Customer Reviews

VBScript in a Nutshell: A Desktop Quick Reference (In a Nutshell (O'Reilly))

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's about time someone else reviewed this book!

I needed a good VBScript reference book to consult when doing scripting projects for my company. The entire book isn't just a reference to the VBScript language-- that's only about half of the book. The reference is organized alphabetically and contains a description, rules and usually a decent example of the VBScript function, statement, method, etc.

So the surprise is the first half of the book, and it may be important to you and it may not. There are 20 pages on general program structure that most every programmer will find boring: pasing parameters by reference, passing variables into a subroutine, etc. After 8 more pages on data types and 22 pages on error handling/debugging, the authors included four other sections on VBScript with Active Server Pages, Programming Outlook forms, Windows Script Host, and VBScript with Internet Explorer. I found these sections to be out of the scope of what I was looking for in what O'Reilly calls a "desktop quick reference" book: simply a reference to the language.

I gave it four stars because the thing is only $( ) and you are getting 500 pages. I bought the book for the reference, even if it has this other stuff I don't care about. If you are programming VBScript or ASP in Notepad without "Help" to consult, this may be the best pure VBScript book out there. It will come in handy.

Covers EVERYTHING. Scripting techniques, error handling, differences between VB, VBA and VBScript, Structuring your program for reuse, etc. It gives a quick, down and dirty, high-level overview of the places you're most likely to use VBScript -- ASP, IE, Outlook and Windows Shell Scripts (wsh) -- and an incredible reference to nearly every VBScript function, procedure and call.

This book is not for the beginner looking to learn the language -- it's for the intermediate or advanced scripter who already knows a little but needs a reference to know HOW to use the functions, etc. It excels in this regard, not only explaining every command and option under VBScript, but also the syntax, parameters, rules and even 'Programming Tips & Gotchas'.

In short, if you need a true reference that documents nearly every facet of the VBScript language, this is a must have.

This is the best VBScript I have ever read. Explanations when appropriate, examples where needed, and a virtually complete reference section, formatted exactly as a reference book should be - command, syntax, parameters, returns and examples. Easy to find exactly what you are looking for. This book has save me a considerable amount of reference time, as well as giving me the info I needed when I needed it. My hat off the authors, this book is worth every penny I paid for it - and then some.

I have always favored O'Reilly reference books and this one is no exception. It is the only book I need for writing VBScript in Active Server Pages. Being a programmer who never programmed in VB before but wanted to learn ASP, I needed a complete, well-indexed guide to the language - THIS IS IT!

Don't buy this book if you want to read a book about VBscript. But, if you need a reference book to look up arguments, return values, etc., this book is awesome. I use mine every day.

After examining all the VBScript books, I chose this one for a couple of reasons. I like the quick access to functions. I especially like the "Rules at a Glance" and the "Programming Tips & Gotcha" section. Rules at a Glance quickly shows how to use the function and any other useful ideas beyond the sytax information.

Programming Tips & Gotcha explains any problems you may run into with the function. This helps you get up and running with VBScript quicker and without having to experiment too much beforehand.

I use this book constantly. I wish it had more info on using VBScript with ADSI. But, I suppose its very title, "VBScript, In a Nutshell" explains why it doesn't.

I don't have this book, I've never read it. But the negative reviews for it are out of line. People have reviewed it claiming it isn't for the beginner or for learning VB Script. NO KIDDING!! It is called NUTSHELL for a reason. It is a reference book, NOT a learning book. Don't give bad reviews for a book because you were too stupid to realize you bought the wrong book. That's just as bad as buying a Java book and complaining that it doesn't have any Javascipt examples in it.

This is not the book to learn the basics of VBScript, but it's exactly what I needed; a good reference book. I got tired of trying to find syntax of commands and functions online. Now I have it at my fingertips.

More often than not, your first encounter with VBScript will be when trying to edit an ASP script to upload to your site. For this reason, VBScript is closely associated with Active Server Pages and is one of the reasons why I often recommend that VBScript in a Nutshell and ASP in a Nutshell should sit next to each other on any ASP developers bookshelf!

VBScript is one of the most friendly internet scripting languages around for anyone that is completely new to the programming scene. Having said that, if you are like me and like to have reference books to hand then you can't go wrong with this one.

VBScript in a Nutshell covers all the basics of the language, including structure, data types and error handling. The actual reference section takes up more than half the book, and lists tips and gotchas as well as examples when they are needed.

There are times when I've confused this book with ASP in a Nutshell, as it also covers some of the objects I have learned to associate with ASP rather than the Windows Scripting Host. You will find that references to the FileSystemObject and Dictionary objects overlap in both books, but it is necessary to have this overlap for those that own either one or the other.

The first part introduces Vbscript concepts which may already be known by the intermediate level target audience. The sections on error handling and Active Server Pages will be useful to me. A value of reading this book is to be introduced to topics you didn't previously know existed. For example, learning about programming Outlook forms and Windows Script Host were useful though I have no immediate need for them.

The real meat is the 260 pages of the reference. Before jumping into that section, I would recommend reading Appendix A for a categorical listing of the elements. For example, if you are interested in doing string manipulation refer to the section on "String Manipulation" then look up the specific function alphabetically in the reference. I would also recommend browsing through the complete reference - you are sure to find some new useful function such as the dictionary, filtering, regular expression matches and complete set of string functions. In a few cases, I wish the examples were available on CD or from the web, but none are that long that re-typing is a major problem.