitions, logic of how programming works, and specifics for how the Visual Basic works) so I could understand the programmers I work with. After reading and going through the exercises in this book, I can speak the same language and I've even been able to do automation for my quality assurance testing.

BTW - took me about 2 1/2 weeks to get through it all ;-)

I would classify myself as a "hobby" programmer. I enjoy programming, but aside from a few courses taken years ago, I have little formal training. I frequently write programs for myself, my clients, and my friends (I'm a computer technician). Although I know a little about OOP (object-oriented programming), I find it to be overkill for many of the programs I like to write. Most of the time good, old-fashioned procedural programming does the trick, and although maybe if I choose to revisit my code twenty years from now, I will regret not having laid out my code using a proper class hierarchy, I sort of doubt it.

If the preceding paragraph somewhat describes you as well, you may enjoy this book. To me, it takes VB2008 and makes it simple and enjoyable like VB6. The author, James Foxall, doesn't try to cover everything, but he covers enough to be able to actually use VB2008 to solve real problems, and along the way he teaches the fundamentals of Visual Basic (even a blessedly short chapter on custom classes).

When done, you can use VB2008 to: develop and use forms (dialog boxes), manipulate the objects that VB and .NET provide, work with the keyboard, manipulate graphics within your own windows, manipulate files and directories, read/write text files, databases, and the registry. You can use automation to manipulate other applications, and even package your creation for distribution using Microsoft's "ClickOnce" technology.

The book is a good size, large enough to cover major areas, but not so large as to intimidate. I only wish there was more coverage of common .NET classes such as the print / print previewing classes. Overall, I would say this is a great book for all us old VB6 types wanting to "modernize."

Clear, concise, understandable and (a little bit) humorous. As a mainframe assembler programmer of almost 40 years and a former VB6 hobbyist, this book allowed me to make the leap to .NET and OOP. I also recommend it for first-time programmers.

It is obvious that no subject as complicated as Visual Basic can actually be taught in 24 lessons, each of which is designed to be completed in an hour. Therefore, to criticize any book on that basis is to miss the point. These books should be called "Teach Yourself the Fundamentals ..." but that of course is not as catchy a title. When I examine such books, my standards of evaluation are based on the topics covered in the context of what is a reasonable set of necessary knowledge.
In that area, Foxall succeeds at a high level. The fundamental GUI objects, their properties and methods are covered as well as the events that they are associated with. Variable, functions, subroutines, arrays and most importantly, objects are introduced to significant depth. Control constructs such as the if - then and loops are covered as well the basics of error handling via the catching of exceptions.
If you are interested in getting a quick and effective introduction to Visual Basic and do not want to take a formal class, then this is the book for you. All you need is the motivation to learn, as the Visual Basic 2008 Express Edition is included with the book.

VB 2008 in a month

Alright, 26ish hours divided into the span of 30-someodd days. Not bad for me!

I am a beginner, absolutely no programming history (well except for BASIC when I was a kid and made a G.I. Joe dB program that flashed "ACCESS DENIED" if you didn't enter the correct password). This book is for beginners. James Foxall takes you through the steps toward making your own functional, publishable windows form by taking a sometimes blah, but mostly humorous journey.

To start, the book comes with a DVD of VB 2008 Express. It's a simple install. The program is also available from Microsoft Developers Network as a free download (all express editions are free, but lack some advanced functionality from what I can tell). The biggest headache I had with this book is that it doesn't mention until page 16 that you need source files that are available from the Sams Publishing website. It would be nice to have, perhaps in the intro, all of the things laid out that one needs to do before starting the Hour 1--I know it may sound remedial to most, but like I said, I have NO programming experience and this book IS directed to an audience that has no experience.

Source files...oh man! It was absolutely frustrating trying to peruse Sams Publishing site to find this book, register it and then find where you're supposed to download these files that accompany the book. I literally couldn't find out the info from the Sams site. Then I noticed in the little by the way section of the book that James has a link to his site and POOF! The files were easily available and downloadable.

I have to say, that most of the time I was just going through the motions to achieve what needed to be done. After I'd finished I was thinking, "um, I have no idea what I just did, but it works!" Toward the middle, you've had a significant amount of repetition so things began to click for me.

At the end, I am NO expert. I was joking at how I would be the master of VB by the end of the book. Well, it certainly was a joke. I have a grasp of what is going on, but definitely need to practice and read a significant bit more to say I'm proficient.

Overall, I think the idea of laying out the "Hours" (chapters) so that they can be accomplished in about an hour is such a novel idea. I HATE reading, but it kept my interest because I knew I wouldn't be spending all night reading through it. This book is fun, definitely teaches and does a wonderful job at making sure you have some understanding of VB 2008. I would definitely recommend this book to a beginner. If you already know some VB, it might get a little frustrating to you because it is remedial. I am definitely going to look for more topics by James Foxall.

A big thanks to [...] for giving me the opportunity to review this book. Come out and join the fun!

I have never written a serious book review, but I feel compelled to document that after a few false starts with other books, THIS IS THE BOOK I HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR! I paid more than I had to when I bought it at a bookstore, but I don't even mind. I was able to bring it home with me and start immediately! My enthusiasm for Visual Basic.NET has been restored.

The book is very straight forward and to the point but not cryptic. The concepts are presented in a very easy to understand format. The book helps you build an excellent, practical, example of a program and I appreciated the Summary, Q&A and Workshop sections at the end of the chapters.

Great book, Thanks!

Well.... To start I must say that whoever write a negative comment about this book is either jealous or really dumb and has not read this book page-by-page entirelly.

I used to program in the old Basic, GWBasic, DBase, Informix, Dataflex days and had been now trying to write some programs for my own use. I had purchased many books to kick me in like: Visual Basic.Net for Dummies, Idiot's Visual Basic.Net, etc and none of them had trully make me understand VB.NET concept.

This book has open my interest to learn VB.NET with its easy way. I must say that while others complaint about some initial manual form designs, I thing this is a great way to make users understand the programming concept explained later on.

Most books are either boring or too complex to understand. This one IS Great!. Thanks to James Foxall for it. (Do not give up man... You have a fan here).

I must add that if you are really interested on this subject you might take way more time that what others take to fully read this book, but at the end it will all be worthy.

I have Just started learning Visual Basic.
This Book covers in detail all that I wanted to know about getting My first applications op and running.
R.W.

I bought this book after trying to work through several other VB and C# books... I have a busy life and just can't be too dedicated to learning programming. This book is well written and presents programming VB in a logical and simple manner. There are a few chapters that are pretty slow, like how to customize and use VS 2008...

This is not a "crash course" in VB that you get through in 24 hours. It is 24 one hour lessons for the beginner. So this is for the beginner and not the professional.

This is a very good book for learning Visual Basic. This is the third book I've tried on this subject, and it is the only one that has worked for me. The author starts out with the basics and builds his way up. He points out pitfalls, and even points out areas that are beyond the scope of the book. The other two books I tried had buggy examples and excercises, No solutions available for the problems recomended. One author even tried to belittle the reader. Not this book, in this book the author starts with the basics and builds up your confidence to tackle more. I come to this with extensive experience in old school program languages such as Borland Turbo Pascal and others, and this book was oriented in a logical step by step that kept me reading even if I thought I already understood it, and also rewarded me with insights into the language and programming techniques that I had not been exposed to before.
In the process you learn a lot about the .Net Framework, Visual Studio, and programming windows applications. Nothing is assumed already known, and there are no buggy or blank spots to get caught in.
Great book recommend it for getting your feet under you for Visual Basic programming.