VB.NET Language Pocket Reference [Paperback]

Steven Roman PhD (Author), Ron Petrusha (Author), Paul Lomax (Author)

Book Description

Series: Pocket Reference (O'Reilly) | Publication Date: December 2002

Visual Basic .NET is a radically new version of Microsoft Visual Basic, the world's most widely used rapid application development (RAD) package. Whether you are just beginning application development with Visual Basic .NET or are already deep in code, you will appreciate just how easy and valuable the VB.NET Language Pocket Reference is.

VB.NET Language Pocket Reference contains a concise description of all language elements by category. These include language elements implemented by the Visual Basic compiler, as well as all procedures and functions implemented in the Microsoft.VisualBasic namespace. Use it anytime you want to look up those pesky details of Visual Basic syntax or usage. With concise detail and no fluff, you'll want to take this book everywhere.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ron Petrusha is an editor for O'Reilly and is the author/coauthor of many books, including VBScript in a Nutshell. Ron has a background in quantitative labor history, specializing in Russian labor history, and holds degrees from the University of Michigan and Columbia University. He began working with computers in the mid 1970s, programming in SPSS (a programmable statistical package) and FORTRAN on the IBM 370 family. Since then, he has been a computer book buyer, an editor of a number of books on Windows and Unix, and a consultant on projects written in dBASE, Clipper, and Visual Basic.

Paul Lomax, author of O'Reilly's VB & VBA in a Nutshell and a coauthor of VBScript in a Nutshell, is an experienced VB programmer with a passion for sharing his knowledge--and his collection of programming tips and techniques gathered from real-world experience.

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (December 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596004281
• ISBN-13: 978-0596004286
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 5 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #855,889 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars difficult to use and extremely poorly organized, May 20, 2003

By 

[e-mail] (Calgary) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VB.NET Language Pocket Reference (Paperback)

I've found the O'Reilly C# Language Pocket Reference extremely useful and sensibly organized. Unfortunately, this pocket reference for the other main .NET language is just the opposite. To my mind, a poorly organized pocket reference is a fatal flaw. For example, the table of contents is 2 and 3/4 pages long. Almost two of those pages describes pages 1-17 in the book (covering constants and enumerations in detail), while the other 3/4 of a contents page describes, with no detail, the remaining 125 pages. With no index as well, it is almost impossible to find what you are looking for except by looking page-by-page. Want to find, say, the syntax of a select statement? Then you have to wade through a hundred-odd pages of non-alphabetically listed function descriptions.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Overcomplicating a simple language; doesn't include objects., July 30, 2004

By 

canrocks (Russell, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VB.NET Language Pocket Reference (Paperback)

There were many reasons why I was disappointed by this book, but I did manage to get some use out of it. First of all, I can't believe I payed 24 dollars for it at a B&M store, especially considering what it's going for here. It's a small book, a pocket reference. My first beef, as I walked out of the store with my wallet a little lighter, was that it has absolutely nothing about objects. If you're looking for help with objects and their properties, do not buy this book. If you're looking for a definitive reference of the structure of the language, ie. constants, data types, math, interaction with files, and help with the registry, go for it. It's worth it for amazon's price.

Also, one distinct note. This book, as with many other O'reilly books, is not FOR DUMMIES. The wording is obtusely complicated and will have you (or at least me) re-reading passages. In my opinion, that is a ridiculous oversight, because at heart, VB is a simple language, and overcomplicating it is a bit of a waste.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I can't agree with the critics here, May 12, 2005

By 

David A. Leon (Los Angeles, California USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VB.NET Language Pocket Reference (Paperback)

I'm a guy who has been programming professionally since 1994. Many, even most, of the contracts I have worked on have been VB contracts. I've been on board with VB since version 3. I was one of the many who were completely thrown off by the conversion to VB.NET, hence I decided to switch to C# rather than make the jump to VB.NET. After learning C# I was forced by professional circumstance to use a little VB.NET on projects where conversion to C# was not an option. This little book gave me all of the information I needed to make the jump, and make it quick. It contains a gold-mine of information at every little glance. It's not a tutorial, it is a quick reference. I think it is a terrific little book.