Customer Reviews

VB.NET Language Pocket Reference

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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.

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.

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.

Not worth it really. It's faster to find something on google than to find something in this book. Although the book is good ...

I bought this book for a VB online class I was taking. At the time I needed something to look up commands for when I was on the raod and didn't have Internet access and I didn't want to carry many heavy computer books in my bag.

While working on the projects for class there were some commands that I couldn't find when searching the MSDN discs that the school sent me but luckally I was able to find them in the book which allowed me to finish the project.

While the book is not cover everything and the organization could really use a lot of work since I had to search page to page to find what I was looking for it was the good enough for what I needed it for.

Finding things in this little book is surprisingly difficult. The organization is strange and there is no index. If your patient enough, you can eventually find what you need. This book is supposed to save time, but it frustrates.