Customer Reviews

Using Visual Basic Special Edition (Using ... (Que))

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

 

 

I frankly thougt it was a waste of money. When the first preogramming sample/example doesn't bother to tell you the basics, such as how and where to declare the variable so that the program will actually work, you know not enough thought was put into it. I often find the author's train of thought changing direction or jumping track completely; demonstrating ideas or features that he doesn't explain in full until several chapters ahead.

This book will be confusing to a programmer with experience in another language and impossible for the first-time programmer. Mr. McKelvy et. al., you have got to be able to do better than this!

I gave it two stars because the back cover and the snippets I read got me to believe this book was actually useful.

The mistakes in the programs annoyed me enough to write the publisher. That was about two months ago, I have yet to receive a reply. This book was definately rushed out the door. The ActiveX section was worthless. The typos, lack of clear directions and lack of response from the publisher make this book one to skip. On an up note, I'm now using the Visul Basic 5 Certification Exam Guide(McGraw Hill) and find it excellent. I'm sure they have it here.

Having read the reviews of the first "Using Visual Basic 5 Special Edition" book, I noticed that one person said that there where many mistypes and mistakes to the coding, he/she was right! I am a beginner to VB, although I have done some Qbasic and the second example in the book didn't work! What makes this worse is that Que's web site no longer has support or resources accompanying this book, no CD rom included either. Why I gave this book a 6? It is a very good book for starters ONLY if they manage to find out and fix the miscues in the book. If anyone has read this book, please email me about what you think...

Being new to visual basic, I found this book to provide a very complete foundation in both the language and its application. No book is perfect, these subjects are just too complex and everyone learns in a different way. Overall, I recommend this book as a good starting point.

For whatever reason, the trend in computer book publishing these days is to produce a thick book (1000 or more pages would be great), double spaced, with large fonts and low information density. This book is not double spaced.

Although the cover bills it as a "Special Edition", "Comprehensive", "Authoritative", I did not find this to be true. In general, it covers the topics I was interested in, but the coverage is shallow and uninstructive. Each chapter tends to skip around haphazardly, without much of a unifying goal.

The examples are poorly thought out, and often confusing. They illustrate only the most basic ideas. Many of the things you might want to do in a real application - standard things - are not covered. I found the chapter on database access and bound controls particularly disappointing.

The book would be OK for a beginner, if there weren't some better beginner's books out there.

This is a very good beginner's book. It's only pit fall is the fact that it doesn't come with a CD-ROM with examples (you have to download them from QUE's website), that tast of "I thought it would write some more" at the end of the chapters. A shallow book for an acomplished/advanced user point of view.

I feel a little bit funny about this book : If you never seen VB in your life, it's a great source of information, with lots of examples and tips. On the other hand, it has so many errors and misprints, that if you're not an expert VB programmer, you might learn things wrong. I had the clear impression of handling a beta-version of the book. The fact that you have to download all the chapter's demos and samples from the book's website doesn't help much either.

I have a library full of self-proclaimed "beginners guide" but NONE come close to this books indepth review and easy explainations. The book explains why and how on almost every subject concerning VB. GREAT BOOK!! GOOD JOB!

I've been reading VB books throughout the libraries, but, the Special Edition's publication is the most educative and comprehensive material. I strongly recommend to get this book for all levels. Thanks to Amazon.Com which makes it possible for thirsty programmers to access 'hard-to-find' collections--online.!

I agree this book is not for the beginner. It does do a good job of explaining the basics of VB if you are patient enough to use it in conjunction with a free tutorial from one of the many VB sites on the web. But, the examples skip around, and they do not build continuity with each other.

The coverage on DAO is pretty decent. However, with the release of VB6, this book is pretty dated with regard to ADO, WebClasses,etc. I wouldn't buy this book if you are only going to have 1 VB book. However, if you can pick it as a discounted remainder as I did, it's all right.